Empire Strikes Back Screenwriter May Return for Star Wars Episodes VIII and IX

Holy crap, fanboys!

Deadline reports that Disney has approached Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan and screenwriter Simon Kinberg (X-Men: The Last Stand, X-Men: First Class) about scripting Star Wars: Episode VII and Star Wars: Episode IX. Oscar winner Michael Arndt is scripting Star Wars: Episode VII.

What's unclear from Deadline's report is whether Kasdan and Kinberg are writing both installments together, or if Kasdan is taking on Episode VIII and Kinberg's doing Episode IX, respectively.

Kasdan also wrote the video game Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire, as well as a little movie called Raiders of the Lost Ark. His other film credits include Silverado, The Big Chill, The Accidental Tourist, The Bodyguard, Wyatt Earp, and Dreamcatcher.

In addition to the X-Men films, Kinberg also scripted Jumper, This Means War, Sherlock Holmes, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, and xXX: State of the Union.

Source : ign[dot]com

StarCraft II - IPTL - NsHoSeo needs a good showing vs Karont3 to advance to Up and Downs

Contender Division Group B has the most difficult situation to asses. Why? Currently, there are 3 teams with similar score: Team Empire 1-2 (10-13 in small points), Team Dignitas 1-2 (10-11) in small points and New Star HoSeo 1-1 (6-7) with one game left. Who’s going to join Karont3 e-Sports Club in the Up and Down Matches?

The game between the Spanish organization and Koreans is going to be the decisive factor in establishing the final result in their group.

Karont3 e-Sports Club line-up: LoLvsxD (Z), LucifroN (T), Ryo (P), VortiX (Z), AlaStOr (Z), MikOeL (T), Verdi (P)

New Star HoSeo line-up: Tassadar (P), jjakji (T), Seal (Z), Sculp (T), SalvatioN (T), Brave (P)

Potential starters

Karont3 e-Sports Club: AlaStOr (Z), MikOeL (T), Verdi (P)

Three players that I’ve put above are the ones loaned from other teams purely for the “Team Games:” AlastOr is playing for French organization, Team LDLC.com, MikOeL represents another Spanish team, Aprender, and Verdi wears Vega Squadron tag together with DaNa, Polish player who will probably represent his country in the upcoming WCG 2012 Finals.

So far, both Spaniards have opened a game for Karont3 with Zerg falling to BlinG and MikOeL defeating Beastyqt, but later losing to Brat_OK. Now it’s time for Verdi to open the most important match for the Spanish team thus far.

New Star HoSeo: Tassadar (P), Sculp (T), Seal (Z)

New Star HoSeo went from being one of the best teams in Korea to a mediocre organization with one star player on the roster and average key players. They’ve lost four players over the last 3 months and their IPTL performance wasn’t as good as people would expect especially in one of the weakest groups in Season 1.

So far, both Brave and SalvatioN opened a game, so now it’s time for one of the core NSH players to be the lucky participant in the opening game against Karont3. Just like with the Spanish, NSH starters represent all three races available in Starcraft 2. Should be interesting.

Key players

Karont3 e-Sports Club: MikOeL (T), Verdi (P)

Both have decent results in IPTL and look strong against New Star HoSeo. I can see Verdi taking even a double-kill if Karont3 decide to use him in this match. As for MikOeL, he should be able to win at least one match just like he did against Team Empire, but will probably lose the next one. One should bear in mind that mediocre Korean player is still a level above decent European. We will see if that’s true in this case as well.

New Star HoSeo: Tassadar (P), SalvatioN (T)

So far besides jjakji they are the only players to grab a win in IPTL Season 1, thus it is safe to assume that they might be able to do it again especially against core Karont3 players. However, even when most of Karont3 roster is out there are always LucifroN and Vortix left who might be more than enough for NSH this time.

Ace players

Karont3 e-Sports Club: LucifroN (T), Vortix (Z)

Duran brothers are currently considered top Europeans with a huge potential that they’ve been showing for the past few months. IEM and DreamHacks were perfect tournaments for them to shine and make room for themselves among the best of the best in the world.

Both had a huge experience with Warcraft 3, but back then it was LucifroN who managed to achieve some international recognition. This time it is Vortix leading the family with impressive results lately.

But, are they going to fall in a slump as always? LucifroN was a one game wonder back in W3 era and after three / four good tournaments he quickly became another pray among beasts like Grubby, Moon or Sky. Is the same thing going to happen to Vortix? Let’s hope not.

New Star HoSeo: jjakji (T)

Although he failed to stay in GSL Code A jjakji is the best player on NSH, but despite his unstable play he managed to grab a victory for NSH in their match against Team Empire. However, in NSH match against Team Dignitas he wasn’t able to defeat Bischu.

Prediction

New Star HoSeo 1 > 5 Karont3 e-Sports Club

At this point Karont3 is just too much for NSH. If Team Dignitas was able to defeat NSH 5 – 1 then Karont3 will crush them even harder. I expect to see one game won by jjakji  and that’s it. In that case, Karont3, Team Dignitas and Team Empire will have 1-2 score so their small points will count when deciding who’s going Karont3 in the Up and Down Matches. However, if NSH win then both them and Karont3 are the undisputed winners of Contender Division Group B.

Tune in on October 19th to our stream to watch Karont3 e-Sports Club against New Star HoSeo live!

Source : ign[dot]com

FrightFest the 13th - Five of the Best

So FrightFest happened at the weekend, with the good, the bad and the ugly of the horror film industry descending on the Empire Cinema in London’s Leicester Square to shock and scare thousands of gore-hounds.

The weekend was a resounding success, but if you couldn’t make it down, the following are five of the best flicks that played (alongside the brilliant Sinister, which we previously reviewed here).

Sleep Tight

My favourite film of the festival, Sleep Tight is less an out-and-out horror and more a dark, psychological thriller in the tradition of Hitchcock’s very best. Luis Tosar delivers a grandstanding performance as Cesar, a quiet doorman working at an upscale Barcelona apartment. But below that unassuming surface, Cesar is something of a monster, creeping into his most beautiful tenant’s room at night and doing… well you’ll just have to watch the movie to find out, but rest assured it’s suitably sick and twisted.

V/H/S

Horror anthologies tend to be a mixed bag, and V/H/S is no different, though when it’s scary, it’s bloody terrifying. The wrap-around story finds a group of unpleasant pranksters breaking into a supposedly deserted house to retrieve a VHS tape, and while there they find footage that makes up the rest of the movie. The likes of Adam Wingard, Ti West and Joe Swanberg direct, and the film features the first chiller to tell its story purely through Skype. The undoubted highlight is a very novel twist on the devil worshipping sub-genre.

Berbarian Sound Studio

I’m not even going to pretend I understood this one, though while the vague plotting is frustrating, the bizarre sound and imagery stays with you long after the credits have rolled. Hunger Games star Toby Jones plays Gilderoy, a shy and retiring sound engineer invited to Italy to work on horror flick The Equestrian Vortex. But things turn strange as soon as he arrives at the titular sound studio, with life imitating art as the horror bleeds from the screen and into his life. As Gilderoy endeavours to retain his sanity, the film too starts to lose the plot, but it all looks beautiful, and as an homage to Italian Giallo, it's spot on.

Grabbers

So three serious choices, but what about something a little more light-hearted? Cockney’s vs. Zombies went down well with the FrightFest crowd, but for me Irish effort Grabbers narrowly edged the East End pensioners out. Playing like a cross between Tremors and Whisky Galore, the film stars Richard Coyle as a disillusioned Garda with a drink problem who is lazily seeing out his years in a sleepy coastal town. But when an alien invasion hits, Coyle’s character is forced to step up to the plate, no-more-so than when a scientist discovers that the aliens are allergic to humans with a high blood alcohol level. As ridiculous as it is entertaining, Grabbers is perfect midnight movie fare.

American Mary

Jen and Sylvia Soska – the directors of Dead Hooker in a Trunk – return with what may have been the most talked-about film at the festival. Ginger Snaps star Katherine Isabelle plays Mary Mason, a medical student who enters the shady underground world of body modification in search of a quick buck, and soon finds it taking a terrible toll on her own psyche. Brutal, gripping and genuinely horrifying, American Mary is the kind of film that FrightFest was created for, and should be sought out at the earliest opportunity.

Chris Tilly is the Entertainment Editor for IGN and is finding it hard to sleep after all that horror. His idle chit-chat can be found on both Twitter and MyIGN.

Source : ign[dot]com

Cafeteria Nipponica Review

What is it?

Cafeteria Nipponica from mobile sim superstar Kairosoft gives gamers the opportunity to run their own restaurant, growing it from a tiny diner into a massive food empire. Players combine ingredients to create an ever-improving library of dishes, upgrading them to boost stats like texture, aroma and appearance. Serving the right dishes and hiring the right staff unlocks more and more customer archetypes, each with their own specific food quirks and demands. By the end of Nipponica’s time limit, good managers will be serving clientele that includes oil barons, pop idols and executives, all in an effort to become the top-ranked eatery in the city.

Did we like it?

Cafeteria Nipponica’s slow pace and obtuse instructions limit its fun factor. Like all Kairosoft games, it’s an entreprenurial rush to finally save up enough dough to expand your restaurant or buy an extremely expensive rare ingredient. The problem is that you’ll spend most of your play time just sitting and waiting, slowly watching your money climb until you can actually do something. The gameplay is far too passive.

The core gameplay loop focuses on discovering recipes, then refining those creations into higher quality, more expensive variations by adding in new ingredients. But this process is never clearly explained. At the end of the game some dish recipes I collected the beginning I still couldn’t create, because I never got my hands on a required base ingredient. The process of discovery can be fun, but not when it’s inscrutable.

Should you buy it?

Despite its slow pace and frustrating advancement system, Cafeteria Nipponica is still a decent tycoon title. At $3.99, making little decisions like swapping out a table for a comfy booth to attract a different type of customer can still satisfy gamers looking for a light sim title with a quirky sense of humor and retro pixel style.

Source : ign[dot]com

The Wire Star in Robocop Negotiations

The Wire and Boardwalk Empire actor Michael Kenneth Williams is apparently in negotiations to star in Sony and MGM's remake of Robocop.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the actor - currently playing racketeer Chalky White on Boardwalk Empire - is in talks to appear as Joel Kinnamen's cop partner.

The movie is due to begin filming in Toronto this September, with Kinnamen as the titular cop, Hugh Laurie as the villain, and Samuel L. Jackson, Gary Oldman, Abbie Cornish, Jay Baruchel and Jackie Earle Haley also starring.

Brazilian Jose Padilha - who previously helmed the brilliant Elite Squad - is directing the film, which will hit screens in 2013.

Luke Karmali is IGN's UK Editorial Assistant. You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on IGN and on Twitter.

Source : ign[dot]com