Where To Preorder Bluey: The Videogame

Lord of the Rings fans will have to wait until 2026 before they can get their next franchise film, The Hunt for Gollum, but the name has already been applied to a couple of things within LOTR: an expansion set for The Lord of The Rings: The Card Game, and a beloved fan film from 2009–which you can watch now!

The Hunt for Gollum is based on the appendices of J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings centering around Gandalf the Grey sending Aragorn to find Gollum, fearing the creature may reveal information to Sauron about the location of the One Ring. Check it out below.

The film was shot in high-definition video, with a budget of $5,000, or $3,000 GBP. The production is completely unofficial and unauthorized, though director Chris Bouchard said he had “reached an understanding” with Tolkien Enterprises in 2009. The formal disclaimer opens the film and acknowledges the situation.

“Gandalf and Aragorn renew their hunt for Gollum at intervals during the next eight years, searching in the vales of Anduin, Mirkwood, and Rhovanion to the confines of Mordor,” The Return of the King, LoTR Appendix B, The Tale of Years: The Third Age reads. “At some time during these years, Gollum himself ventured into Mordor, and was captured by Sauron.”

The Hunt for Gollum debuted at the Sci-Fi-London Film Festival and online back in May 2009 and currently has more than 13 million views. There are no details yet of what the Andy Serkis-helmed Gollum-centric movie has in store, but it’s possible it could be similar to the fan film.

Everyone wants to know when Nintendo is releasing its successor to the Switch, but details are thin on the ground. Recently, some industry observers concluded that Nintendo is unlikely to release the “Switch 2” (as we’re calling it) before April at the earliest, because president Shuntaro Furukawa told investors that its current sales forecasts do not include a new console.

However, as Daniel Ahmad–director of research & insights at Niko Partners–argues, such indications don’t mean much. He cites Nintendo’s forecasts from 2016, opining that while Nintendo did include forecasted Switch sales in its forecast for 2017, the release date for the original Switch was already public at that point. Since the Switch 2 release date is obviously still a secret, it’s possible that Nintendo could add such numbers to its forecast at a later date. However, we really don’t know one way or another–a point that Ahmad emphasizes.

Switch 2 rumors started swirling earlier this month when Nintendo confirmed that its new console would be announced this fiscal year, which ends in April 2025. So, regardless of when the release announcement finally happens, it’s sure to be less than a year, at least according to the current plan. Don’t get too excited, though, as the company did confirm that its June Nintendo Direct will not feature the new console.

Orlando Bloom’s professional acting career started with a bang, as he landed the role of Legolas in Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings series, a part he’s still best known for to this day. Bloom didn’t originally audition for Legolas, though. Instead, he first tried out for the role of Faramir.

Speaking to Variety, Bloom said it wasn’t until later in the casting process that he became associated with Legolas.

“I had auditioned to play Faramir. I think they were probably just sifting through London and all the cities around the world to try to find these characters. I guess I probably fit the blurb of Faramir at the time. But then I got a callback to put myself on tape initially for Legolas,” he said. “And I got another callback to meet Peter and Fran, who had come to London. And then I waited–I was at drama school. The rest is history.”

The role of Faramir was played by Australian actor David Wenham, who turned in a memorable performance as the brother of Boromir (Sean Bean). Faramir had a complicated relationship with his father, Denethor (John Noble), and Faramir’s scenes were some of the saddest and most somber in the entire trilogy.

As for Bloom, he remarked that Legolas was a “remarkable” character to play and that he felt “huge pressure” to do a good job. Not just because it was one of his first movie roles, but because the character was so beloved by fans.

“The character I knew was very beloved within the books and one of my favorite characters in the books when I read it. So I had this sense of wanting a deep desire to land the character correctly at least for the fans of the books,” he said.

Bloom appeared in numerous high-profile movies early in his acting career. In addition to Fellowship of the Ring, he showed up in Black Hawk Down the same year (2001) and then came back as Legolas in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers in 2002, and then again in 2003 for Return of the King. Also in 2003, Bloom starred as Will Turner in the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie, which would spawn multiple sequels. In 2004, Bloom starred as Paris in Troy, but the actor has since said he didn’t want to be in that movie.

Warner Bros. Discovery is now making two more Lord of the Rings movies, the first of which is in the works under the working title The Hunt for Gollum. Andy Serkis, who played Gollum in Jackson’s trilogy, is directing the 2026 film and starring in it as Gollum once again.

The Dark Knight returns to TV screens later this year, and you’ll want to prepare yourself because things are about to get weird. Batman: Caped Crusader premieres August 1 on Prime Video–it was originally as an HBO Max series in 2021 before it was passed over–and will see Batman fighting crime in a ’40s-set period of Gotham. With Batman: The Animated Series co-creator Bruce Timm serving as executive producer, this series is aiming to be a different take on Batman.

Compared to the 1992-95 animated series, there won’t be computers or other high-tech gear for Batman to rely on, as he’ll be limited by the technology of the period. “We decided to really lean into that in terms of the clothes, the cars, the architecture, and the level of technology,” Timm said to Entertainment Weekly. “Early on, we decided there would be no computers and no cell phones. That changed everything.”

Also different is Batman’s psychology, as Timm described him as being a “really weird human being” who is Batman 24/7. While other Batman media has explored the duality of Batman and Bruce Wayne, Caped Crusader will instead portray the character as Batman inside and out. The Bruce Wayne who appears in public is Batman’s real mask, a persona where he pretends to be someone that he isn’t. And when Batman does hit the streets, expect a more mysterious incarnation of the Gotham vigilante that hasn’t been seen on TV before.

“The idea was to keep him so removed that no one knows who he is, and no one knows what he’s about,” character designer James Tucker added. “We try to wipe out the foregone conclusion that he’s a hero, whether it’s for the police, regular citizens of Gotham, or the viewers.”

Batman will square off against some familiar enemies, but they’ll also be inspired by the original Bob Kane and Bill Finger comics. Catwoman is once again dressed to kill with her costume, while Clayface is a nod to classic horror movies with his design. Caped Crusader will also see a radically different version of Harley Quinn, one who isn’t defined by her relationship with the Joker and is now an Asian American person. A Gotham City psychiatrist by day and a jester-themed supervillain at night, Harley Quinn has weaponized her psychiatric skills and is the inverse of the character’s usual portrayal in film and TV.

Her daytime persona is more whimsical and fun according to Timm–who co-created her alongside Paul Dini for Batman: The Animated Series–but at night she’s described as scary and more serious.

Microsoft’s shuttering of four of its game studios earlier this month prompted a barrage of negative responses from around the games industry. In a recent town hall, head of Xbox Game Studios Matt Booty made a curious comment, according to The Verge: “We need smaller games that give us prestige and awards.”

Some developers on the call expressed surprise at this statement, given that it recently shut down several studios that have a track record of doing just that. For example, last year’s Hi-Fi Rush won many awards from a variety of sources, including Best Audio Design (The Game Awards), Best Audio (Developers Choice Awards), and a BAFTA for Animation.

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