News

One amazing thing about video games is that many of them over the years are still playable today. If you're someone who has ample time to make for delving into retro gaming and loves sci-fi, there are a myriad of excellent albeit obscure titles from the 2000s that might tickle your inner geek.

Related: 10 Terrifying 90s Video Games That Are Still Scary Today

Titles such as Shadow Run, Deus Ex, Beyond Good and Evil, and Dino Crisis 2 might have gained cult status over the years, what with announcement and releases of sequels of some of these, but back when they were released, they were considered to be obscure.

Solstice to finance, distribute in the Us, and handle international sales.

Solstice Studios, whose Unhinged is scheduled to open in Us theatres on July 31, has partnered with Fast and Furious producers Original Film on action thriller Shadow Run.

Joe Gazzam wrote the screenplay about a CIA agent who captures a Russian spy who killed his wife and is ordered to oversee a swap involving the operative.

Stuck with the man he believes to be his mortal enemy on the dangerous trade, the American and Russian find themselves the target of people who want them dead.

Original’s Neal H. Moritz and Toby Jaffe are producing,...

Solstice Studios is partnering with Fast and Furious producers Original Film on the original action thriller Shadow Run by Magnum P.I. and upcoming Cliffhanger reboot scribe Joe Gazzam.

Shadow Run tells the story of a CIA agent who devoted five years of his life to capturing the Russian spy who killed his wife. His triumph turns into a nightmare when he’s told that, not only is America trading the spy away – but he’s been assigned to make the swap. Now he’s stuck with his mortal enemy on an off-the-books “shadow run” where nothing happens as planned and everyone is trying to kill them.

Original’s Neal H. Moritz and Toby Jaffe are producing, with Solstice Studios’ SVP of Development and Production Beth Bruckner O’Brien and Creative Executive Leah Bleich overseeing the project. Solstice will finance and distribute the film in the U.S. and handle foreign sales.

One would think that because the roots of comic book heroes are deeply planted in the forest of pulp heroes, adapting such characters to the four-color medium should be a snap. Despite the superlative efforts of such talents as Garth Ennis, Frank Robbins, Eduardo Barreto, ComicMix’s own Denny O’Neil and a handful of others, this is not the case.

Let us politely say that, overall, pulp heroes have enjoyed a mixed reception. Some good, some bad, some wonderful, some insipid. Sturgeon’s Revelation remains in complete control.

In making the transition, some people resort to measures that put these characters in modern times. Usually, that trick doesn’t work: The Shadow, The Spider et al are creatures of their own times. Sometimes they become something different – in the 1960s Archie Comics turned The Shadow into a routine, and boring, costumed superhero. At least the guy who wrote most of it,...

Sony has picked up up Shadow Run, spec from scribe Joe Gazzam. The action is put in motion when a viral attack puts lives in danger, forcing a CIA agent to enact a secret prisoner exchange of Russia’s most notorious spy for the American scientist who can create a cure. It has been described by one source as "Safe House on a plane." Safe House was the hit Universal thriller that starred Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds as a fugitive and a CIA agent forced to team up to stop a conspiracy. Neal Moritz, who has a first-look

read more...

Exclusive: Sony Pictures has just won a bidding war involving multiple studios for the Joe Gazzam script Shadow Run, an action thriller in the vein of the Bourne movies that will be produced by Original Films and Hernany Perla. The logline is being kept under wraps but I’m told the deal was for high six figures. Gazzam is repped by Paradigm and Industry.

In an interview with Ausgamers, Microsoft’s corporate vice president Phil Spencer has hinted toward the possibility of cross-platform play on the Xbox One. Specifically, Spencer addressed the potential to pair the console with the PC platform; linking the two communities together under one gaming ecosystem. In fact, the company’s VP believes that “[the connection] makes sense.”

“This connected ecosystem across all the different devices is definitely where I think the future of gaming is going; you don’t have to do it as a developer. But you have the capability and I think a system like Xbox Live across all those screens where you know who someone is and who their friends are, what their Achievements are and their progression is really critical to that.”

Given the Xbox One’s PC-esque internal architecture, the pairing isn’t exactly outside the realm of possibility. The company has been establishing dedicated cloud-based...

Join us this week as we gab about all the hoopla around a certain game called GTA V. Don’t fret though, non GTA lovers, because we’ve got you covered with a bit of Foul Play, a tense game of Knock Knock, and a touch of survival with Lone Survivor. We also welcome Mitch Gitelman from Harebrained Schemes, maker of Shadow Run Returns, on the show to talk about their new Kickstarter for Golem Arcana. We round out the show with some adorable game-inspired art by Joey Spiotto, some awesome Big Barda and Wonder Woman cosplay by Golden Lasso Cosplay and Rileah with photos by Cesar Vivid Photography, and a look at video game tech support by GamesRadar. Last but least, make sure to check out the fantastic General Grievous Sixth Scale Figure. Enjoy the show!

In the latest episode we talk about Suda 51 and the design process behind his games and characters, which doesn't exactly sit well with JDot. We also cover some of the fallout from the abrupt cancellation of Fez 2, the newly announced Tomb Raider comic by Gail Simone, JDot's recent Steam spree, my experience so far with Shadow Run Returns, and for Colartibles we spotlight the Hot Toys Exclusive Mandarin Mansion Assault Tony Stark, and instead of Kickstart This, we highlight the other side of the coin with a project that went belly-up (lets call it Don't Kickstart This). Finally we bring things around in our Just For The Hell of it segment with the Wonder Woman short film First Impressions. Hope you enjoy the show!

 

Join us this week as Knight and JDot go over the much discussed Women vs Tropes Episode 1, as well as the new Thief, Tmnt, Shadow Run (and my awesome idea for a custom campaign), and a colartibles segment full of Grimlock, Donatello, and sweet Iron Man Nikes. We top off with some Sim City discussions and where it went wrong. Hope you enjoy the show!

In a post-pax Prime progress report, developer Harebrained Schemes showed off some of the visuals featuring street ninjas, deckers, meta-humans, and the rain-slick streets of a cybermagic Seattle area.

Among some of the details revealed in the post: why the team chose a blend of 2D/3D visuals for the upcoming reboot, handling character customization using 3D models, and how the game will handle day/night cycles (it won't be dynamic). What Harebrained Schemes is showing off now isn't actually in-game, but instead assets manipulated and tweaked in Photoshop to give us a sense of what they've been up to.

You should really head over to the post to check out what they've been building for their tactical RPG for PCs, Macs, and tablet devices, and after the jump we've included all of the images for you to peruse.

Shadow Run Returns will be available in 2013.

[Source: Harebrained Schemes]

Related posts:

--

Follow...

Film-maker associated with Michael Caine

The film director and producer Geoffrey Reeve, who has died aged 77, contributed polished examples of mainstream British cinema in a variety of forms over several decades.

He was born in Tring, Hertfordshire, the son of a compositor who would cycle each day to the printworks in nearby King's Langley. A bright pupil at the local primary, Reeve won a county council scholarship to Berkhamsted school where he excelled in sports, academic subjects and school plays. He was also a notable chorister, an experience he would put to good use for the subplot of the film Shadow Run 50 years later.

After national service with the 7th Royal Tank Regiment in Hong Kong, he went to Exeter College, Oxford, in 1953 to read law. His singing voice and his gift for comic acting made him a useful addition to Oxford's drama and revue companies, and he was apparently...