Happy The Rings of Power Day! Amazon’s big budget Lord of the Rings series wasn’t the only thing making headlines this week. Here is a highlights package of confirmed entertainment, gaming and geek lifestyle news from the past five days.

Film

Known best for his parody songs and polka medleys, “Weird” Al Yankovic has lived a surprisingly scandal-free life, which makes the upcoming tell-all music biopic seem like a fun, albeit safe, time. But the man is known for his parodies, so any film has to be a parody in and of itself. And that’s exactly what we’re seeing in the full trailer for Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, which has suddenly moved very high up our “most anticipated films for the rest of the year” list.

Starring Daniel Radcliffe as the accordion-playing Weird Al and David Bloom as teenage Al, Weird also stars Evan Rachel Wood as Madonna, Rainn Wilson as his mentor Dr. Demento in what the synopsis is calling the unexaggerated true story about the greatest musician of our time. Weird: The Al Yankovic Story will be available for streaming on Roku on 4 November, 2022.

DC FanDome is no more. After two pandemic years of delighting fans around the world with an online showcase of upcoming projects, Warner Bros. Discovery is scrapping the digital event. Their focus is returning to in-person event appearances like Comic Con.

In more cheerful news, along with the upcoming big screen re-release of James Cameron’s Avatar in cinemas for a limited time from 23 September, two other blockbusters are returning to cinemas as well.

Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment have announced that, for the first time, audiences will be able to experience two classic, culture-defining Steven Spielberg films—E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial and Jaws—on IMAX. Both films will be released exclusively on IMAX screens in South Africa from 9 September to celebrate E.T.’s 40th Anniversary, and Jaws 47th Anniversary.

Hoping to mirror the success of Prey, the straight-to streaming Hellraiser reboot has finally revealed its first image of the new Pinhead, played by Sense8 star Jamie Clayton. The official plot synopsis for the horror film: A young woman struggling with addiction comes into possession of an ancient puzzle box, unaware that its purpose is to summon the Cenobites, a group of sadistic supernatural beings from another dimension.

Hellraiser will be on Hulu/Disney+ from 7 October. Check out this exclusive Entertainment Weekly article to see more images and learn more about what to expect from this upcoming unnerving release.

Television

It’s a limited series, not a movie, but on matters of first looks, here’s Evan Peters as notorious cannibal serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer in Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story. Monster is coming to Netflix (follow the link for a 9-second teaser) and has been created by American Crime Story and American Horror Story’s Ryan Murphy, with Ian Brennan. There’s nothing campy and over the top about this true crime tale though, which promises to be respectful to Dahmer’s victims, and is likely to debut before the end of 2022.

While Game of Thrones fans are loving the return to Westeros, and HBO confirmed that House of The Dragon will be renewed for a second season after the first episode had barely aired, there’s already a shake-up on the creative team. The surprising news has come in that co-showrunner Miguel Sapochnik is leaving, already. The Hollywood Reporter broke the news of Sapochnik’s departure, confirming that co-creator Ryan Condal will now serve as the show’s sole showrunner and continue to work closely with co-creator George R.R. Martin.

Another show to survive HBO’s recent culling is Harley Quinn, which will return for season four at HBO Max. There’s no release date yet, but we’re all just excited that despite being both an animated title and a superhero show – the two most common on the HBO chopping block – Harley Quinn lives on for another season.

In cancellation news, unfortunately Netflix has decided not to renew their Resident Evil series for another season, leaving Season 1’s cliff-hanger ending, well, hanging. As Deadline reports, Resident Evil debuted to middling reviews from critics and fans (we weren’t overly impressed), and didn’t perform well enough to justify going in for another expensive round.

NBCUniversal and DStv have announced that Universal+ will be available to DStv subscribers across Sub-Saharan Africa from 14 October 2022. Universal+ boasts a selection of shows and movies from channels Universal TV, E!, DreamWorks, Studio Universal and Telemundo. DStv subscribers will be able to stream Universal+ by visiting Catch Up on the DStv App or connected Explora and selecting Universal+.

Gaming

Xbox Game Pass Friends & Family is finally official. The new plan – where one Game Pass membership gives five individual accounts the same benefits – is only being piloted in Ireland and Puerto Rico for now, but we can see how it works before rollout to other regions.

Essentially, everyone on a single Friends & Family subscription enjoys the same benefits as Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, which includes access to hundreds of titles on console, PC and the cloud, as well as the EA Play library of games. Unlike a lot of similar plans, the additional four friends and family members don’t have to live in the same home.

The Friends & Family plan comes at a premium though. Using the Ireland example, it’s €21.99/month, where the current one-person Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription is €12.99/month. In South Africa that is likely to translate to around R200/month while the current Ultimate membership is R119/month.

Now for some Ubisoft news. Coming 6 September (next week!) to PC via the Ubisoft Store is Rocksmith+, the music-learning subscription service that teaches players of any skill level how to play acoustic, electric and bass guitar through their favourite songs.

Rocksmith+ introduces the free Rocksmith+ Connect app, a phone-as-a-mic feature on iOS and Android that will let players connect to Rocksmith+ on PC. The app means that players will benefit from Rocksmith+’s note detection and real-time feedback without the need for any peripherals. The app works with acoustic instruments or electric instruments played through an amp – or players can connect their electric instruments with the Rocksmith Real Tone cable, sold separately.

Rocksmith+ is also coming to mobile later this year.

Meanwhile, because of a leak, Ubisoft has had to announce that yes, their next Assassin’s Creed game is, in fact, set in the Middle East, and called Assassin’s Creed Mirage. We’ll find out more about the game next week on 10 September during Ubisoft’s big showcase Ubisoft Forward. Please note that Mirage is likely to be the next single-player AC experience, and is different from the live service multiplayer game in development, called Assassin’s Creed Infinity.

Lifestyle

Finally, we’re less than three weeks to the return of Comic Con Africa, the first in-person event since 2019. The four-day event is happening 22-25 September at the Johannesburg Expo Centre.

At a Media Briefing this week, the organisers outlined what attendees can expect of “the ultimate pop culture and gaming festival.” In addition to the expected geekery, cosplay, board games, merch vendors and artists alley, CCA will also include specialist convention-within-a-convention areas for KidsCON, StreamerCON and StreetCON.

Of course, a big part of the CCA experience is being able to see and interact with stars and pop culture creators of all types. The full list of Guest Talent, with images and biographies, can be found here, but we’ve got a breakdown below of everyone to date. Just be aware that this list is always subject to change:

Film and television:

Tati Gabrielle (YOU, The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Uncharted)

Ross Butler (13 Reasons Why, Shazam!, Riverdale)

Selwyn Ward (Power Rangers)

Jamie Campbell Bower (Stranger Things, The Twilight Saga, The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones).

International Cosplay Guests and panel judges

Elizabeth Rage (Italy)

Taryn Cosplay (USA)

Leon Chiro (Italy).

Comic Book Artists, Writers and Illustrators

Andrew Lee Griffith (USA)
Bill Masuku (Zimbabwe)
Daniel Govar (USA)
Jason Masters (South Africa)
Karl Mostert (South Africa)
Livio Ramondelli (USA)
Sean Izaakse (South Africa)
Steve Ellis (USA)
Team Kwezi (South Africa)
Tony Moy (USA)
Zach Howard (USA)
Tasia M S (South Africa)
Stephane Roux (France).

Tickets for CCA are R190 per day, or R570 for a full four-day pass. We’ll be there for the final day Sunday, which includes the big Grand Masters of Cosplay contest, and apparently a pretty big announcement about next year’s Comic Con Cape Town in April.