Don’t throw all your popcorn at the screen, but A Minecraft Movie begins streaming exclusively on HBO Max (which used to be Max, which used to be HBO Max) on June 20. The big studio adaptation of the best-selling video game of all time was something of a surprise hit for those unfamiliar with the game’s mammoth audience.
Movie adaptations of video games can be really hit or miss. The Super Mario Bros. Movie set the box office record for the highest-grossing video game movie of all time and was a fun, if safe, movie. On the other end of that spectrum is Borderlands, which was a massive letdown and a box-office failure. With that spotty track record, we were pleasantly surprised when A Minecraft Movie turned out to be…pretty good, actually.
The movie stars Jack Black as Steve, the original player character from the video game, who ends up transported into the voxel world of Minecraft, while Jason Momoa stars as an egomaniacal former gaming superstar. The movie will also debut on the HBO linear cable channel on Saturday, June 21, at 8PM ET.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/a-minecraft-movie-is-coming-exclusively-to-hbo-max-on-june-20-175859982.html?src=rss
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You'll have to wait a little longer for The Legend of Zelda movie. Nintendo said on Monday that the film's new release date is May 7, 2027. That's six weeks later than the slot it announced earlier this year. The company attributed the rescheduling to production delays.
"This is Miyamoto," Nintendo's announcement post began. "For production reasons, we are changing the release date of the live-action film of The Legend of Zelda to May 7, 2027. It will be some weeks later than the release timing we originally announced, and we will take the extra time to make the film as good as it can be. Thank you for your patience."
We don't know much about the movie yet. Its director (Wes Ball) and screenwriter (T.S. Nowlin) are both known for The Maze Runner trilogy. Ball also worked on Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, the fourth installment in the modern reboots.
In 2023, Ball suggested that the film could have an anime influence. He described it as "this awesome fantasy-adventure movie that isn’t like Lord of the Rings, it’s its own thing. I've always said, I would love to see a live-action Miyazaki. That wonder and whimsy that he brings to things, I would love to see something like that."
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/nintendo-delays-the-legend-of-zelda-movie-155753324.html?src=rss
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Believe it or not, it's been over two decades since the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy wrapped in 2003.
The film franchise, based on the J. R. R. Tolkien novel of the same name, received critical acclaim — and also launched several actors' careers.
Since leaving Middle Earth, many of the franchise's stars have gone on to play other iconic roles. Here's a look at what the star-studded cast is up to today.
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Wood played a hobbit named Frodo in the "Lord of the Rings" films.
After inheriting the One Ring from his cousin Bilbo Baggins, Frodo bravely volunteers to take it to Mordor to be destroyed, kicking off the epic journey across Middle Earth.
Wood began acting at a young age and had several major film credits before "The Fellowship of the Ring" (2001), like "Flipper" (1996) and "Avalon" (1990).
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Wood has stayed busy with movies of all genres, including the action-comedy "Spy Kids 3D: Game Over" (2003), romantic drama "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" (2004), animated musical "Happy Feet" (2006), and psychological slasher "Maniac" (2012).
In 2010, Wood cofounded the production company SpectreVision, formerly known as The Woodshed, and has gone on to produce films like "A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night" (2014), "Mandy" (2018), and "Color Out of Space" (2019).
In addition to his other career as a DJ, Wood still found time to work on projects like Cartoon Network's "Over the Garden Wall," "I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore" (2017), and "Come to Daddy" (2019).
These days, you can catch him in the ensemble cast of Showtime's "Yellowjackets."
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The Danish-American actor Mortensen played Aragorn — the son of Arathorn, heir of Isildur, and eventual King of Gondor.
Aragorn is a member of the Fellowship and leads the fight against Sauron's army while the One Ring is being destroyed.
Before joining the "Lord of the Rings" cast, Mortensen had worked with directors like Peter Weir, Brian De Palma, Tony Scott, Ridley Scott, and Jane Campion.
Fans would likely recognize him from films like "Young Guns II" (1990), "Crimson Tide" (1995), "The Portrait of a Lady" (1996), and "G.I. Jane" (1997).
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Mortensen has since been nominated for best actor at the Academy Awards three times, for "Eastern Promises" (2007), "Captain Fantastic" (2016), and "Green Book" (2018), and has received numerous other honors.
He made his feature directorial debut with the 2020 drama "Falling," which he also wrote, coproduced, and starred in opposite Lance Henriksen.
Most recently, the actor starred in "Eureka" (2023).
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Bean played Boromir, the son of Denethor and a member of the Fellowship.
Boromir primarily appears in the first movie, as he dies defending Merry and Pippin against a horde of orcs after briefly allowing himself to be tempted by the One Ring.
Bean was previously known for his roles in action thrillers like "Patriot Games" (1992), "GoldenEye" (1995), and "Ronin" (1998).
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After meeting his character's demise in "The Fellowship of the Ring," Bean appeared in "Equilibrium" (2002), portrayed Odysseus in "Troy" (2004), and chased Nicolas Cage in "National Treasure" (2004).
He went on to famously play Ned Stark on HBO's "Game of Thrones."
More recently, he played Mr. Wilford on TNT's "Snowpiercer," John Parse in Brandon Cronenberg's 2020 sci-fi thriller "Possessor," and Ian on the BBC drama "Marriage."
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Monaghan played the troublesome hobbit Merry in the "Lord of the Rings" films.
Merry is a hobbit from Frodo's village who finds himself leaving the Shire and joining Frodo's dangerous adventure.
He had acted in several TV movies, but "The Fellowship of the Ring" was Monaghan's big-screen debut.
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After concluding the film trilogy, Monaghan landed the role of Charlie Pace on ABC's "Lost" and appeared on the series until 2010.
After that, he hosted and produced the BBC wildlife docuseries "Wild Things With Dominic Monaghan" from 2012 to 2016.
He also starred in the video short for Eminem and Rihanna's "Love the Way You Lie," played a mutant in "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" (2009), and joined another major franchise when he appeared in "Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker" (2019).
He voiced Archibald Desnay on Amazon Prime's 2022 animated adaptation of "Critical Role," "The Legend of Vox Machina." Most recently, he voiced an Orc in the animated "Lord of the Rings" prequel "The War of the Rohirrim" (2024).
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Astin portrayed the loyal hobbit Samwise, Frodo's best friend.
Save for a few brief separations, Sam is always by Frodo's side and risks his life many times to save his friends.
Astin had several notable credits before the fantasy franchise, famous for roles in films like "The Goonies" (1985) and "Rudy" (1993).
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Astin has since done a lot of voice-over work for animated films and video games, even providing the voice for Raphael on Nickelodeon's "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles."
In 2017, he joined the second season of Netflix's "Stranger Things" as Joyce's love interest, Bob Newby.
He has several projects in the works, and he also recently played a recurring role on the sitcom "The Conners."
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If not for McKellen's character, the Fellowship would never have formed and likely would not have survived.
McKellen mainly began his professional acting career on the stage in the early 1960s. A year before the fantasy trilogy debuted, he joined the Marvel universe as Magneto in the "X-Men" franchise.
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McKellen continued playing Magneto during and after the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, most recently in "X-Men: Days of Future Past" (2014).
The actor is one of the few "Lord of the Rings" cast members to also appear in the "Hobbit" films, reprising his role as the powerful wizard.
Some of McKellen's more recent turns include Cogsworth in the live-action "Beauty and the Beast" (2017) and Gus the Theatre Cat in "Cats" (2019).
He also has several recent theater credits in the UK, including "Hamlet" and "The Cherry Orchard."
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The Welsh actor Rhys-Davies portrayed the dwarf warrior Gimli.
Gimli is the representative for the dwarfs in the Fellowship and the son of Glóin, one of Bilbo's companions during the events of "The Hobbit."
Rhys-Davies, who also provided the voice of Treebeard in the films, previously played Sallah in several "Indiana Jones" films and Vasco Rodrigues on NBC's miniseries "Shogun," for which he received an Emmy nomination.
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After "The Lord of the Rings," he appeared in a number of notable TV movies and on shows like Comedy Central's "TripTank."
There are a few other fantasy projects on his recent résumé, including ABC's "Once Upon a Time" and MTV's "The Shannara Chronicles."
Rhys-Davies has also lent his voice to video games and animated projects like Guillermo del Toro's Netflix miniseries "Wizards" and the 2019 feature "Mosley."
Most recently, he voiced a character in "Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom" (2023).
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Bloom played the master archer and wood elf Legolas.
The arrow-wielding hero is also a member of the Fellowship and eventually becomes Gimli's best friend, even though dwarfs and elves historically hated each other.
Bloom was relatively unknown when he was cast in the trilogy, but between the first and second films, he appeared in "Black Hawk Down" (2002).
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Bloom famously played Will Turner in four of the "Pirates of the Caribbean" installments.
Alongside McKellen, he also revisited the role of Legolas in the "Hobbit" films.
In addition to other hit projects like "Troy" (2004) and "The Three Musketeers" (2011), the actor starred on the Amazon series "Carnival Row" as Rycroft Philostrate.
More recently, he starred in the action film "Red Right Hand" (2024).
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Boyd played Pippin, the immature best friend of Merry, and appeared in all three "Lord of the Rings" films.
As a part of the Fellowship, his antics cause trouble for the group, but he always means well.
Boyd had primarily worked on television before he was cast in the first film of the trilogy and continued to do so in between the franchise's sequels.
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Boyd appeared in "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World" alongside Russell Crowe in 2003, the same year as "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King."
The next year, he provided the voice of Glen and Glenda for the horror film "Seed of Chucky" (2004).
Boyd is also a musician and got to write and perform a song for "The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies" (2014).
He was seen on episodes of FX's "Snowfall," ABC's "Grey's Anatomy," and Starz's "Outlander." He also appeared in the 2021 thriller "An Intrusion."
More recently, he voiced a character in the anime "Lord of the Rings" prequel, "The War of the Rohirrim."
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The English actor Holm played Bilbo Baggins, the previous ring bearer.
Bilbo is Frodo's guardian and cousin, and he is unnaturally old because of the effects of the One Ring.
Even before the film franchise, Holm was a Tony Award-winning actor, probably best known to fantasy and sci-fi fans for playing Ash in the Ridley Scott film "Alien" (1979).
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After the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, Holm worked on an impressive array of films like "Garden State" (2004), "Lord of War" (2005), and "Ratatouille" (2007).
In 2020, Holm died at age 88 of complications related to Parkinson's disease.
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Tyler brought Arwen, daughter of Lord Elrond, to life on the big screen. The elf saves Frodo from the Black Riders and later marries Aragorn.
Before "The Fellowship of the Ring," Tyler had been in plenty of films, including "Stealing Beauty" (1996) and "Armageddon" (1998).
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Tyler joined another major franchise in 2008 as Betty Ross in Marvel's "The Incredible Hulk." In 2025, she reprised the role in "Captain America: Brave New World."
Elsewhere, Tyler played Meg Abbott on HBO's "The Leftovers," Lady Isabella Fitzwilliam on ITV-Hulu's "Harlots," Eve in the sci-fi thriller "Ad Astra" (2019), and Michelle Blake on Fox's "9-1-1: Lone Star."
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Elrond, played by Weaving, is the Lord of Rivendell. The elf was there when Isildur claimed the One Ring and tried to get him to destroy it, to no avail.
Fans would likely recognize Weaving as Agent Smith in "The Matrix" films, a franchise that mostly ran at the same time as the "Lord of the Rings" movies.
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Weaving went on to play V in "V for Vendetta" (2006), voice Megatron in Michael Bay's "Transformers" films, and portray the Red Skull in "Captain America: The First Avenger" (2011).
Weaving starred in the drama "Lone Wolf" and appeared on the Binge miniseries "Love Me" in 2021.
Most recently, he played the villainous Frank Harness in the thriller series "Slow Horses."
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Blanchett portrayed Galadriel, Lady of the Golden Wood and grandmother to Arwen.
In "The Fellowship of the Ring," she gives each traveler a special gift, including the "star-glass" that later proves useful against the giant spider.
Blanchett didn't get a ton of screen time in the films — only a minute and 23 seconds, according to Screen Rant.
She had appeared in several movies before "The Lord of the Rings," like "Elizabeth" (1998) and "The Talented Mr. Ripley" (1999).
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Immediately after "The Lord of the Rings," Blanchett appeared in "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou" (2004) and "The Aviator" (2004), which earned her an Oscar win.
She racked up more nominations for "Notes on a Scandal" (2006), "I'm Not There" (2007), and "Elizabeth: The Golden Age" (2007) before winning another Oscar for "Blue Jasmine" (2013).
Blanchett was nominated yet again for her work in "Carol" (2016) and played the activist Phyllis Schlafly in the FX miniseries "Mrs. America."
More recently, she starred in "Don't Look Up" (2021), "Tár" (2022), "Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio" (2022), and the TV series "Disclaimer" (2024).
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Serkis' portrayal of Gollum was an impressive feat of motion-capture technology.
Throughout the films, Gollum, originally known as Sméagol, is painted as an antagonist and a representation of the One Ring's consequences.
Before his performance in the trilogy, Serkis had been in several shows and films, like "Career Girls (1997)" and "Among Giants" (1998).
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Serkis reprised Gollum in "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" (2012) and did groundbreaking performance-capture work for the "Planet of the Apes" films.
He then joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the flesh as Ulysses Klaue, provided the voice of Baloo in "Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle" (2018), and was Snoke in the recent "Star Wars" trilogy.
Recently, Serkis played Alfred Pennyworth in "The Batman" alongside Robert Pattinson and Kino Loy on the Disney+ series "Andor."
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A film legend, Lee took a notable turn as the wizard Saruman the White, who was introduced as a respectable ally but turned out to be a power-hungry pawn of Sauron.
Before his role in the fantasy films, he starred in many movies like "Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace" (1962) and "Count Dracula" (1977).
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After the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, Lee appeared in several films and shorts, like "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" (2005) and "Hugo" (2011), before reprising his role as Saruman in "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey."
In 2015, Lee died at age 93 after being hospitalized for heart failure and respiratory problems.
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Otto played arguably one of the most important characters in the trilogy, Éowyn.
Disguised as a Rider of Rohan, Éowyn, shield maiden of Rohan and daughter of Éomund, ultimately kills the Witch-king of Angmar during the Battle of the Pelennor Fields.
Before her turn in the "Lord of the Rings" films, Otto appeared in movies like "The Well" (1998) and "The Thin Red Line" (1998).
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Shortly after the Middle Earth films, Otto appeared on-screen again in the 2005 adaptation of "War of the Worlds."
She has since worked on films like "Annabelle: Creation" (2017) and miniseries like USA's "The Starter Wife," ABC's "Cashmere Mafia," and Fox's "24: Legacy."
In 2018, she showed off her fantasy roots on the Netflix series "Chilling Adventures of Sabrina" as aunt Zelda Spellman.
Otto recently appeared on several TV miniseries, like SBS' "The Unusual Suspects." In 2024, she reprised her role of Éowyn in the "Lord of the Rings" prequel anime film, "The War of the Rohirrim."
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Noble made playing a troublesome ruler look fun. The last viewers saw of Denethor, he was falling off a cliff on fire after he had tried burning his son alive.
Before the fantasy franchise, the actor had been on TV series and in films like "The Monkey's Mask" (2001).
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Noble is probably best known for playing Walter Bishop on the Fox series "Fringe."
Like his "Lord of the Rings" costars Blanchett and Weaving, Noble also appeared as a guest on the ABC series "Rake" before signing longer stints on shows like Fox's "Sleepy Hollow," The CW's "DC's Legends of Tomorrow," and CBS' "Elementary."
He also showed up as Billy Butcher's father on an episode of Amazon Prime's "The Boys."
More recently, he worked on Netflix's "Cowboy Bebop," Paramount+'s "Star Trek: Prodigy," and Apple TV+'s "Severance."
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Urban played Éomer, the leader of the Riders of Rohan who later becomes King of the Mark.
Before the trilogy, he played Julius Caesar on Syfy's "Xena: Warrior Princess" and appeared in several films.
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Urban became an action-movie star shortly after "The Return of the King" with "The Chronicles of Riddick" (2004), followed by "The Bourne Supremacy" (2004) and "Doom" (2005).
He later played Leonard "Bones" McCoy in "Star Trek" (2009) and continued his action-star legacy as the titular judge in "Dredd" (2012).
Urban plays Billy on "The Boys" — making Noble's guest appearance a "Lord of the Rings" reunion.
When Sam Altman was kicked out of OpenAI, it didn’t last long. Within five days, the co-founder of the artificial-intelligence giant was back in charge. But the drama surrounding that attempted coup is the sort of stuff Hollywood lives for.
Now, Amazon-owned MGM is reportedly fast-tracking a film about the events called Artificial. The Hollywood Reporter says that while nothing has been officially green-lit, the hope is that production will begin as early as this summer. Luca Guadagnino (Call Me By Your Name, Challengers) is being eyed to direct the film—and while no actors have been signed, pending Guadagnino’s deal closing, Andrew Garfield is the odds-on favorite to play Altman.
Monica Barbaro (A Complete Unknown) is rumored to be in line to portray Mira Murati, and Anora actor Yura Borisov would play Ilya Sutskever.
There could be as much drama offscreen as on with this film. Amazon has invested heavily in Anthropic, an OpenAI rival, which will have onlookers combing the frames for any perceived corporate bias.
Altman was abruptly kicked out of OpenAI on Nov. 17, 2023 in an effort led by Sutskever. Murati was named interim CEO, but relinquished that role soon after to Emmett Shear. Altman formally returned on Nov. 22, with Sutskever, Helen Toner, Tasha McCauley removed from the board.
Sutskever and Murati have since left OpenAI to launch their own artificial-intelligence companies.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
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The developer of Hitman: World of Assassination, IO Interactive, is finally showing off its take on a James Bond with a new trailer that debuted during Sony's summer State of Play on June 4. IO Interactive originally announced it was working on "Project 007" back in November 2020, and only recently shared that the game was called 007 First Light and would be a "James Bond origin story."
Given how much of a Hitman level can be defined by 007-esque antics like using disguises, infiltrating enemy bases and using gadgets, IO Interactive seemed like a natural fit to make the next game in the franchise. IO Interactive's first trailer is unfortunately narrative-focused, depicting early moments from this new Bond's career, including his training in the Navy.
Many of the most memorable Bond games have hewed closely to existing plots or visual depictions from from the franchise's over-60-year history, whether the single-player story of GoldenEye 007 adapting key moments of the film, or Pierce Brosnan's likeness being used in James Bond 007: NightFire. IO Interactive is taking a deliberately different approach, telling a Bond origin story and creating an original version of the character that isn't based on one of the films.
To be clear, the future of the James Bond film franchise is still a little uncertain in its own right. Longtime producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson handed off creative control of the franchise to Amazon MGM Studios and producers Amy Pascal and David Heyman in March 2025. They've yet to announce a new film or recast James Bond, who was most recently played by Daniel Craig.
IO Interactive has confirmed that 007 First Light will be coming to the Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X /S and PC in 2026.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/io-interactives-james-bond-game-007-first-light-is-coming-in-2026-215517819.html?src=rss
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It's no secret that 28 Years Later used iPhones to shoot parts of the film. Now its director, Danny Boyle, has discussed the use of iPhones for the film in more detail with IGN. The first film in the franchise, 28 Days Later, was shot on digital video, giving it a homemade feel. Boyle explained that he and writer Alex Garland got the idea from the fact that home video cameras were common at the time, and people would've shot videos with them if an apocalypse had indeed happened. Those cameras, of course, have since been replaced by smartphones.
The movies used three special rigs for the iPhone sequences: One for eight cameras that one person can carry, another with 10 and another with 20. "I never say this, but there is an incredible shot in the second half [of the film] where we use the 20-rig camera, and you'll know it when you see it," Boyle told IGN. He described the 20-iPhone rig as "basically a poor man’s bullet time," which is a visual effect that uses multiple cameras to freeze or slow down time. Think the scene in The Matrix, wherein Neo dodged bullets in super slow motion.
Doyle said that the 20-camera rig can be attached to cranes or dollies and give you 180 degrees of vision of an action. In editing, you can choose from any of the footage each iPhone takes to, say, move between perspectives or jump forward and backward. For 28 Years Later, the team used the rig for violent scenes to emphasize their effect. "For a moment the audience is inside the scene, the action, rather than classically observing a picture," Doyle explained.
In addition to the iPhones, the filmmakers also used drones, cameras attached to actors and even farm animals to achieve an immersive feel for its 2.76:1 widescreen aspect ratio. They decided on the aspect ratio to create a sense of unease, since you'd have to keep scanning the screen to see potential threats coming from the sides.
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How much Death Stranding are you willing to fire into your eyes? The game’s sequel arrives in just a few weeks, A Quiet Place: Day One director Michael Sarnoski is leading up a live-action film adaptation, and now Hideo Kojima has confirmed that an anime is in production.
Kojima teased the adaptation while discussing the more concrete live-action project in an interview with Vogue Japan. As picked up by VGC, the Metal Gear creator was talking about his cross-media ambitions for the Death Stranding, and comparing the planned film to other successful video game adaptations from recent years.
"When it comes to adapting games into visual media, there are works like The Last of Us, which stays true to the original storyline, and films like The Super Mario Bros Movie which are more of a service to fans of the game," Kojima said, according to VGC’s translation.
"While these works have their own merits, as a film enthusiast, I want to pursue the expressive potential of cinema. I aim to create a Death Stranding that can only be realised through film, one that could win awards at festivals like the Cannes Film Festival or the Venice Film Festival. In fact, we are also currently working on an anime adaptation."
Kojima didn’t offer any more information, so we don’t know how far along the anime project is, who is making it, when we can actually expect it to come out, or whether it will tie in with the upcoming live-action movie.
In the meantime, Norman Reedus’ Sam Porter Bridges will return in Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, which is coming to PS5 on June 22. Kojima Productions dropped its second trailer for the game in March, which clocked in at 10 minutes and gave us a closer look at what we’ll be getting up to in the sequel. (Spoiler alert: lots more walking.)
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/a-death-stranding-anime-is-in-the-works-165927348.html?src=rss
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