Star Trek: Discover- Aftermath has been announced

Star Trek: Discovery will delve into Spock’s relationship with Michael Burnham in a new miniseries from IDW Publishing.  Three-issue comic book miniseries from writers Kirsten Beyer and Mike Johnson and artist Tony Shasteen, the series picks up after the surprising events of Star Trek: Discovery’s second season finale in which Spock mourns the loss of his sister.

According to StarTrek.com, the series finds Capt. Christopher Pike and High Chancellor L’Rell trying to improve the dimming peace between the United Federation of Planets and the Klingons Empire. Whereas Spock discovers new mysteries with respect to his sister that needs to be investigated.

“The new series shows how Pike, Spock, L’Rell, and the rest of the cast deal with the fallout from the mind-blowing events of Season Two,” Johnson said in a statement. “And we couldn’t be happier that Tony Shasteen is beaming back onboard for this story!”

“To be able to follow up on the huge status-quo shift presented in that finale is a dream come true, especially with a team as talented as Kirsten, Mike, and Tony,” said IDW editor Chase Marotz.

We will keep you updated as and well Star Trek: Discovery – Aftermath releases

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ZED partners with Show of Force on a TV series on Notre Dame Cathedral

Paris-based global media company, ZED has associated with NYC Show of Force and begun production on a multi-hour television series celebrating Notre Dame Cathedral. This many-tiered platform brings architects, engineers, historians together with imbedded filmmakers for the Herculean task to restore the Gothic masterpiece which will broadcast world-wide.       

ZED’s Oscar-winning Christine LeGoff who has two films about Notre Dame under her belt, is honoured and excited to be spearheading this amazing opportunity. She said, “For the last 10 years I have been filming Notre Dame’s hidden corners and passageways. It is more than a cathedral, it is a symbol of France that all the world recognises and loves. Last week’s tragic fire reminds us that even the most iconic monuments can disappear. Now comes the time to rebuild it for the future.”    

Capturing revolutionary restoration techniques as Notre Dame de Paris returns to life, and capitalising upon exclusive access to detailed scans of the cathedral before the fire, “in-the-moment” onsite access reveals an icon that transcends stone, water, fire and time itself.  

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Genius Brand International’s Preschool Series, ‘Rainbow Rangers’ to launch across Latin America on Nickelodeon’s Nick Jr. Channel

Fresh off the heels of the recent news that Nickelodeon has greenlit season two of Genius Brands International’s animated series, Rainbow Rangers, Nickelodeon Latin America has licensed season one of the series is set to debut in August on the Nick Jr. channel.

Set to be dubbed in Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese, Rainbow Rangers will be available to stream beginning in June on its NOGGIN preschool mobile application.

Rainbow Rangers is a rescue-based series following the adventures of seven girls who are Earth’s first responders, protecting people, animals, resources, and the natural beauty of our world.

Genius Brands chairman & CEO Andy Heyward said, “We are thrilled to expand our partnership with Nickelodeon beyond the U.S. to bring this much-loved series to children throughout Latin America for the first time. Girls and boys across the U.S. are being entertained and inspired by our characters and empowering storylines, and Latin America is a first stop to deliver the fun and excitement of Rainbow Rangers to children worldwide.”

“We are excited to add Rainbow Rangers to Nick Jr. and Noggin’s roster of hit content. This colourful and magical series is sure to captivate our preschool audience with its engaging characters and their thrilling adventures while creating awareness about environmental responsibility. We look forward to the success of the series on Nick’s platforms in the region,” commented Nickelodeon Latin America programming and acquisitions vice president Migdalis Silva. 

Rainbow Rangers packs a team of creators from the animated motion picture and television worlds, including Rob Minkoff (Disney’s The Lion King director), Shane Morris (Disney’s Frozen co-writer), Tim Mansfield, and New York Times Bestselling author and Emmy Award-nominated writer Elise Allen (Dinosaur Train, Lion Guard, Barbie specials),  who serves as head writer and co-creator. Legendary Disney alum Ruben Aquino–responsible for the design and animation of many of Disney’s most iconic characters from award-winning films such as The Lion KingBeauty and the Beast, The Little MermaidMulan, and Frozen—created key designs.  Multiple Emmy Award-winning director Michael Maliani directs the series, and Genius Brands’ Chairman and CEO and multiple Emmy Award-winning producers, Andy Heyward, serves as executive producer.

Rainbow Rangers season one of the CG-Animated Adventure Preschool Series will premiere On-Air and Via Mobile Across Latin America in Summer 2019

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Recently released ‘Gotham’ Trailer features Batman vs. Joker

FOX dropped a new promo trailer for the final episode of Gotham. The series finale features the ahead 10 years to show Batman’s face off with the Joker and other villains from his rogues’ gallery in the city of Gotham.

The episode is set to see David Mazouz, who plays young Bruce Wayne on the series, giving the voice and facial captures for Batman even though another actor will be rocking the suit. Another actress will be playing the grown-up version of Catwoman in the finale.

 

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The series flash-forwards 10 years into the future, as Bruce is set to return to Gotham for the opening of the new Wayne Tower. A series of crimes leads Gordon to believe Penguin and The Riddler are up to their old tricks. However, when Bullock is framed for a murder, Gordon begins to piece together an even more sinister plot targeting the city, and a new figure emerges from the shadows to be the hero Gotham desperately needs in the all-new ‘The Beginning…’ series finale episode of Gotham.

“I have important news to share, and I ask that you continue reading with open minds and understanding hearts,” Bicondova said in a statement released on Twitter. “April 18th’s episode, 511, was my last appearance as Selina Kyle in Gotham. It’s important to me that I’m the one to tell you this because it was a choice that I made, through a lot of thoughts, prayer, and time (which Warner Bros., FOX, and our internal production team respected). I wanted to give (the character) Selina Kyle as much respect as possible. Some will say that giving her respect would include seeing the character through to the end of the show, which I understand. But, I firmly believe that part of leaving a legacy and being part of a legacy means knowing when to pass the torch to someone else. I was blessed to be the vessel for Selina Kyle for her formative teen years, and it only felt right to give someone else the torch for her adult self. The woman who will be playing the older Selina Kyle is the glorious Lili Simmons, who, when I met for the first time, made me cry tears of joy. She is perfect for this role, and she really wanted to do Selina right. We spoke about Selina Kyle for hours; I shared journal entries and scenes that were prime examples of Selina’s characteristics, and she shared thoughts of backstory for the 10 years that the audience doesn’t see.”

  The finale airs April 25th at 8 p.m. ET on FOX.

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Madurai will play host to WCC Rivals Cricket Championship

After its initial stint in esports, Skyesports Championship in Chennai, the company is set to push further in the category with its latest offering.

To cater for the fans of Madurai and its surroundings, the creators of WCC are bringing in a platform for “youngsters to socialise and indulge in the first ever online real time multiplayer cricket mobile game.”

With Rs. 50,000 up for grabs as the prize pool for the tournament, participants are in for a cashy Sunday on 28 April. The venue for this tournament is Vishaal de Mal in the Madurai circle.

The qualifiers will be taking place in Solamalai Engineering College on 27 April.

The first stint from Skyesports featured PUBG Mobile and Clash Royale with a prize pool of  Rs. 10 Lakh.

The organiser had earlier commented during an interaction, “We’re trying to reactivate the esports culture here (In the sourthern part of the country). We cannot ignore the mobile platform anymore after what we’re witnessing with respect to PUBGm or Clash Royale and many other immensely popular titles.”

As mobile gaming pushes further into the frame, we can definitely expect to see more of mobile-only esports championship which cater to a broader audience.

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What went behind the making of “Chhota Bheem Kung Fu Dhamaka” game

With the rise of digitisation, the gaming sector has grown exponentially.  The current market scenario where game subscriptions and online gaming markets are on the rise, game developers and studios are leveraging the gaming sector and aiming to set newer benchmarks in the industry by the end of 2019. Green Gold Animation is no exception; before the release of the movie Chhota Bheem Kung Fu Dhamaka on 10 May, the company have come out with a mobile game with a similar title.  In the game, Chhota Bheem Kung Fu Dhamaka, the player becomes Chhota Bheem and fights six opponents to defeat them.

Rajiv Chilaka

In conversation with AnimationXpress, Green Gold Animation founder and CEO Rajiv Chilaka shared  “To add excitement to the upcoming movie Chhota Bheem Kung Fu Dhamaka we created a game which is as involving as the story of the movie. The mobile game is an extension of the movie where the player can get trained, play story mode as Chhota Bheem or simply play single player mode where the player can choose to play as and against any character from the upcoming movie. This is an intense action game where the player has to use a lot of moves, combos and power moves to defeat the opponents. This is going to be the first real-time multiplayer game from India when the multiplayer game gets rolled out in May.”

Speaking on the expectation he added with  “Kung fu Dhamaka game, our expectation is to set a new benchmark for Indian games. And the audience can expect intense actions, original moves and characters from the very well known universe of CB. There’ll be surprise additions to the game frequently post the release to keep the audience engaged.”

Reportedly Green Gold’s sister company, Gamitronics headed by industry veteran Rajat Ojha, was involved in this project from ideation to creation. The game has incorporated authentic characters, their moves and the movie environment which are the added dynamics of the game. “Our objective was to make it as true to the genes of the movie as possible.” Chilaka added.

The ideation and the execution of the game took about four months by the Gamitonics team. Although the designing of the game took a few months and but the entire team jointly took the challenge to complete it on time before the movie’s release. Thus the game development also included a number of challenges according to Chilaka. The first challenge was “to tackle the huge number of animations, which was tough. Further unlike the other games in the market, in Kung fu Dhamaka game we had huge size variation which was pretty hard to implement in a well-balanced game. Over there has been a lot of creative discussions, designing and adapting from the movie theme which the team has executed with excellence. Finally, we also had to ensure that the size of the game is under 100 MB.”

Green Gold is targetting the Chhota Bheem fans across the world with the game. Although considering the popularity of the game, kids will be the prime audience who would be consuming mostly. However, the makers are confident that the game might attract teens and parents because of  Chhota Bheem’s new look integrated into deeper gaming modes.

Bearing in mind that there is a generation who closely follows and are very much involved in gaming; India is becoming the next big place for gaming. With a dynamic partnership with Gamitronics, the execution of the game apparently became smooth and perfect. “Chhota Bheem Kung Fu Dhamaka is our biggest movie yet and we felt a game around Kung fu would work wonders for the fans and the movie of course” he added.

The game is available on Andriod, iOS as well as VR devices.  For accessibility on VR devices, Green Gold further worked with Gamitronics, known for compelling VR experiences in games and has worked on some of the best attractions around IPs like Resident Evil, Battlefield, Cars from Pixar and many more. Gamitronics was sure that the  VR experience of the game will be a natural progression and will fit well. “The experience will “completely immerse the audience and put them in the shoes of Chhota Bheem and there’s nothing more empowering than feeling that you have the power of the one you idolise” he added.

For the Kung Fu Dhamaka game, Green Gold incorporated movie models, reworked on the topology, optimised the characters and introduced the right topology manually. “We had to re-rig all the characters and animate them so they could work perfectly fine and offer a compelling and intense gameplay experience,” adds Chilaka.

The popularity of the Chhota Bheem is growing further. This year  Chhota Bheem Kung fu Dhamaka will be the biggest adventure in Chhota Bheem’s journey as the game will be coupled with an upcoming feature film, which is to be released on 10 May across India. Apart from that the studio also plans to launch a Chhota Bheem musical very soon. “This would be a travelling musician and we plan to do this in five cities in India” expressed Chilaka.

Green Gold is very happy with their initial response of the game and with that, they are aiming to spread the wings and set a benchmark in the industry. We wish all the best to Chhota Bheem Kung fu Dhamaka!

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Apolo Films begins production of ‘Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds’

Dogtanian, Juliette, Pip, the Muskehounds are back in animation!

‘Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds’

After finishing all the pre-production stages of the feature film Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds at their studios in Navarra, Apolo Films has started the production of the animated version of the well-known television series of the same name for the big screen. Its worldwide popular characters are all set to return to star in a new and frenetic adventure.

Aimed at audiences of all ages, Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds offers, an attractive mix of action, comedy and romance with the adventures around the young and inexperienced Gascon who arrives in Paris with a goal to join the body of Muskehounds of His Majesty the King, over an hour and a half length.

With a spectacular staging and a precise historical setting, the film includes the participation of Claudio Biern Boyd, creator of the series Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds (besides other great animation classics such as David, the Gnome and Around the World with Willy Fog), and well-known American screenwriter Douglas Langdale, on whose original script the new screenplay has been written, along with his team (Puss in Boots, The Book of Life, Kung Fu Panda and so on).

The preproduction of Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds was carried out entirely in the studio that Apolo Films opened last year in Navarra with the support of SODENA, NICDO and Navarra Film Commission in which a great professional team has worked that include – Paco Sáez (Capture the Flag, Planet 51, Tad Jones 2), director of storyboard, and Toni García, director of the feature film (The Invisible Man, Zoobabu, Invizimals).

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HBO launches animated ‘Backstories’ for ‘Game of Thrones,’ ‘Barry’ and ‘Insecure’

HBO has launched a new series, HBO Backstories, featuring animated shorts of true events from behind the scenes of some of shows, including Game of Thrones, Barry, and Insecure.

In the footage, viewers can see the series’ showrunners and co-creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss recall a time when the former drunkenly challenged Jason Momoa (Khal Drogo) to the infamous Slap Game, with animation by Ivan Dixon and Greg Sharp (Truba Animation).

Barry is co-created by Alec Berg with animation by Christy Karacas and Simon Wilches (Titmouse). The animation for Insecure is done by Carl Jones and Brian Ash (Six Point Harness).

The series is available across all HBO network, social channels, HBO website and as part of HBO’s sponsorship at Tribeca Film Festival.

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Kingston joins InDeed for earth edition awareness campaign on World Earth Day

Kingston, a memory storage products and technology solutions, has joined hands with InDeed to create a unique social awareness campaign called #EarthEditionDrives. This campaign imagines Earth as a USB Flash Drive, where Kingston aims to subtly draw attention towards the condition of our planet.

The campaign revolves around Kingston’s 64GB Limited Earth Edition USB Drive, which represents Earth. Select members from the industry were given a chance to try these USBs to experience it. The question most of them had was: What happens when you plug in Earth?

Immediately the user’s attention would go to the default flash drive icon that has been replaced with the icon of Earth that is filling up with junk. The drive’s title reconfirms this with ‘Clean Up Before Time’s Up’ – a not so subtle warning about how little time we have.

Driving home the point that we are running out of space – a disturbing parallel with real life – the new USB drive is completely full – All 64 GB of it. Opening the drive shows rows upon rows of junk. Except that this version of junk files tell a harsh story of different types of pollution and the garbage it generates.

Kingston Technology India marketing director Vishal Parekh, says, “We are happy to have partnered with Posterscope for this social initiative on World Earth Day. With this high-octane awareness campaign revolving around our 64GB USB drive, we aim to educate our audiences about the ill effects of neglecting Earth, and to motivate them to take appropriate actions. It’s not just about the shock factor; the true purpose of our Earth Edition drive is to educate and encourage everyone to do their bit; one way is by joining hands with NGOs through a microsite link in the junk videos.”

Posterscope Group MD Haresh Nayak, – whose CSR arm Indeed is behind the project – adds, “You have no other choice. Earth Edition forces you to ‘clean up’ this ‘Earth’ in order to use it, subtly telling you to do the same in real life. This is the kind of campaign that really forces you to think about the planet. Everything, right from the messaging on the package, contents and the USB flash drive is crafted in a way that will make you take a good look in the mirror and consider your actions carefully.”

Dentsu Webchutney chief creative technologist Gurbaksh Singh adds, “World Earth Day is our big chance to put the spotlight back on our planet. With some modding, we have turned the humble Flash Drive into a mouthpiece for saving the planet that warns you at every step. In fact, even transferring file results in a modified windows prompt that says There’s not enough space left on Earth. Clean Up Before Time’s Up which sums up not just the campaign but the very need to do this.”

By making use of technology in their #EarthEditionDrives campaign, Kingston Technology & InDeed are giving a reality check and making a strong point which every person should consciously remember and act upon. Fittingly, the campaign is called “Earth Edition” as it doesn’t get more ‘limited edition’ than our planet.

So, think about it carefully next time you pollute, is the message Kingston hopes to drive with the campaign.

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‘Big Hero 6’ renewed for season 3

Disney Channel has ordered a third season of the animated Big Hero 6: The Series ahead of the season two premiere, which airs 6 May on Disney Channel.

Season two guest voice cast includes Nestor Carbonell (Bates Motel) as Chief Cruz, San Fransokyo’s new police chief; Isabella Gomez (One Day at a Time) as Hiro’s new friend Megan; Ben Feldman (Superstore) as Chris, Liv Amara’s assistant; Will Friedle (Kim Possible) as Ian, Krei’s geeky scientist; Jane Lynch (Glee) and Timothy Simons (Veep) as Supersonic Sue and Supersonic Stu, a grandmother/grandson super villain duo; Jessica Paré (SEAL Team) as acrobatic thief Sirque; and Horatio Sanz (Saturday Night Live) as El Fuego, a Mexican wrestler.

The upcoming second season features a voice cast of Maya Rudolph, Ryan Potter, Scott Adsit, Jamie Chung, Alan Tudyk, Khary Payton, Genesis Rodriguez, Brooks Wheelan, David Shaughnessy and Marvel Comics legend Stan Lee as Fred’s dad. Returning this season are Christy Carlson Romano and Andy Richter, Jenifer Lewis, Haley Tju and Mara Wilson.

Mark McCorkle, Bob Schooley and Nick Filippi, the team behind Disney Channel series Kim Possible, serve as executive producers. Filippi also serves as supervising director.

Additional extensions for Big Hero 6: The Series include toys, books, apparel, and collectibles, plush and home décor from Disney Parks, experiences and consumer products.

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