It’s been a distracting, doomscrolling-filled week, but that hasn’t stopped the entertainment machine from running. Here’s the latest news that stood out for us from the film, television and gaming industries.
Film
Nineties kids and adolescents rejoice. The sequel to Disney’s cultishly popular 1993 Halloween comedy Hocus Pocus draws near, complete with a first trailer. Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimy are back as 17th Century witches, the Sanderson sisters, resurrected 29 years after the events of the first film. When the Black Flame Candle is lit, it’s up to three high school students to stop the witches from wreaking havoc on Salem before dawn on All Hallow’s Eve.
Hocus Pocus 2 will stream exclusively on Disney+ from 30 September.
We have a soft spot for throwback style whodunnits, with a star-heavy cast and sense of humour, so consider us interested in See How They Run. Set in 1950s London, world-weary Inspector Stoppard (Sam Rockwell) and eager rookie Constable Stalker (Saoirse Ronan) investigate a murder in the West End theatre district.
See How They Run arrives in cinemas this September.
Marvel Cinematic Universe filmmakers, and action thriller masters, the Russo Brothers have their next project. They’ll be directing Stranger Things’ Millie Bobby Brown in an adaptation of striking, illustrated sci-fi novel The Electric State – for Netflix.
The synopsis of Simon Stålenhag’s acclaimed book: In late 1997, a runaway teenager and her robot companion travel west through a strange American landscape where the ruins of gigantic battle drones litter the countryside, along with the discarded trash of a high-tech consumerist society addicted to a virtual-reality system. The Electric State has been described as “Ready Player One meets Black Mirror.”
Your movie news tidbits:
- Dune: Part II has a new release date: 17 November 2023.
- Emma Roberts has joined Dakota Johnson, who plays the title character, in Sony’s Spider-Man spin-off Madame Web.
- Check out a fresh set of images from the Barbie movie, featuring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling in blindly lumo rollerblading attire. It’s VERY 90s Tropical Barbie.
- Empire Magazine debuted the first images of Kate Winslet as motion captured Na’vi warrior Ronal in James Cameron’s loooong-awaited sequel Avatar: The Way of Water.
Television
Need some more Stranger Things-esque retro weirdness in your life? Based on Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang’s comic series, there’s Paper Girls. It’s the day after Halloween in 1988 when four 12-year-old newspaper delivery girls stumble into an intense time war and find themselves inexplicably transported to the year 2019, where they encounter their adult selves. Our young heroines must find a way back to the past while saving the world of the future, and contending with their unexpected lives to come.
Paper Girls debuts on Amazon Prime Video on 29 July.
Also in series news this week:
- Another notable name joins Amazon’s adaptation of Fallout, the retrofuturistic post-Nuclear Apocalypse game series: Kyle MacLachlan.
- Netflix’s upcoming series, set in the unusual post-apocalyptic universe of PlayStation’s Horizon video games, has a title: Horizon 2074. Fans will know where that falls on the franchise timeline, but there’s more non-spoilery info here. In short, the series will be set 1000 years before the events of Horizon Zero Dawn.
Gaming
Sony is making PC gaming accessories again, but what really caught our attention this week were three standout trailers from a packed Nintendo Direct Mini:
From developers Casus Ludi and publisher Gearbox Publishing, Blanc is a textless cooperative adventure that follows the journey of a wolf cub and a fawn stranded in a vast, snowy wilderness after a storm. The pair must work together to navigate an environment of unforgiving weather and treacherous obstacles to reunite with their families.
Featuring couch co-op and online play, Blanc comes to PC and Nintendo Switch in February 2023.
Coming 2023 to Switch and PC (via Steam) is surreal adventure mystery game Lorelei and the Laser Eyes.
From Simogo, known for the critically acclaimed Sayonara Wild Hearts, and indie publishing powerhouse Annapurna Interactive, Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is a non-linear dream-like experience, where players join a woman wandering a baroque manor in search of answers to a macabre murder. Along the way you’ll meet strange characters, and search for meaning in hidden patterns and mind-bending enigmas.
Remember the surprise announcement back in April that the Monkey Island series of beloved point-and-click adventures was being revived – with the involvement of series creator Ron Gilbert? Return to Monkey Island’s new gameplay reveal trailer shows players what to expect as hero Guybrush Threepwood, adrift and unfulfilled, returns to his dream of finding the Secret of Monkey Island. Clever puzzles, bizarre situations, and banter await.
Published by Devolver Digital, Return to Monkey Island comes to PC and Nintendo Switch later this year.