According to Spielberg, this television series is an opportunity to bring on a new era in entertainment. For “Halo The Television Series”, an “intersection where technology and myth-making meet” is made, and something “truly groundbreaking” will be unleashed. While the Halo game series certainly hasn’t been anything to scoff at over the past few years of it being one of gaming’s most popular, the inclusion of Spielberg in a television series surrounding it brings this announcement to a different environment entirely.

NOTE: The above photo comes straight from Bonnie Ross herself, taken of of both her and Steven Spielberg for this announcement specifically.

The Halo game franchise will certainly be coming to the Xbox One as well, but for now, it’s only a television series. Saying that it’s “only” a television series may prove to be folly as well – with what we’ve seen from the Xbox One for voice recognition, voice commands, and future Kinect interaction, we may yet see some game-changing content, as Microsoft says.

This release is intended for the Xbox One and may very well be amongst the devices “exclusive downloadable content.” The true extent of this content set is not yet known – we’ll see soon enough! For now, be sure to check out more Xbox One content in our brand new Xbox One tag portal to see how, when, and why you might want to check this console out.

According to the folks over at Digital Trends, which says it received confirmation from Ubisoft itself, the movie will hit theaters on May 22, 2015. As we heard last year, the movie will indeed feature Fassbender, who is reportedly serving as producer. There’s no word yet on who is going to direct the movie yet, but the distributor is pegged as Fox and New Regency.

This won’t be Ubisoft’s first movie, with the company having had (very little, by its own account) involvement in the so-so Jake Gyllenhaal movie Prince of Persia. Visual effects will be curteosy of Ubisoft’s own production studios. Aside from that, no other details about the film are known for now, except that Fassbender will probably be playing Desmond Miles.

If the name Fassbender sounds familiar, you may have seen Hunger or X-Men: First Class, both of which he has starred in. Likewise, you may be familiar with our interview with the actor back in June following the world premiere of the movie Prometheus, where we sat down with Fassbender – as well as Noomi Rapace, Guy Pearce, and Logan Marshall-Green – for a nice discussion.

While the date has been set, it isn’t etched into stone, and considering how massive of a year summer 2015 will be for blockbuster films, no one will be surprised if the release date gets shuffled. Other movies that will be releasing around the same time include the next Hunger Games and Pirates of the Caribbean movies, the long-awaited Star Wars film, Hobbit: There and Back Again, and more.

SOURCE: Digital Trends

However, the sequel barely missed beating out the 2009 Star Trek film, which garnered just over $75 million over its opening weekend four years ago. The movie’s co-production company, Paramount, seemed to think it would make a lot more over the three-day period, as Into Darkness’s totals so far have missed the company’s estimates. After all, Into Darkness was the weekend’s only major release.

The new Star Trek film did push Iron Man 3 down to the second spot for the first time since its release. Iron Man 3 only brought in just over $35 million over the weekend, but that pushes the movie’s total to $337 million in the US, and crossing the $1 billion mark on a global scale. Of course, that’s far cry from Avatar’s $2.7 billion total, but you know a movie is quite successful when it passes the $1 billion mark. For what it’s worth, only 16 movies have ever made more than $1 billion globally.

While some believe that Into Darkness will make a comeback in the coming weeks to make up for the revenue it could’ve made over the weekend, it’s not likely that the film will see a huge increase anytime soon. It faces some stiff competition from upcoming movies, like Fast and Furious 6 and the third iteration of The Hangover, both of which are expected to bring in big bucks.

The 2009 Star Trek film grossed a total of $385.7 million worldwide while it was in theaters. Of course, it’s possible that Into Darkness could match this, but the chances are slim. After an OK opening weekend, and ongoing competition with Iron Man 3, as well as future road blocks with other summer movies, topping $400 million may be a difficult task for the new film.

The movie will be completely developed, produced, and financed by Rovio, with John Cohen and David Maisel hopping on board to help out. Cohen is best known for his role as producer for Universal’s Despicable Me, and Maisel is the former Marvel Studios chairman and executive producer for the Iron Man series, as well as The Incredible Hulk, Thor, and Captain America.

Overall, Cohen isn’t a huge name in the movie business, other than his role in Despicable Me, but he did have an executive role in several animated movies, including two Ice Age films and the 2007 remake of Alvin and the Chipmunks. He also served as vice president of production at Twentieth Century Fox Animation, and he also contributed to Horton Hears a Who and Robots, the former of which is a classic Dr. Seuss children’s book.

This will mark the first time that Angry Birds has ventured out into the movie entertainment business. The series recently scored its own animated web show, and has passed out merchandise licensing to several companies to make T-shirts and even plush toys of popular Angry Birds characters. Needless to say, the movie is expected to bring in a lot of sales.

The Angry Birds film first came to light back in 2011 when Maisel joined Rovio, which hinted to the possibility that Rovio was in the act of acquiring movie-focused talent. As for the plot of the movie, we’re left without any details and how the levels of Angry Birds will tie into a full-length film exactly, but Rovio said it will retain “full creative control” over the project by working outside the traditional studio system.

SOURCE: Rovio

During a closed-doors gun legislation meeting with 20 religious representatives from around the US, Vice President Biden said that “there’s no legal reason why” the government couldn’t tax media companies for making and distributing violent content, such as video games, movies, etc. It’s said that a majority of reps at the meeting agreed with Biden, and that the government should tax such media companies.

The vice president also said that there needs to be a comprehensive scientific study to research the impact that violent media have on kids. Of course, many studies have been done in the past that attempt to find a correlation between playing violent video games and acting violent in real life, some of which have said that there is no impact, and other studies claiming that there is, in fact, a correlation. We honestly may never come to an agreed upon solution in this case.

Biden wants the tax to go towards a fund that would help the victims of violent crimes, as well as their families. Whether a tax like this will eventually be make it’s way to being a law is still yet to be seen. There’s been a recent influx in the number of lawmakers urging to put an excise tax on violent media, but we’ve yet to hear how much progress these proposed bills have made.

Ever since the Sandy Hook school shooting, Vice President Biden has been focusing more and more on gun violence, and he even recently held a Google+ Hangout to answer questions and state his concerns on the state of gun control and gun violence in the US. However, former House speaker Nancy Pelosi is one of the few politicians that is defending violent video games, saying that the research just isn’t there yet to prove that such media cause violence. However, the fingers will undoubtedly still be pointed at violent video games for years to come, and whether or not steps will be taken to control violent video games is still in question.

VIA: Gamespot

SOURCE: Politico

IMAGE CREDIT: Marc Nozell

According to local television news station 13WMAZ, the filming began today at a local car wash, with multiple streets being closed in the area over the next few weeks. Details on the film are a bit scarce at this point still, but as filming continues, we could hear more about it in the future. However, we already know that Michael Keaton will star in the film, who is known for his roles as Bruce Wayne/Batman in the 1989 film, as well as Batman Returns in 1992. The movie will also star Breaking Bad’s Aaron Paul, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter’s Dominic Cooper, and recording artist Kid Cudi.

As for the plot of the new film, IMDb states that Need for Speed will focus on a street racer who was just released from prison as he “joins a cross country race with revenge in mind.” At the same time, an “ex-partner” places a bounty on him at the start of the race. It sounds like a fairly typical plot to a street racing, and we can expect the usual things to happen in the film, such as explosion, cars crashing, and classic manly fist fights to even it all out. The film looks to take on the Fast and the Furious series, which will see its sixth installment release later this month.

The folks behind The Fast and the Furious series have been milking the movies for everything they’ve got, so we’re not expecting much out of this upcoming release. With a release date pegged for March 14 of next year, we have a long way to go before we’ll get to see it, but hopefully it’ll give the street racing movie genre a much-needed reboot, which is something that has been wanted for several years now.

VIA: Polygon

SOURCE: 13WMAZ

Both of these features could be a convenient addition to some users, as it encourages binge-watching while you’re away from home. Of course, watching anything more than an episode of a TV show on your iPhone is enough to make your eyes hurt, so we’re guessing that iPad users will most likely get more use of these new features.

The updated app also improves on its second screen options, as well as comes with the usual slew of bug fixes and performance enhancements. These updates were included in the Android app update that was released yesterday. It wasn’t a big update by any means, but iOS users are now getting the bug fixes from yesterday.

The Netflix app is available for free to download, and it’s compatible on pretty much any mobile device. However, you’ll need to pay $8 per month in order to take advantage of the unlimited streaming. The service’s movie options are bit limited, but you can get access to quite a bit of good TV shows and stream them while on the go.

The news was first speculated after several members of the production crew tweeted about the delay of Jurassic Park 4. Those tweets have since been deleted, but Universal Studios says that the movie, indeed, has been delayed and will be released “at a later date.” However, it seems that the movie will still see the light of day eventually.

Then again, we can’t be too surprised by the delay. A June 2014 release date seemed pretty quick, and while the script is reportedly finished, the production team most likely didn’t feel confident that they would be able to deliver a quality movie by the summer of next year, so it may be another year before we see the next installment come to the big screen.

Of course, while the anticipation of a new Jurassic Park film has us slightly excited, we’re still bitter over the second and third installments in the series, and now that little Timothy is all grown up, we can’t imagine there being a better cast than what we saw in the first Jurassic Park. Nonetheless, we’re keeping our optimism. What about you?

[via Slashfilm]

This clip is joined by a Google Hangout that’s taking place starting at 1pm PDT / 4pm EDT and going forward into the afternoon. This Google+ Hangout holds the heads of the film, Hood and Orci, speaking to select members of the public as well as the star of the film Asa Butterfield. This actor portrays Ender in the film which will be released on the 1st of November this year.

Ender’s Game has also seen the start of a viral campaign that will be ushering in information about the plot and the environment which will hold the characters of this science fiction story. This story takes place in the future, a future where a single alien invasion has set our Earth on high alert, allowing a single government system to keep sway over the citizens of our planet while they train children to become future military leaders. These children – Ender included – are part of a future era of humanity in which kids have the potential to become genius-level thinkers in their adolescence.

The film stars Asa Butterfield, Harrison Ford, and Sir Ben Kingsley amongst many new entrants into the major motion picture world. This film is the first official adaptation of the Orson Scott Card novel Ender’s Game, a book which was born of a short science fiction tale told in the pages of Analog Science Fiction and Fact.

Have a peek at SlashGear’s brief timeline of events that’ve recently lead up to this release and be prepared for a flow of information the likes of which we’ve not seen since Prometheus.

The International Fleet Sentinel is a faux-publication being shown through the micro-blogging website Tumblr. There you’ll find a series of five portals that bring information about the story through blurbs written from the perspective of the space army that is the International Fleet and the world government, graphics included. The first of these is a Mission Statement.

UPDATE: The first full-length Ender’s Game movie trailer has been released – have a peek at it and discuss without end!

Series: Mission Statement of the International Fleet

It’s here that the International Fleet lets Earth know that it remains at the center of the “single, harmonious government” preparing for a potential second global invasion by aliens that were defeated by Mazer Rackham in the distant past. Readers of the book know that this posturing is done for more than just the benefit of the citizens of the Earth’s confidence in their leadership.

“Lucky for us, every human being has preparation on their mind,” reports I.F. Major Gerald Stacks, special negotiations envoy to the nations of Earth. “The leadership of humanity must prioritize interstellar readiness and, to support that, total global cohesion.”

This theme seems to be getting pushed harder than it is in the original book. Perhaps we’ll see more of a “big government crush” than we do in the original storyline. And hopefully more of Peter and Valentine.

Next Leader Recruitment

The application process for Battle School is not that unlike joining the Navy here in the present, only it’s not the recruit that signs away their future, it’s their parents. Gifted children are what Battle School will be pushing through to end up in I.F. Tactical and the Strategic Training Academy.

“There is no greater pride for parents than to see their children achieve greatness, and there is no greater achievement than to protect the survival of our race. The I.F. Tactical and Strategic Training Academies are training tomorrow’s brightest leaders and greatest public servants. Our world needs heroes. Your children are our brightest hope.

These exclusive academies provide a safe place for gifted children to refine their focus and learn the necessary skills to lead our planet in the impending intergalactic war. Prepare our world for the future and prepare your child for greatness today.

Does your child have what it takes? Could your child be the next Mazer Rackham? Apply to the I.F. through your local recruiting office to discuss your child’s government sponsored education.”

Of course these kids wont remain children as such for long. As the story tells us and as we can expect from the film, Battle School gives no mercy to the future battle-hardened members of the military, not for size, not for ability, not at any level. Through this mercilessness, Ender will become more powerful than the coddled child he was on Earth.

Here you’ll see the first teaser for the film, a seconds-long set of mini-clips also making way for the first full-length trailer coming up later today.

Developing a Strategic Mind

Here you’ll find information about the Battle School, where Ender and other future geniuses are sent to develop and become great leaders. It’s not in every plotline that a group of children are given such regard. Here though, the IF has recognized the power of the children of this future generation and will be making full use of it.

Looking Back at the Great Invasion

Setting the viewer up for an understanding of why everyone is so flustered about aliens in the movie, this bit tells of the former great leader of the military in Mazer Rackham. This fellow is, in the story, a major hero and one looked up to as history’s most prominent savior of the human race. The victory he commanded allowed the “Great Invasion” to be stopped and preparations to begin for the next wave of alien opponents.

Thirds

A plot element used in the Ender’s Game story used to single out Ender and prepare him to be a major military leader for the future of the human race. This Thirds announcement lets the world know that though overpopulation has regulated society at large to have only two children per couple of parents lest a special exception be made. Ender is, of course, part of a very special situation, as we’ll find throughout the story.

What the audience will find in this push for the film is an advertisement for an Audi vehicle stocked with infotainment system, light-up bits and pieces, and a presentation that makes Leonard Nimoy’s ride look like a bit of a joke. Of course that’s the point, as the new age – with Quinto, aka Spock from the newest series of Star Trek movies – makes way as the old – Leonard Nimoy, stays cool.

You’ll find Nimoy making reference after reference not just to Star Trek in more form than one, but to his own professional (read: odd) past as well. For an extended period of his vehicle trip in this video he sings a new rendition of the classic “The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins”, a song which he sang for a variety show in 1967 by he name of Malibu U. Because we live in an age where all things digital can be preserved, you’ll be treated to this epic masterpiece as well, right this minute.

Please mind the 60′s pixie women, if you can. Zachary Quinto meanwhile stays par for the course, ready to appear as Spock for the film Star Trek Into Darkness later this month – on the 17th of May, mind you. It’s also rumored that Quinto will be returning to the most terrifying television show of all for another season soon: American Horror Story. Can’t be too silly for that one.

BitTorrent says that two of Sarandos’ statements are not true, the first being that the BitTorrent application is a synonym for internet piracy, and the second being that BitTorrent traffic drops when Netflix arrives in new markets around the world. BitTorrent says that neither of these statements is true.

BitTorrent says that it’s an excusable mistake to connect internet piracy with BitTorrent, but the company claims that it’s addressing the public’s concern with piracy. However, BitTorrent says that many companies use BitTorrent to “preserve terabytes of data,” including Facebook, Twitter, Blizzard, Eve Online, genetic researchers, and even CERN.

As for the piracy correlation that Sarandos mentioned, BitTorrent says that they are not competing with Netflix, and Netflix shouldn’t have to compete with BitTorrent. The company says that they are “actually finding ways to support companies like [Netflix], content creators, studios, and other rights-holders directly.” BitTorrent went as far as saying that they’re “getting ready to roll out an Alpha program” that they believe could drive more traffic to movie streaming services.

The movie eclipses other box office films such as The Dark Knight series, The Hunger Games, and Spider-Man 3. Iron Man 3 beat out its predecessor by almost $50 million during opening weekend, when Iron Man 2 grossed $128.1 million during its opening weekend two years ago, where it ended up grossing $312.4 million altogether in the US.

However, Iron Man 3 is expected to gross a lot more than that. Analysts expect Iron Man 3 to gross a lot more than Iron Man 2, but The Avengers are still expected to keep the lead, where it ranks number three in all-time revenue at $623 million in the US, and comes in at number one in all-time opening weekend revenue at $207 million in the US.

Many would say that Iron Man 2 was quite underwhelming compared to the first film in the series, but with The Avengers being released last year, which featured Robert Downey Jr. playing Tony Stark in the film, The Avengers essentially set up Stark for a threequel that got comic book fans and geeks alike really excited for the next movie in the series.

What you’re going to see here is a major spoiler in the form of a character appearing that, if you’re a fan of the book, you’ll remember isn’t supposed to appear outside of flash-backs and memories. Here he’s shown in the form of Ben Kingsley with a name tag making his role in the movie plain as day. If you’ve never read the book and don’t plan on it, this appearance won’t affect your movie viewing (unless you happen to remember his name when you begin your viewing experience.)

UPDATE: The first full-length trailer has arrived! Have a look!

The rest of the trailer is full of quick flashes of major plot devices like the Battle School and the Battle Room it contains. There you’ll see the big screen’s interpretation of “stars” inside the Battle Room, Flash Suits, and even a recreation of one of the most entertaining moments in the book. What we must assume is that this is Bean, a character that shadows Ender throughout the book and here uses a thin cord to out-maneuver the enemy in a game at the school.

“When the gate opened, all they could see was a large brown star only fifteen feet away, completely blocking their view of the enemy’s gate.

Ender didn’t pause. “Bean, give yourself fifty feet of rope and go around the star.” Bean and his four soldiers dropped through the gate and in a moment Bean was launched sideways away from the star. The rope snapped taut, and Bean flew forward. As the rope was stopped by each edge of the star in turn, his arc became tighter and his speed greater, until when he hit the wall only a few feet away from the gate he was barely able to control his rebound to end up behind the star. But he immediately moved all his arms and legs so that those waiting inside the gate would know that the enemy hadn’t flashed him anywhere.” – Hatrack, from Ender’s Game original story from August 1977 issue of Analog

Have a peek at the timeline below to see other recent sneak peaks, leaks, and straight up teasers from Ender’s Game the movie and follow SlashGear’s entertainment portal for more information on this film as it approaches this winter. The movie itself comes out on the first of November, but given the amount of teaser material we’ve seen thus far, there’ll certainly be a massive amount of buildup between here and there.

Sarandos says that there is a correlation between Netflix launching in a certain country and BitTorrent traffic slowing down in that same region. It’s quite easy to see why, as well. Netflix offers unlimited streaming of a large collection of TV shows and movies for only $7.99 per month. Other streaming services, like Spotify and Rdio for music, also offer similar features for a low monthly cost.

Sarandos says that “people are mostly honest,” and a big reason why users illegally download content is because they can’t get it any other way conveniently and cheaply. For instance, you can buy and rent movies and TV shows from a variety of services, but they’re usually caked with DRM, which is a turn-off to any media junkie.

As for Netflix’s commitment to 4K streaming, there isn’t one just yet. Sarandos says that Netflix will wait until 4K evolves into a format where it can be streamed logically, at which point the company may look into it, but for now they’re only keeping their eye on it to see how 4K unfolds over these next few years.

Frankly, the app is a bit overdue. Over the years, Blockbuster has been on the decline, due to the failure to adapt to a changing world, where streaming movies was becoming more popular than physically renting them. The company released mobile apps, but they didn’t include any streaming component, until now.

The iOS version of the app is similar to the Android version, and unlike Netflix, where you pay a monthly fee for unlimited streaming, Blockbuster On Demand has you paying on a per-movie basis. The benefit, though, is that you get access to a lot of movies that you don’t have access to on Netflix, which is a service that has been lacking a good movie selection for some time now.

Plus, the Blockbuster On Demand app streams movies in high definition with support for surround sound, which would seem a bit overkill if you were to watch films on your smartphone, but you could easily hook up your ipad to a stereo system to boost the sound level a bit, given that any speaker will provide better quality than the built-in speaker on the iPad or iPhone.

While this may come as a shock, it’s common business for Netflix to constantly be evaluating its content and remove and add certain movies and TV shows when it feels that it should. The company says that they aim to be a good programmer rather than a broad distributor. As a result, Netflix will only be serving up the most popular pieces of content, rather than everything under the sun.

However, not all hope is lost, as Netflix will also be adding more content at the same time it will be removing content. New shows and movies that the company will be adding on include ParaNorman, The Hunger Games, Safe, Bachelorette, and Mission Impossible 2, as well as a handful of other titles being tacked on.

Netflix’s four-year contract with Starz ended last year, which saw the end of streaming for movies like Scarface, Young Frankenstein, Toy Story 3, and Gangs of New York. However, Netflix recently signed a contract with Disney, which will see a handful of classic childrens’ movies come to the streaming service shortly.

[via CNET]

Of course while Will and Jaden Smith were part of the conversation to speak about the state of the planet, they sat in front of a poster for the film they’ll be starring in soon: After Earth. This movie takes place in a future where the human race has left the planet in an effort to survive the future in which our Earth has become wild with untold masses of beasts and threats to any humanoid who would dare set foot in their domain.

Because the film wrestles a bit with the idea that our planet might one day be relatively uninhabitable by humans, this opportunity was sought by those involved in the chat to expand the public understanding of the threats we’re under here in real life. Will Smith began the chat speaking a bit about the difference between having grown up in real life Philadelphia where concrete is 80% of the environment and the locations they went to film this movie.

Ray Kurzweil spoke of how humans have recently been shown to have changed biologically in the last 1,000 years, but that his interest was in how we’ll be changing technologically in the next 50, 100, or 100,000 years will bring. Will Smith responded to this saying that even in his career in music, the amount of change that’s happened has been “extremely powerful” – his first two albums were only on vinyl record and plastic cassette tape, for example.

This conversation will continue for a short while this afternoon – join in on the fun! A group of 8th grade students and Google+ users have been offered the chance to speak with each of these advanced minds today – don’t skip this rare opportunity to see these folks speak their minds! Let’s chat!

What you’re about to read may make you cry – it’s riddled with what you might consider spoilers, or what you might consider near-spoilers that simply take the film to a new level of “must see” in your mind. The first big item revealed in the trailer released this week is the fact that the ship you’ve seen crash-landing into the water in previous trailers is, indeed, the Enterprise.

What you’ll find here is the markings of the one and only NCC-1701 A herself plummeting toward the planet Earth. You’ll also see the ship having gone into battle against our newest enemy, finding a much larger ship with essentially the same build facing off against the Enterprise, and that ship rising from the water after its crash. So you know the whole plot by now, right?

This film will be released in just under a month’s time and there, at last, you’ll find yourself seeing the full truth. Have a peek at our Star Trek tag portal for more information on the Star Trek Into Darkness release and stay tuned for the final drop!

4DX movies utilize seats that move, special lighting, equipment to spray scents, blowing air to simulate wind, and even ceiling-embedded equipment for dropping bubbles. The 4DX movies won’t necessarily be shown in 3D, however. Both 3D and 2D options are available, priced at $13 and $10, respectively. The price is on top of regular ticket prices.

Although you won’t come across any 4DX movies in the United States yet – you’d probably be hard-pressed to find someone who has even heard of it – the technology is already in use in many countries, including China, Mexico, Thailand, Russia, South Korea, and several more. The US should begin seeing 4DX-equipped theaters popping up this year, with CJ Group planning to have 200 theaters prepared over the next 5 years.

Korona World will be screening the movie, and has plans to show a dozen titles a year in 4DX. A company spokesman, Tagiki Ishiguro, spoke with The Hollywood Reporter about the planned showing: “It was really a matter of timing that Iron Man became the first title for 4DX in Japan, though we were looking for a blockbuster action film, as that is what works best with the system.”

[via Hollywood Reporter]

We’ve known for some time that there are going to be multiple Star Wars film in the future, including standalone films, but today’s news is certainly a new development. We’ve even been teased with Star Wars Episode VIII, which isn’t announced yet, but there will surely be a move to come after Episode VII.

The Disney films of the movies and the standalone films are said to alternative summers, meaning that Episode VIII would come out in 2017, with Episode IX releasing in 2019. The years in between would be the standalone films that will focus on individual characters in the Star Wars universe, such as Yoda, Han Solo, and Boba Fett.

Star Trek director JJ Abrams is on board to direct Star Wars Episode VII, with the script being written by Michael Arndt, who penned movies like Little Miss Sunshine, Toy Story 3, and Brave. He also wrote the screenplay for The Hunger Games sequel Catching Fire. Several actors from the original Star Wars trilogy are also reported to be returning for this latest movie.

[via Coming Soon]

The entire 79-minute movie is available to watch for free on Funny or Die’s website, and the trailer is below if you want to get a teaser on what to expect. However, you’ll certainly have to have an open mind in order to find it funny or entertaining. It’s certainly not up to blockbuster standards, but it is a comedy website after all.

It’s almost as if the movie is a parody of the upcoming Steve Jobs biopics, but Funny or Die does a pretty terrible job at making it entertaining in some way. Justin Long (who plays Steve Jobs) has always kind of been of a loose cannon, and Jorge Garcia (who plays Steve Wozniak) is slightly bad at the role. However, if you’re expecting to get some stupid-humor out of it, rather than accurate drama like what we’ll see in JOBS, this may be the movie for you.

Justin Long has a long history with Apple, though. He most known as portraying the Mac in the Mac vs. PC ads that use to air all the time on television. These ads featured John Hodgman as the PC, and the two would go back and forth on computer tasks that they could better than the other, with the Mac ultimately winning in the end due to its “cool” factor.

With Citizens of Florence you’ll have such an awesome experience that you’ll forget there’s a show to watch as well! Push your way through a collection of artifacts so lovely you’ll wonder why the app is free. Dive into 24 beautiful environments photographed panoramically right there in the midst of this fabulous visual experience!

NOTE: You can also watch the first episode of Da Vinci’s Demons free right this minute over on Starz – make it count!

And know this: you’ll not be just jumping in without a paddle. You’ll be choosing your own character to explore this environment. Depending on who you choose, you’ll be unlocking bits and pieces throughout Florence as you watch each episode. You’ll find more content than you know what to do with!

-Over an hour of custom video clips from the creator David S. Goyer, Historian – Dr. Findlen of Stanford, and deleted scenes
-Sneak peeks into the next episode of Da Vinci’s Demons
-100+ show elements including artifacts, characters, props and locations
-Exclusive Puzzles and Games
-Da Vinci’s inventions in stunning 360 degree format

Have a peek at this app in the iTunes app store right this minute – it’ll set your brain on fire and invent a way to put it out before you can click on it. Let us know if you’re convinced yet that second screen apps are the way of the future!

In a recent video previewing The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, Peter Jackson slipped in a quick look at what appears to be the cover of the script to Star Wars: Episode VIII. Of course, the video was posted on April 1 (a.k.a. April Fools’ Day), so this could just be Jackson’s own April Fools joke on all of the people who were carefully watching the video.

The reveal occurs at the 4:51 mark in the video, and it happens in a split second. You really can only notice it if you actually pause the video and attempt to see what it is. However, since it was on April Fools’ Day, is it just a funny little prank that Jackson pulled? Or was it a genuine slip-up on his part?

Of course, Peter Jackson isn’t involved in any Star Wars films, but it’s possible that he could be working on Episode VIII, or it’s possible that Disney and JJ Abrams share their work with Jackson, because he’s such an influential movie icon these days. Any input and advice from Jackson always goes a long way.

[via GeekTyrant]

Vdio is also only launching in the US and UK, so those living outside these two regions will unfortunately have to wait a bit longer. However, those who have a Rdio Unlimited subscription will get $25 of credit to use on the new service, and those who sign up within the next 60 days will also get $25 worth of credit to use on Vdio.

The streaming model of Vdio is slightly different than what Rdio’s subscription model is. Essentially, Vdio is more of a competitor to iTunes, where you purchase content individually. However, any movies you purchase, you’ll only be able to watch them on Vdio either through the web browser or through the iPad app, which are limitations not seen on other services.

The service also comes with plenty of social features, including making watch lists and sharing them with friends, as well as being able to collaborate on custom lists by having friends add movies and TV shows into one collective list for certain occasions like parties. The catalog of content currently available is fairly good for being such a new service, and prices seem competitive, with TV shows costing around $3, while movies sell for about $15. Currently, Rdio didn’t mention whether or not Vdio will be coming to more countries, but we’re guessing they’ll focus their efforts on the US and the UK for the foreseeable future.

With its inclusion in Iron Man 3, the ALCATEL ONE TOUCH Idol will be appearing more than once, contests for Red Carpet treatment, RadioShack sales, and more! You’ll be able to pick up your opportunity to win tickets to Iron Man 3 through the company’s official Facebook page or otherwise see the film yourself (if you don’t win) starting on May 3rd – not too far away!

““Being the exclusive mobile phone partner for Marvel’s Iron Man 3 is a good example of the increased popularity of the brand’s premiere Android devices, including the ONE TOUCH Idol and Idol Ultra.” – Nicolas Zibell, President, Americas & Pacific for ALCATEL ONE TOUCH

The ALCATEL ONE TOUCH Idol smartphone itself weighs in at a cool 110g, just 3.88oz, and is extremely thin at just 7.9mm. You’ll be able to rock and roll with HD photos both front and back-side with this smartphone with an 8 megapixel camera on the back and a 2 megapixel camera on the front – HD video included, too. The display on this machine is a 4.7-inch qHD IPS LCD with anti-fingerprint coating – hot stuff!

You’ll be able to pick the ALCATEL ONE TOUCH Idol up in brushed aluminum across a spectrum of colors: Silver, Slate, Cranberry Pink, Red, Magic Blue, and Mint Green! Have a peek at our hands-on looks at this and other ALCATEL ONE TOUCH devices and let us know if you’re pumped up about Iron Man 3!

The feature only works on Android tablets running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich or higher at the moment, but it allows you to pause the movie or TV show and tap on an actor’s/actress’s face, and an info card will pop up toward the side of the screen providing you fun facts and other information about the celebrity.

The info card display information such as age, place of birth, their character in that specific movie or TV show, and their recent work. You can also scroll through the info cards to learn more about the movie itself and even see the soundtrack so that you can know what that song is playing in the background.

The feature is now available for “hundreds of movies” on the Google Play Movies & TV app, and while the feature only works on tablets, Google says they’re working on bringing it to more devices in the future, as well as implementing it in more movies and providing the feature to more users in other countries.

Of course with such plot elements finding their way into the trailer itself, we must assume that Wolverine’s trip to Japan happens rather early in the movie. With the man finding his love in Jean Gray lost in a crumpled photo and and reborn in the woman you Wolverine buffs might recognize, he’s brought to the land of the blood red sun where we’ll certainly be seeing some rather emotional moments. No worries though, there’ll be plenty of sword fighting to be had.

When you dive into the Wolverine story archives, you find a massively expansive timeline and versions of the truth – in the comics, that is. If you’re talking about the film series, we’ve still got a lot of questions about how everything in Logan’s life will have happened – and will happen in the future. With this movie it would appear that those with the rights to the Wolverine name have decided that he’ll survive well beyond the lives of his X-Men pals – we’re not expecting many, if any, crossovers here in this installment.

This may well make for a less-than exciting set of battles in future X-Men-centric films – at least for this particular character. What fun is it if we know he survives?

This film will be hitting theaters in July – this international trailer reveals that internationally you’ll be grabbing your seat on July 26th! Have a heart and see Wolverine chop his way to mortality courtesy of a man with a fabulous set of magical science skills this summer – and let us know how it goes!

This film has had a couple of “moving posters” revealed this week as well. The first shows the man whipping out his claws in a rainy day situation on a street, while the other shows Wolverine discussing his Batman-like stance with the wind. Have a peek first at the louder of the two posters here, then let yourself reflect on how Batman and Wolverine were paired up in the 1990s for a comic series that had them eventually converge into one being – name that comic label!

This much more Dark Knight-like moving poster is the “international” model in which you’ll once again understand that we’re headed to Japan. This fabulous environment will be the place where Logan fights not just with his claws, but with a katana as well. His mind and body and spirit will be tested as well, etcetera, but the blood will be there. Oh yes, there will be blood aplenty.

Finally have at this lovely Vine video and cry because it’s so very, very short. You’ll be able to see the full version of this trailer on the 27th of this month while the movie will premiere on the 26th of July!

You see the hordes of zombies, which act a lot like ants swarming over the environment and people, but the trailer gives you no close ups and no indication of exactly what people are fighting. Another thing that the trailer doesn’t shed any light on is exactly why Brad Pitt’s character and his family are important to saving the world.

It appears as though he may be some sort of soldier or doctor, but that’s unclear. If you watched the first trailer for the film, you may remember the close-up of one of the zombies that many have criticized for being too computer rendered. It looks like the trailer has tried to go more mainstream by not talking about zombies and instead taking a worldwide pandemic feel.

There is good reason for this movie to not talk up zombies. Zombie genre flicks haven’t exactly made huge amounts of money at the box office. The top zombie-themed films have grossed around $100 million at the box office. World War Z reportedly cost over $170 million to make so the film need a big box office take.

[via Screenrant]

According to screenshots taken from a survey that was given to season pass holders and other frequent goers of various Disney parks, the company is asking folks what they would think about a possible “Star Wars themed land at the Disneyland Resort.” Needless to say, Disney may be looking at adding a little bit of Star Wars to its parks, which would be pretty amazing.

Of course, Disney World has been home to the Star Tours amusement ride for some time now, which is a “3D, motion-simulated space flight that launches you into the world of Star Wars.” (Get a feel for it here.) However, it looks like Disney is wanting to expand on that to dedicate an entire section of one of its parks to Star Wars.

Another question in the survey asks people how familiar they are with the Star Wars series, including the characters, settings, and stories, in order to get a feel for how many of their loyal guests know about Star Wars. However, it seems like a pretty obvious question to us, and we bet that as long as Disney built such a park, people will come.

Redbox Instant currently offers around 4,600 titles to choose from, and along with the $8/month subscription, you’ll also get four one-night DVD rentals per month from any Redbox kiosk in the US. Plus, when you sign up now, you’ll get a one-month trial for free, which also comes with four DVD rentals to use at your disposal.

However, while Redbox Instant may be considered a Netflix competitor, Redbox Instant CEO Shawn Strickland says that it caters to different users. He says that the new service is for those who still value physical DVD rentals. Redbox Instant also focuses on movies for now, while Netflix has more of a TV show supplement.

The service is available on Android and iOS devices, as well as a handful smart televisions, including Google TV set-top boxes. It’s also available for the Xbox 360 as a console exclusive, although the service may launch on other consoles in the future. And as usual, you can also watch movies through Redbox Instant’s web interface.

[via GigaOM]

Netflix uses Facebook to connect you with all of your friends that use Netflix, so once you connect your Netflix account to Facebook and agree to share the content you’re watching, you’ll see two new rows show up on the Netflix homepage, one of which is “Friends’ Favorites,” where you can browse through the movies and shows that your friends enjoy.

The other row is called “Watched By Your Friends,” and it consists of movies and shows that your friends have recently watched. It provides a list of all your Facebook friends who are on Netflix, and you can cycle through individual friends to see what they recently watched. This is an unfiltered list, meaning that it shows all the movies and TV shows that your friends have agreed to share.

Of course, you can control what you share and what you don’t want to share, so if there’s a movie or TV show that you watch, but you don’t want to share it with your friends, you can simply click on the “Don’t Share This” button under each item. Netflix is rolling out the feature over the next couple of days, and the company says that all US members will have access to Netflix social by the end of the week.

The 18-week study consisted of 12 countries, and revenues from digital sales and rentals for two movie studios were anywhere from 6% to 10% higher than they would have been if Megaupload hadn’t been shut down. Unsurprisingly, the countries that featured the most Megaupload users were the countries that experienced increased usage in legal downloads.

It’s interesting to note that most Megaupload users would think about just switching to a new service to illegally download copyrighted content, but with the movies and music easier to obtain legally, it seems a lot of users have decided to think twice after the Megaupload shutdown and have switched over the legal means.

Countries such as France, Spain, Mexico, and Belgium saw the most growth in legal downloads, while Canada, Australia, and Ireland saw the least impact. The study suggest that the number of users using legal means of obtaining digital content could rise if studios made their content more readily available.

While the NOOK devices and its services are available in multiple countries, it seems that today’s announcement of new partnerships are exclusive to the US, and financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Other partners announced today include Relativity Media, Little Pim, and Film Buff. Of course, this is another step for Barnes & Noble to compete with Amazon’s Instant Video service and Apple’s iTunes video sector.

Of course, this move is a way for Barnes & Noble to bolster up its NOOK business. While the company is uncertain as to the future of NOOK, it seems they’re wanting to change some things around, and today’s partnerships with several big studios may point the NOOK business in the right direction, but we’ll have to wait and see.

As part of the deal, NOOK users will have access to a handful of new movies and TV shows, including The Hunger Games, the Twilight series, Skyfall, Rocky, Fargo, Flight, Paranormal Activity 4, Act of Valor, Safe Haven, House at the End of the Street, Mad Men, Border Wars, and Amazing Planet. The deal made with Little Pim will consist of foreign language learning for children.

Google’s most-searched Oscar nominee went to Lawrence, and she was also the most-searched as far as red carpet dresses were concerned. Other most-searched Oscar nominees included Lincoln star Daniel Day-Lewis, Les Miserables star Anne Hathaway, Life of Pi, and Les Miserables to round out the top five. Best Picture winner Argo held the number six spot.

As for the Twitterverse, 2.1 million tweets were sent during the red carpet event, while 6.8 million tweets were sent during the awards show itself. By looking at the number of tweets per minute, Twitter was able to see what the hot topics were throughout the show. Argo was unsurprisingly the most talked about, topping out at 85,300 tweets per minute.

Rounding out the top five of the most-tweeted topics during the Oscars included Adele’s performance of “Skyfall” at 82,300 tweets per minute, Jennifer Lawrence’s award for Best Actress in a Leading Role at 71,600 tweets per minute, Adele’s award for Best Original Song at 64,000 tweets per minute, and Anne Hathaway’s award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role at 60,400 tweets per minute.

Inocente tells the story of a 15-year-old homeless girl from California who dreams of becoming an artist. The film’s creators raised $52,527 from a total of 294 backers on their Kickstarter page, narrowly achieving their $50,000 goal. The film ended up winning the “Best Documentary Short” category at last night’s Oscars.

Co-director Seth Fine says that Kickstarter “really helped galvanize a community,” and “it helped fund a bunch of the film and kept us going through post-production. It’s a great outlet for films especially for documentaries.” Other crowd-sourced films, such as Kings Point and Buzkashi Boys, also received nominations for an Academy Award.

While Inocente became the first-ever Kickstarter-funded film to win an Oscar, Kickstarter says that this year’s nominees actually marks “the fourth, fifth and sixth Kickstarter projects to be nominated for Oscars,” with Incident in New Baghdad, Sun Come Up, and The Barber of Birmingham being the first three.

[via Mashable]

The full-length film, based on Relic Entertainment’s real-time strategy series, is about a band of soldiers that are tasked with stopping the Germans from completing their own atomic bomb during the Battle of the Bulge during World War II. The movie will be available on both Blu-ray and DVD, and will include two behind-the-scenes featurettes, as well as deleted scenes.

The movie is directed by Don Michael Paul, who is known for directing a handful of smaller movies, as well as starring in The Island. Company of Heroes stars Tom Sizemore, Vinnie Jones, Neal McDonough, Jurgen Prochnow, and Chad Collins. Sizemore has starred in past war films, including Saving Private Ryan and Black Hawk Down.

Earlier last month, THQ sold most of its assets to other companies, and Relic Entertainment ended up being snatched by Sega for $26.6 million. There’s no word on what will happen to the Company of Heroes video game series, but we at least have the movie to look forward to. Hopefully it’s good, but it probably won’t live up to Steven Spielberg’s and Tom Hank’s own WWII films.

[via Joystiq]

The Ender’s Game movie will be released on November 1st, 2013, and all the way up until then we’re expecting tips and leaks like these to be spread across the internet like a fine fan-friendly butter. This is a great way to go about promoting the film especially since it’s the first time fans of the science fiction text will have ever seen an “official” set of graphics for their beloved story – not counting the comics, in this case. Each of these logos is officially licensed by the film studios and production companies involved.

The logos you’re seeing here play important bits of storyline in the book and what we expect the final storyline in the movie to show as well. With Ender starting with an extremely short stint in Rat Army, we’re seeing that and the army he eventually takes control of as well as another he was a part of – Dragon and Salamander! Asp – on the other hand – is included in “the Authorized Ender Companion” by Jake Black – a text you may own.

Have a peek at each of the logos above and below, clicking each of the images in the gallery below to see them full-size. Let us know if you’re pumped up about Ender’s Game and if you’re going to see the film when it’s out later this year – you know good and well that we’ll be covering this movie right through opening weekend!

Note also that the logos were distributed to Ender’s Game fansites as follows: Ender’s Ansible with Rat, Ender’s Game Fan Site with Asp, Ender News with Dragon, and EnderWiggin.net with Salamander. Gotta catch em all! You’ll be able to follow SlashGear’s coverage of Ender’s Game through the future inside our Summit Entertainment tag portal as well as our Entertainment tag portal – be there!

Thanks for the tip, Darian!

Criterion announced the news via Twitter today as what we’re guessing is their own Valentine’s Weekend promotion. That would certainly make sense, since you’ll be able to sit down with your sweetheart and watch some classic cinema right from your couch while you pour over some wine and maybe even some popcorn for the full effect.

There’s a ton of these movies available on Hulu, so it may be difficult to know where to even start, but Hulu gets you on the right track by showing off the most popular titles, as well as recommended films. They even split up movies into different categories to hopefully guide you to the films that you’ll enjoy the most.

Criterion themselves recommend starting with Breathless, a 1960 film by Jean-Luc Godard about a young car thief that kills a policeman and tries to persuade a girl to hide in Italy with him. If you don’t have any plans this weekend, this might be the perfect time to check out a handful of Criterion films. Granted, you definitely won’t get through all of them over the weekend, but at least you can get a good start for now.