The theme for this week’s pop culture news is projects looking and sounding better than expected. We’re very much okay with good surprises.
Streaming television
Just when you thought you were done with the Game of Thrones universe – especially after the bad taste left by the show’s last season, the teaser trailer for prequel series House of the Dragon has been released. And it actually looks intriguing.
Based on George R.R. Martin’s Fire & Blood, the historical fantasy series, which is set 200 years before the events of Game of Thrones, tells the story of House Targaryen and its various rivalries in Westeros. House of the Dragon is coming to HBO Max in 2022. More on the series and its casting here.
In other television news, we have our Claudia. Bailey Bass, who has a key role in James Cameron’s upcoming Avatar sequels, will play the forever-child vampire in AMC’s adaptation of Interview with a Vampire. Bass joins Jacob Anderson as Louis and Sam Reid as Lestat. More here.
Film
Appropriate for Halloween month, we have our first trailer for Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon Caity, the first live-action RE movie to lean hard into its horror game origins. The film stars Kaya Scodelario as Claire Redfield, Hannah John-Kamen as Jill Valentine, Robbie Amell as Chris Redfield, Avan Jogia as Leon S. Kennedy, and Tom Hopper as Albert Wesker. Welcome to Raccoon City hits cinemas from November 24.
Far more highbrow is Cyrano, based on the 2018 stage musical, itself based on the timeless 19th Century romance Cyrano de Bergerac. Peter Dinklage is the title character, who helps his rival-in-love Christian (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) articulately woo Roxanne (Haley Bennett). Atonement, Darkest Hour and Anna Karenina’s Joe Wright directs, so expect loads of visual flair. Cyrano releases in January 2022.
Finally, the cast and creative team for Wonka –which has just started filming – is making us pay attention. A prequel movie that tells the origin of Roald Dahl’s eccentric chocolatier Willy Wonka may sound complete unnecessary. However, Sally Hawkins, Rowan Atkinson, Olivia Colman and Jim Carter are all joining Timothée Chalamet’s title character.
Meanwhile, Paddington 1 and 2’s Paul King is directing from a screenplay he wrote with Paddington 2 co-writer Simon Farnaby, and you know how magical those films are. So there’s a Golden Ticket glimmer of hope that this movie may actually be good. Wonka is currently set for release in March 2023. More here.
Gaming
Of course, the biggest gaming-related news of the past week was the massive Twitch leak. More about that here.
Then there was the release of long-awaited franchise continuation Far Cry 6, and, in other Ubisoft news, the reveal of Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Frontline, a new free-to-play, massive PvP shooter (with full cross-play) set in the Ghost Recon universe. Watch the trailer here.
Finally, this week, the 7-day Steam NextFest came to an end. The event, which celebrates upcoming indie games, spotlighted over 700 titles via demos and live streams. It’s strongly recommended that you jump in to find your own Wish List additions, but these titles caught our eye.
We’ve spoken about Daniel Benmergui and Annapurna Interactive’s Storyteller before, but the already addictive demo has been updated for this puzzle game, where you replicate (or reinterpret) iconic stories by placing characters and components in story panels.
Outliver: Tribulation, from a small team of Nigerian developers, is a third-person survival horror game where a woman soldier ends up in a supernatural realm of African mythology. Demo here.
We feel Exhausted Man profoundly. In this slow-paced action game with ragdoll physics, you play as a tired person who completes daily tasks while rolling around. Demo here.
Also standing out for us are The Forest Quartet, a 3D narrative puzzler about a deceased singer who, in spirit form, must help prepare the remaining members of her band for their farewell concert. Then there’s The Inspector, a short-form first-person adventure about exploring the human mind. Finally, for laid back hidden-object finding – including cats – check out the demo for Hidden Office.