Future Stories

Photo: DC Films During the press event where DC Studios rolled out its planned projects for the future of the DC Universe , new co-heads James Gunn and Peter Safran outlined what to expect—and also what not to expect. The latter includes any chance of seeing Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah ’s cancelled Batgirl   movie. “Batgirl’s a character that inevitably we will include in our story,” Variety quoted Peter Safran as saying at the presentation. “On the Batgirl front, it’s not about late in the process of the film getting canceled. I saw the movie, and there are a lot of incredibly talented people in front of and behind the camera on that film. But that film was not releasable, and it happens sometimes. That film was not releasable. I actually think that [president and CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery David] Zaslav and the team made a very bold and courageous decision to cancel it because it would have hurt DC. It would have hurt those people involved.” The film was pulled duri...

ChatGPT is a large language model AI that is making big waves. The NY Times reports that Google declared a code Red emergency in 2022 to respond to ChatGPT. ChatGPT with Microsoft support is something that could enable the Microsoft Bing search engine to surpass Google search. The new AI Wars are the next stage ... Read more

Frank (Murray Bartlett) in The Last of Us. Image: HBO After its first two episodes, everyone knew The Last of Us was good , but episode three really put things on a whole new level. Titled “Long, Long Time,” the extended flashback beautifully told the love story of Bill (Nick Offerman) and Frank (Murray Bartlett), two men who fall in love and prove that good things are possible in a world where evil lurks around every corner. It’s been praised all over the internet for the past two days but, apparently, there’s more episode to be had. In an interview with Deadline , Last of Us showrunner Craig Mazin revealed that the first cut of the episode was closer to two hours and it was so sad, he hurt himself crying. “It wasn’t until I saw the director’s cut that I knew [we had something special],” Mazin said. “Peter Hoar did his director’s cut with our editor, Tim Good, which was quite long. When they sent it to me, I think it was almost two hours or something like that. So, I was li...

Some oil and natural gas well sites are good locations for economically extracting lithium from produced water, according to observers of the nascent sub-sector of the oil and gas industry. This depends on the basin, since produced water mineral presence and concentrations can vary widely play-by-play, and even within the basins themselves, depending on the ... Read more

James Gunn and Peter Safran, the heads of DC Studios. Image: DC Studios There’s a new DC Universe in town and it’s being run by James Gunn and Peter Safran . Tuesday, Warner Bros. announced the initial slate of projects coming from DC Studios, which will attempt to relaunch and recalibrate not just DC movies, but TV shows, games and more. It includes a new Superman movie, a new Batman movie, and much, much more. The announcement opens up so many questions —and we have some of the answers. io9 was among a group of journalists who spoke with Gunn and Safran about their DCU, and here’s what they had to say about, well, everything. New movies, old movies, new actors, old actors, continuity, you name it. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.   A few titles from the new DCU. Image: DC Studios James Gunn, why did you want to do this? James Gunn: I wanted to take care of these characters. And we all know it’s been a fucked-up road for many of them for the pas...

Holtec International’s SMR-160 (Small Modular Nuclear Reactor) can be a drop in replacement of the boilers at coal plants. Most of the existing coal plants physical assets can be saved and they just replace their boilers with Holtec’s SMR-160 nuclear steam supply system. They will use multi-stage compressors which are capable of uprating SMR-160’s relatively ... Read more

New York, United States, 31st January, 2023, Chainwire BNB Chain decentralized exchange Biswap has published its 2023 roadmap which includes a number of proposed improvements and upgrades. It includes details of a new AMM, route optimization, and perpetual trading.  Take a look at the main Biswap benefits: https://biswap.org/.  A new AMM protocol with concentrated liquidity ... Read more

Photo: Disney Parks It’s perfectly fitting that Mickey Mouse, the icon Walt Disney credits for the start of the Walt Disney Animation studios, is finally getting a ride at Disneyland just in time for Disney’s 100th anniversary. That’s not all; Disney100 is being celebrated at Disney Parks in a big way with two nighttime spectaculars that pay homage to the company’s animation legacy and its modern blockbuster franchises. io9 was invited to attend the media preview of the festivities and to talk to the teams and Imagineers that planned the centennial celebrations. Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway at Disneyland Inspired by the recent Paul Rudish Mickey Mouse cartoons, the centerpiece of Disneyland Toontown’s re-imagining is Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway . The art style for the Disney+ series harkens back to Walt Disney’s classic cartoons—down to its star’s sound, which current Mickey Mouse voice actor Chris Diamantopoulos based on Walt Disney’s original performance. Wit...

Screenshot: YouTube Horror platform Alter first added horror short Laboratory Conditions for Halloween viewing—but it’s so good we wanted to share it anyway. Spider-Man ’s Marisa Tomei stars as a doctor whose hunt for a missing patient leads her to discover an unusual experiment being conducted in a remote corner of her hospital. Directed by Jocelyn Stamat and written by Terry Rossio, Laboratory Conditions also stars Minnie Driver (The Witcher: Blood Origin) and Paolo Costanzo (The Expanse) . Horror Sci-Fi Short Film “Laboratory Conditions” | ALTER | Starring Marisa Tomei & Minnie Driver It’s a bit familiar, but spooky all the same; that cliffhanger is particularly effective. The big-name cast is also impressive, with Tomei bringing a lot of layers to her character—especially when she realizes she’s the only person in the room who can see her patient’s ghost. The official synopsis: “At a hospital, late one night, a physician discovers that one of her patients is missi...

Screenshot: YouTube Let the Right One In —the gorgeously bleak 2008 Swedish movie based on the 2004 Swedish horror novel—is remembered fondly for its unique vampire story, exploring the grim but loving relationship between a girl who thirsts for blood and the man who acts as her protector and prey-snatcher. The Showtime series based on the same story , however, has not proven to be as memorable. Deadline reports that Showtime has cancelled the series after just one season, which streamed its 10th and final episode just over a month ago. The trade chalks this up to the impending integration of Showtime into Paramount+ ahead of a rebranding as “Paramount+ with Showtime,” and the reason for active scrutiny of its current programming. Deadline notes the show “has been shopped to other platforms by Tomorrow Studios,” but also reminds us how long it took for this adaptation to finally heave itself onto the airwaves: “the series originally was set up at A&E and A+E Studios in 201...

Bill and Frank at the piano in The Last of Us. Image: HBO Last night’s episode of The Last Of Us has genre TV fans everywhere buzzing, thanks in part to a certain vintage pop hit. And now, like another specific piece of music before it , the song is seeing a huge surge in popularity. Episode three of The Last of Us was called “Long, Long Time” named after a song of the same name by singer Linda Ronstadt. The song plays a key role in the relationship of survivors Bill (Nick Offerman) and Frank (Murray Bartlett), and comes back later in the episode with Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey), too. Immediately after the episode aired, popular music streamer Spotify reports the song saw a 4,900% increase in plays compared to the previous week. It’s similar to what happened last summer when another popular genre show, Stranger Things , used another period hit song, Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill,” in a memorable episode. That song saw a huge surge in popularity and even...

In the battle between Na’vi and Sith, Na’vi has now triumphed. Image: Disney Too bad no one has seen Avatar: The Way of Water . If they had, maybe it would already be the highest-grossing movie of all time. As it stands though, the little movie that could just became merely the fourth highest-grossing movie of all-time, topping the highest-grossing film in one of the world’s most popular franchises, Star Wars. As of this weekend, Avatar: The Way of Water has grossed $2.12 billion at the worldwide box office. That puts it ahead of the $2.07 billion grossed in 2015-2016 by Star Wars: The Force Awakens , which sits atop that mountain of a franchise. The only films that have now outgrossed The Way of Water are Titanic, Avengers: Endgame,  and the first Avatar . Two of which, obviously, are also directed by James Cameron. Which is just mind-boggling. More so than anything else, this latest in a long line of impressive achievements by Cameron’s latest shows how the popularity...

Screenshot: Paramount Jean-Luc Picard has one more fight left in him—and he needs some help from his friends to make sure he can win it . Paramount has released the final trailer for the final season of Star Trek: Picard , teasing the tumultuous events that will force Patrick Stewart’s legendary TNG Captain to play his last hand. After all, you better need something apocalyptic to get the bridge crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise back together. Star Trek: Picard | Season 3 Official Trailer | Paramount+ And apocalyptic things do indeed look, as—contrary to assurances of the Captain who promises Picard and Riker (the returning Jonathan Frakes) a stress-free adventure—we get to see Starfleet ships blowing up, crashing into each other, and in general the good men and women of Starfleet, our returning heroes included, having a pretty hectic time. And so Worf (Michael Dorn), Geordi (LeVar Burton), Deanna (Marina Sirtis), and Beverly (Gates McFadden) all get back into the Starfleet saddle...

Image: 20th Television Animation Springfield’s sticking around for a little longer, as Fox has renewed The Simpsons more seasons. Revealed earlier in the week, Matt Groening’s animated series was granted a two-season order that’ll run through 2025. If you haven’t been keeping track, this’ll make seasons 35 and 36 for the series; an episode count wasn’t given, but nearly every previous season has had 22 episodes a piece. As of this past New Year’s, the show has aired 740 episodes , and season 34 will return on February 19 to complete its run. Fox also granted two-season renewals to fellow long-running series Family Guy (seasons 22 and 23)    and Bob’s Burgers (14 and 15). Like Simpsons, their episode counts are pretty impressive: Family hit 400 episodes earlier in the month, and Bob’s will hit episode 250 when it returns from holiday break. It’s been awhile since I’ve kept with any of the three shows, but it sounds like all of them have been good with their current ...

Image: Marvel Studios Annie Wersching recently passed away at the age of 45. Per her friends and family, and confirmed by Deadline , the Star Trek and Timeless actor was diagnosed with cancer in the summer of 2020. “There is a cavernous hole in the soul of this family today,” wrote her husband Stephen Full. “But she left us the tools to fill it. She found wonder in the simplest moment. [...] As I drove our boys, the true loves of her life, down the winding driveway and street, she would yell BYE! until we were out of earshot and into the world. I can still hear it ringing. Bye my Buddie. ‘I love you little family…’ “ Born March 28, 1977 in St. Louis, MO, Wersching spent years doing guest roles in TV before landing a main role as Renee Walker on Fox’s 24. More recently, she played numerous characters in the sci-fi and fantasy space, including Emma Whitmore in NBC’s Timeless, Leslie Dean in Marvel’s Runaways , and the Borg Queen in the second season of Paramount’s Star Trek Pic...

Image: Motive/EA Visceral Games’ Dead Space felt like a shot in the arm for survival horror games when it was originally released in 2008. The franchise has always been fondly remembered, so when EA revealed that Motive was working on a remake of the first game, it felt exciting to hear after the series stumbled into retirement with Dead Space 3 in 2013. As you’ve no doubt heard, the remake of the first Dead Space   is very good, and manages to feel like its own distinct thing while building upon the original game. One area in which the remake excels at this is in its immersion: thanks to the sound of Necromorphs skittering around in the vents, hushed whispers echoing throughout the walls and dim lighting, the USG Ishimura is just constantly menacing. Even floating around in zero gravity carries its own sense of terror, whether it’s because something is gunning for Isaac Clarke without him realizing it, or because the moments when he’s in space hovering amidst floating debri...

Image: Nintendo/The Pokémon Company Pokémon cards have always been a big deal, but the last several years have been eventful for the trading card game. Right alongside announcements of new mechanics and updates to how the game is played, the process of getting cards has become a whole ordeal as collectors have looked to snatch up cards and either keep for themselves or sell to the highest bidder . That kind of madness may occur once more, as PokéBeach recently reported that Nintendo’s upcoming card set for the original 151 Pokémon will feature the return of Kadabra. The psychic-type Pokémon hasn’t been featured in any set since the Skybridge set of 2022, which resulted in magician Uri Geller suing Nintendo. Geller is best known for bending spoons, and felt that Kadabra was using his likeness; in addition to being famous for bending spoons in the series’ lore, its Japanese name “Yungerer” is similar enough to Uri Geller. In response, Nintendo removed Kadabra from all post-Skybri...

Researchers are going beyond normal limits of optical resolution by using the best of classical and quantum information. [Above]Results of the joint deconvolution algorithm fusing both classical and quantum information for 2 photon absorption. Insets (A) and (D) are the highest resolution images using classical information (k = 1, q = 4) for a mean ... Read more

Image: HBO/Naughty Dog To no one’s surprise, HBO has already renewed its TV adaptation of The Last of Us for season two after just two episodes under its belt. While the TV show has brought much of the original 2013 game’s story to life thus far, it’s also knowingly taking some fairly substantial divergences or additions to make the universe feel more lived in and keep fans of the game on their toes. The show’s first season is already confirmed to be covering the entire first game, but that’ll be changing for the second season. Following news of the season two renewal, co-showrunner (and the games’ co-director) Neil Druckmann confirmed that The Last of Us’ sophomore outing would be adapting The Last of Us Part II . And speaking to IGN earlier in the month, co-showrunner Craig Mazin indicated covering that particular game wouldn’t be a one-and-one affair. “It’s more than a season’s worth of television, for sure,” said Mazin. “It’s a big animal to take apart, you know? Because...

Image: Netflix Earlier in the week, the news broke that the DC shows Titans and Doom Patrol were simultaneously canceled in the middle of their respective fourth seasons. The two shows were the final holdouts from the DC Universe app that later jumped ship over to HBO Max, and come as the 2010 era of live-action DC Comics shows are gradually winding down before new DC Films co-head James Gunn introduces a new slate of shows and films that’ll be more interconnected. TV shows get canceled all the time, and for varying reasons, but it really does feel like that rate has ramped up within the last five or six years. Sometimes a show that seemed like it has a pretty secure net up and gets got, other times there’s a show that abruptly has its momentum killed before it can get a good speed going . Either way, it ain’t a particularly great feeling, particularly for the shows that don’t really hit their stride until a second season. (Which, honestly, continues to be a good amount of t...

Image: Nicola Scott/DC Comics For years, the Titans have been one of those superhero teams that DC Comics hasn’t entirely known what to do with. The members who’ve defined the superhero team have mainly been locked off to other team or solo books during the “Rebirth” era, or headlined limited books as a way to semi-link up with the recently ended Titans show. But as the DC universe is entering a new dawn , the publisher is putting a more active effort in pushing the team to the big leagues. To that point, Tom Taylor and Nicola Scott are working on a new Titans book whose intended mission statement is taking the team “to the forefront of the DC Universe.” Revealed earlier in the week, the new book will pick up where Taylor and Bruno Redondo’s Nightwing #100, which ended with a new Titans Tower being set up in Bloodhaven. Along with Nightwing himself, the book will be headlined by Raven, Beast Boy, Starfire, Cyborg (who’s also headlining a solo book from Morgan Hampton and Tom R...

Image: Rude Tales of Magic/Fortunate Horse While funny actual-play Dungeons & Dragons podcasts like Critical Role and The Adventure Zone get more attention, I need to make you aware of Rude Tales of Magic . DMed by Branson Reese and produced by Taylor Moore, it’s a comedy podcast first and foremost, and I cannot truly convey how funny it is with mere words—but I can come close. And that’s because Rude Tales of Magic has the greatest Non-Player-Character names of time. My proof? Amber-Ale Assembleaux , Professor Outside , and Natalie Armpits did not make the list. Some of these names could have come straight from a classic Monty Python sketch. Others are hilariously crude. But they’re all preposterous, and offer a small glimpse at why you need to add Rude Tales of Magic to your podcast playlists. Note: To keep the list from being insane, I’ve only chosen characters from the main campaign, played by comedians/artists/mega-talents Ali Fisher, Christopher Hastings, Joe Lep...