Here’s What Kind Of Movies Netflix Wants To Focus On Going Forward
Netflix recently underwent a big change with movie boss Scott Stuber leaving the company and Dan Lin taking over as the top boss for the streaming giant’s film division. Right away, Lin cut 15 jobs and restructured the movie division, and now we’ve learned more about how Lin plans to shake things up as the company looks to the future.
According to The New York Times, Lin’s mandate at Netflix is to “improve the quality” of its movie releases and produce a “wide spectrum of films” at different budget levels to help create more content that can appeal to Netflix’s subscriber base. Another big change is that Netflix is changing how it pays filmmakers–“no more enormous upfront deals,” the NYT reported.
Whereas Netflix previously focused on volume–in 2021, it released a new film every week–Lin’s aim is to make Netflix’s films “better, cheaper, and less frequent,” the report said. Sources also told the site that Lin is asking his team to be more proactive and seek to develop their own content instead of waiting for producers and agents to reach out to make a deal.
In terms of payment changes, NYT reported that these updates have been in the works since before Lin replaced Stuber. Discussions are reportedly underway for filmmakers and actors to get paid based on how a film performs for Netflix instead of a big payment upfront.
Some filmmakers are taking issue with Netflix’s new approach, apparently. The NYT reported that All Quiet on the Western Front director Edward Berger “has been complaining that [Netflix] is demanding budget cuts” on a film he’s putting together with Colin Farrell set to star.
A number of big-name directors who made movies for Netflix did not come back. For example, Martin Scorsese made The Irishman for Netflix then moved to Apple TV+ for Killers of the Flower Moon. Scott Cooper, who made The Pale Blue Eye” for Netflix, is now working with 20th Century Fox on his Bruce Springsteen biopic starring Jeremy Allen White. Not everyone is leaving Netflix behind, obviously, as Guillermo del Toro and Noah Baumbach are making new films for Netflix, and others are as well.
Sources told NYT that Netflix declined to bid on the rights to a new project featuring Millie Bobby Brown, the star of the company’s Stranger Things series and Enola Holmes franchises. Netflix also is abandoning a film from Oscar-winning director Kathryn Bigelow based on the David Koepp novel Aurora, the site reported.
Finally, the NYT report reveals that Netflix chief content officer Bela Bajaria held a meeting with Netflix’s movie staffers where she is said to have informed them that quality needs to improve. Bajaria is also said to have indicated that anyone who wasn’t comfortable with this shift could “want to consider leaving the company.”
One upcoming high-profile and highly anticipated film in the works for Netflix is Happy Gilmore 2, which brings back Adam Sandler as the hockey player with anger issues who becomes a golfer.
The report focused on Netflix’s movie division and didn’t touch on anything related to the company’s plans for its other areas, including TV, live programming, or video games.
Fallout TV Show: See Walton Goggins Transform Into The Ghoul
Becoming a Ghoul takes time. On the Fallout TV show, the character is over 200 years old, and in real life, actor Walton Goggins sat in the makeup chair for up to five hours to transform into the mutant bounty hunter.
Goggins chronicled the extensive process on Instagram–seen below–and gave praise to FX makeup artist Jake Garber. The Fallout show star said Garber “worked his ass off.” While the process started out lasting five hours, “Jake got it down to 1:45-2:15 depending on what movie we were watching (I think this one was The Wild Bunch),” Goggins said. “Everyday he dealt with my anxiety. Everyday he was my friend.”
One intriguing aspect of the video above is how the prosthetics not only cover the face of Goggins, but also a portion of his upper body and shoulders. You can also see the actor eating some food at one point.
Earlier this month, Goggins said he intentionally avoided the Fallout games after getting the role as The Ghoul. Additionally, the actor mentioned that his previous experience appearing in Justified and The Hateful Eight helped him tackle the bounty hunter character on Fallout.
Before becoming The Ghoul, the Fallout character was a movie star named Cooper Howard who first appears in the intro to the Amazon Prime TV series. GameSpot spoke with Goggins about an emotional Ghoul moment from Episode 4 of Fallout.
The Fallout show has led to massive player engagement boosts for the RPG game franchise, including Fallout 4 and Fallout 76. For more, check out GameSpot’s Fallout TV show review. And if you’ve finished the first season, here’s what the final scene may mean for Season 2 of the Prime Video series.
Disney+ Reportedly Planning To Add TV-Style Channels
The Disney+ experience was recently upgraded to include everything from Hulu through the same app if you subscribe to both services. But that may not be the only change coming to Disney+. The Information is reporting that Disney is planning to introduce new ad-supported TV-style channels that have a constant stream of programming 24/7.
The channels in question would follow the F.A.S.T. (Free ad-supported streaming television) model that has been popularized by Pluto TV and Tubi. The Information’s report suggests that the channels will be centered on the major brands of Disney+: Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, and National Geographic. However, there could also be more specialized channels devoted to older and modern Disney shows, as well as genre-specific channels.
Although the F.A.S.T. channel services are typically free to watch, it’s expected that a Disney+ subscription would still be required to watch these new channels. The whole point of adding them is to keep Disney+ users engaged on the platform, especially since the streamer has dramatically cut back on original programming in the last year.
If you think this sounds more and more like cable, then you’re not wrong. Streaming may allow fans to make their own programming lineup, but there’s still a segment of the audience that just wants to turn the TV or computer on and let it play without making any choices. For now, Disney hasn’t commented on The Information’s report.
Rick And Morty’s Dan Harmon Is Writing A One-Punch Man Movie
In 2020, Sony lined up Venom scribes Scott Rosenberg and Jeff Pinkner to co-write the live-action One-Punch Man movie. There hasn’t been much movement on the project since then, but The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed that two other writers are now on working on the One-Punch Man script: Dan Harmon and Heather Anne Campbell.
Harmon is the co-creator of Rick and Morty and Strange Planet, as well as the creator of Community and Krapopolis. Harmon also provided some uncredited additions to the script for Marvel’s Doctor Strange. Campbell is a writer and co-executive producer on Rick and Morty, whose previous credits include Saturday Night Live and the 2019 revival of The Twilight Zone.
One-Punch Man debuted as manga in 2009 by ONE and artist Yusuke Murata. The manga and the subsequent 2015 anime adaptation follows Saitama, the most powerful superhero in the world. He can literally defeat almost anyone by landing a single punch. But Saitama longs for a real challenge to his exceptional strength, and boredom appears to be his greatest enemy.
According to THR, Justin Lin is still attached to direct One-Punch Man, but he won’t be getting behind the camera for it anytime soon. Lin’s next film, Last Days, will begin shooting at the end of this month. And he recently signed to direct Amazon MGM Studios’ crime thriller, Stakehorse.
Nintendo Indie World Showcase April 17: How To Watch And Start Time
Nintendo has announced that it will be hosting a new Indie World game showcase tomorrow, April 17. Here’s how to watch and what to expect.
Start time
The live presentation is scheduled to begin at 7 AM PT / 10 AM ET on Wednesday, and the announcement said that it will last “roughly 20 minutes.” No specific games, announcements, or developers have been confirmed for the event prior to this writing. However, Nintendo’s announcement specified that the games revealed will arrive on Switch in 2024.
How to watch
Audiences who want to watch the Indie World showcase on April 17 live can do so through three ways: Nintendo’s official YouTube and Twitch channels, as well as the official Indie World website. We will also have the stream available right here on GameSpot. Nintendo will upload everything that it reveals, including adding individual trailers for each announcement.
The last Indie World showcase premiered back in November 2023 and featured announcements such as Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution, Moonstone Island, and Outer Wilds: Archeologist Edition.
The one game on everyone’s mind is Hollow Knight: Silksong, and there’s a chance that it might actually finally appear. The game was rated in Australia yesterday and in South Korea in February. Additionally, the Microsoft Store opened a page for it on April 1. While fans have gotten their hopes up in the past, these actions point to a possible reveal at tomorrow’s showcase.
Ex Blizzard Boss Wants To Be Able To Tip Devs At The End Of A Game
Former Blizzard president Mike Ybarra has suggested that tipping culture could benefit games, with some “special” single-player games leaving him wishing he could give more money to developers after completing them. Ybarra noted that “most will dislike this idea,” with many consumers already tired of tipping culture coming to other industries.
Ybarra introduced the idea in a tweet, as picked up by IGN, saying he had been thinking about it for a while as he was playing more single-player games.
“At the end of the game, I’ve often thought, ‘I wish I could give these folks another $10 or $20 because it was worth more than my initial $70 and they didn’t try to nickel and dime me every second,'” Ybarra explained.
“Some games are that special,” he added, listing games such as Horizon Zero Dawn, God of War, Red Dead Redemption 2, Baldur’s Gate 3, and Elden Ring among the games he would be tempted to pay a little extra for.
“I know most will dislike this idea,” Ybarra added at the end of the tweet. “I realize we are tired of ‘tipping’ in everything else–but I view this different from a pressure to tip type scenario many face and give feedback on.”
While some have agreed that it would be a good option to have for some games, most commenters unsurprisingly don’t like the idea of being asked for an extra tip after completing a game. Some gamers pointed out their pockets aren’t deep enough to afford anything more than the price of a game, while some expressed that it would be hard to trust that tips on AAA games would actually go back to the developers who made it.
Tipping culture already exists in some gaming spaces, with game platforms such as Itch.io including an option for tips. It’s also common for makers of fan games and modders to fund their work off tips.
Ybarra’s comments come at a tumultuous time for the industry, with many major companies scaling back–resulting in layoffs, studio closures, and game cancellations. AAA development costs have skyrocketed in recent years, with former PlayStation boss Shawn Layden saying the current state of AAA develompent is unsustainable.
Andor Season 2 Gets Exciting Update From Creator Of Star Wars TV Series
The Star Wars TV series Andor is coming back for its second and final season, and creator Tony Gilroy has now provided an update on how it’s coming together. He told the Writers Guild of America East that he and the team are now “finishing” Season 2 right now.
Gilroy went on to say that he believes Andor Season 2 is the most important piece of work in his entire career.
“I’ve been on Andor for five years now; we’re finishing the second half,” Gilroy said (via GamesRadar). “I’ve had a lot of fun over the years, but I don’t know whether I’ve ever done anything as important as these 24 hours of storytelling that we’re doing now. I don’t know if it’s just because it’s a thing I’m on, but I don’t think so. I’ve never had a chance to work this big before. It’s a pretty big deal for me.”
Filming on Andor Season 2 wrapped in February. According to series star Stellan Skarsgard, Season 2 could be released on Disney+ in late 2024 or early 2025.
Season 2 will advance the story up to the point where the movie Rogue One began, and as such, there will not be a third season. “You know where we’re going. You saw that Death Star blow up. We make that happen,” Gilroy said.
In addition to Diego Luna as the title character, Andor stars Syril Karn, Skarsgard, Genevieve O’Reilly, Denis Gough, and Adria Arjona.
In addition to Andor Season 2, other upcoming Star Wars shows include The Acolyte (which releases this June) and Skeleton Crew (release date TBA). On the movie side, the next Star Wars film is The Mandalorian & Grogu.
Fallout Games See A Massive Player Boost After Show’s Release
Amazon Prime Video’s Fallout TV show has re-ignited fans’ interest in the series, with player-numbers for Fallout 4, Fallout 76, and even Fallout: New Vegas showing a massive increase since the series premiered on April 10.
Industry analyst Mat Piscatella shared the game stats on Twitter, showing how multiple Fallout games had shot up in Steam’s daily active user rankings between April 7 and April 14–before and after the show aired. Fallout 4 moved up from 63rd to fourth, Fallout 76 moved from 54th to seventh, and even Fallout: New Vegas was up there, from 83rd to 10th place.
US DAU Ranks for Fallout games on Steam – Apr 14th compared to Apr 7th:
Apr 14th rank – Title (Apr 7th rank)
5 – Fallout 4 (63rd)
7 – Fallout 76 (54th)
10 – Fallout: New Vegas (83rd)
Source: Circana Player Engagement Tracker— Mat Piscatella (@MatPiscatella) April 15, 2024
The raw numbers on Steam Charts show Fallout 4 peaked around 83,000 concurrent players over the weekend, where previous monthly peaks would only be around 25,000 players. Fallout 76 peaked around 39,500 players, more than double its average monthly peak, and even 2010’s Fallout: New Vegas saw 20,000 players online at once over the weekend.
The numbers seem to be following a similar trend on consoles, with True Achievements’ weekly Xbox games chart showing Fallout 4 at 17th place, after dropping out of the tracked top 40 altogether, while Fallout 76 moved up to 19th place from 40th.
Bethesda’s Fallout series has been relatively quiet since Fallout 76 released in 2018, though Fallout 4, the last mainline entry in the series, has seen enduring popularity with fans. Fallout 4’s major next-gen update, which was delayed from 2022, is finally coming out across PC and consoles on April 25, which will likely see another boost in popularity for the nine-year-old game.
Bethesda is planning to make Fallout 5, though Bethesda hasn’t revealed many details about the upcoming game yet. Todd Howard did reveal recently that he vetoed some plot elements from the TV show, because they were too close to what Bethesda is working on with Fallout 5. Despite the long break since the series’ last major release, Fallout 5 isn’t expected to release any time soon, as it will follow The Elder Scrolls VI.
