Warner Bros. Pictures Release New LEGO Batman Movie Poster…And It’s Not An Untitled Self Portrait

Warner Bros Pictures released a new poster for The LEGO Batman Movie on Saturday:

Batman Day was first introduced to celebrate Batman’s 75th anniversary in 2014 and has since become an annual tradition among comic book fans. Batman Day is currently in its third year and was celebrated across the world on Saturday through Batman-centric offers, free comic books, talent signings and other Batman news – such as the first look at J.K. Simmons as Commissioner Gordon in next year’s Justice League (which can be seen in fellow Skatronixxx writer Maxwell Honour‘s article).

In my opinion the most exciting movie to star the legendary caped crusader next year though is The LEGO Batman Movie. I loved The LEGO Movie for its sheer creativity and amazing style of stop-motion movement mixed with CGI animation, so I’m hoping The LEGO Batman Movie offers more of the same. It has a strong voice cast, with Will Arnett reprising his role as LEGO Batman, Ralph Fiennes as Alfred, Michael Cera as Robin, Zach Galifanakis as The Joker, Rosario Dawson as Batgirl and Mariah Carey as Mayor Marion Grange.

The LEGO Batman Movie is due for release on the 10th February 2016.

Jeremy Clarkson’s The Grand Tour Gets New Trailer And Release Date

A new trailer has been released for Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May’s new motoring show The Grand Tour, revealing the release date for the series’ first episode:

 

The series will air every Friday starting from the 18th November exclusively on Amazon Prime. The Grand Tour has been produced by the former executive producer of Top Gear Andy Wilman. The show will tour many places around the world; the first episode will see the famous Top Gear trio of Clarkson, Hammond and May in a studio tent in California.

Jeremy Clarkson said of the series: “We’re all really excited. No-one telling us what we can and can’t do, just us hopefully producing great programmes. Amazon has been delightfully clear on that. ‘Just make the show you wanna make, guys.’ Music to my ears,”

Here’s hoping Chris Evans doesn’t come anywhere near this series anytime soon…

LEGO Dimensions Releases Ghostbusters 2016 Story Pack Trailer, But There’s No Sign Of Mike Hat

LEGO and Traveller’s Tales are set to add a whole bunch of new franchises to LEGO Dimensions this year, including Harry Potter, E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial and Knight Rider but to me there’s none more exciting in year two of the toys-to-life game than Ghostbusters (2016).

The 2016 Ghostbusters reboot is to feature in the form of a Story Pack – a new type of add-on extension for the game that adds six new levels and comes with a minifigure, a vehicle/gadget and a fancy new facade for the portal. The Ghostbusters (2016) pack includes Abby Yates, the new Ecto-1 and Zhu’s Chinese Restaurant. Yesterday LEGO released a trailer on Facebook showing off the Ghostbusters (2016) content:

One interesting thing to note is that it looks like you can visit Zhu’s Chinese Restaurant (which acted as their first headquarters) in the Adventure World. LEGO have said that you will be able to enter more interiors in year two’s hub worlds so it is possible that you will be able to explore the headquarters and perhaps even say hello to their receptionist Kevin.  The trailer also shows one of the builds for the Ecto-1, which looks rather…unusual:

Something that isn’t featured in the trailer that I would like to see is what happens if you place Peter Venkman and Abby Yates on the portal at the same time. It would be fun if they had some form of interaction – for example, if Abby Yates mistook Peter for Bill Murray’s skeptic Martin Heiss – but it all depends on whether they have managed to get Melissa McCarthy onboard to record new lines. Hopefully she has agreed to reprise her role as Abby for the game, although archive audio is always a welcome alternative (something that Twentieth Century Fox oddly wouldn’t allow Traveller’s Tales access to for any Simpsons character who isn’t voiced by Dan Castellaneta).

The Ghostbusters (2016) Story Pack will be released on Friday 30th September priced £31.99.

 

Gamer Flashback – Mario Party DS

In my view the Mario Party series gets a lot of unfair hate. Yeah, recent entries in the series haven’t been quite up to its usual standard but it’s always a good way to pass the time on long journeys – particularly if the ‘long journey’ is a five hour bus trip to London.

Which brings me onto one of my most fond gaming memories. I was sixteen. It was an early Monday morning, I had signed up for my Secondary school’s annual three day trip to London and I was feeling a little anxious. This was the longest trip I had ever gone on without family and I have a mental condition known as autism, which means I can struggle with changes to everyday routine. As I nervously sat on the coach, my friend in the seat next to me took out a game that helped me feel much more relaxed: that game was Mario Party DS.

The friend in question has a more extreme case of autism to me, the result of which meant I was one of his only friends. Many of us with autism struggle with communication skills and therefore find it hard to make new friends, which can be made hard by a lack of understanding from many in why we react differently to them in certain situations. Mario Party DS was like our comfort if you will, away from the social activity occurring on the bus of students as it made its journey towards the capital.

The great thing that sets Mario Party DS apart from its successors is its sheer simplicity. There’s no vehicle or Bowser Party. Just you, a dice and a game board – with a few minigames thrown in. As with a standard board game, you take it in turns with the other players to journey across the board however many spaces rolled on the dice. The game ends when a certain objective is complete. In Mario Party DS, the objective is to collect the most stars after a decided number of turns: you can choose between 10, 15, 20, 25 or 3o rolls of the dice. Mario Party DS is therefore a game that is accessible on a trip of any length: just want to play on your standard ten minute car journey? No problem: opt for a ten turn game. On a long train journey to a holiday destination? 30 turns should satisfy your gaming needs.

And if you’re worried that a 30 turn game will result in encountering the same minigames: fear not, this edition of Mario Party boasts an overwhelming collection of 73 minigames. This meant me and my fellow autistic friend had plenty to play through on our five hour bus journey to London. Such a variety of minigames on offer too: from a game where you speed down a handrail on a leaf (Rail Riders) to surfing on bars of soap in a bathroom sink (Soap Surfers). My favourite minigame was Camera Shy: a game where you run around a maze trying to take pictures of your opponents. The first player to capture photographs of the opposition wins. The controls of the minigames are extremely simple, ranging from sweeps of the stylus across the Nintendo DS’s touchscreen to speaking into the handheld’s built-in microphone – or in the case of Camera Shy, simply pressing the ‘A’ button to take a picture. If you want, you can use the Minigame Mode to play six minigames on their own without a board – but that’s not nearly as much fun.

Then there’s the Puzzle Mode (with six puzzle-action games including classic Mario Party games such as Mario’s Puzzle Party from Mario Party 3 and Bob-omb Breakers from Mario Party 4) and Extras Mode ( a two-player exclusive where you play minigames designed for two people). We didn’t play these modes on our bus journey as they didn’t appeal to us as much as progressing through a board but it’s nice when a game offers such a variety of features.

Mario Party DS doesn’t really need them though. Its main mode is addictive enough. You see, you don’t need pointless gimmicks (Mario Party 9) or endless minigames (Mario Party Island Tour) to provide an enticing party game. What you really need at its core is simplicity: just the player, a dice and a board. That’s my kind of party.

Oh, and if you want to know which Super Mario character I opted for, I decided to play as Yoshi. My friend was more traditional in his choice: he played as Mario, which admittedly makes more sense given that the game is called Mario Party and not ‘Yoshi Party’.

‘Rose Tyler. I was going to take you to so many places….’ – Christopher Eccleston Regrets Leaving Doctor Who

Christopher Eccleston is known among Whovians for being famously negative about his experience playing the ninth Doctor in Doctor Who’s first series since the 1996 TV Movie  – so it perhaps comes as a surprise to many that he now regrets leaving the show.

Speaking to Raf Epstein on 774 ABC Melbourne radio show Drive in Australia, Christopher Eccleston revealed ‘There’s always regret when you play a role like that, because what you do is you – I watched it back and I thought, OK, next time don’t do this, do that, you know, calibrate the performance. It was kind of tragic for me that I didn’t play him for longer, because you know, he’s a beautiful character and I have a great deal of professional pride [in it] and had I done a second season, there would’ve been a marked improvement in my performance. I was learning new skills in terms of playing light comedy, etc, etc. I was not known for light comedy, and again production did not allow for that. It’s very important on the first series that you make a very informed and intelligent choice – even if it means breaking the budget – about getting the first director who is going to set the tone for the season, for the way the actors relate, and that did not happen. Disaster. But the show has survived. Thank God. And Capaldi, and Matt, and David – are just brilliant. And I know how brilliant they are, because I’ve been inside it.’

Christopher Eccleston is the second shortest-lived Doctor, after only playing the role for one series. Paul McGann, meanwhile, only played the Doctor for a TV Movie and later reprised the role in the 2013 minisode Night of the Doctor. He has also recorded numerous audio dramas for Big Finish so it is possible that Christopher Eccleston could follow in his footsteps and star in some new audio adventures for the ninth Doctor.

It certainly seems a lot more likely that Christopher Eccleston could return to the role than it has done before. In 2011 when asked by Graham Norton on BBC Radio 2 whether he would return to the show Christopher Eccleston said ‘No. Nether bathe in the same river twice’. Recently however he has been confirmed to return for a second series of The A Word so it seems his principles have changed in regards to reprising past roles.

The first series of Doctor Who’s 2005 revival can be bought on DVD for £11.99 and Blu-ray at £24.99. It is worth noting however that the Blu-ray release is an upscale and therefore not true HD. This is because Series 1 wasn’t filmed using High-Definition cameras.

Captain Cheesecake Is Getting A New Spinoff! – Big Finish Announces The Lives Of Captain Jack

Okay, first thing’s first: Captain Cheesecake? Mickey Smith‘s words, not mine (see the Series 4 episode Journey’s End).  Captain Jack is actually one of my favourite Doctor Who characters and I’m disappointed that he hasn’t returned in the Moffat Era yet. Jack alongside the 11th Doctor would have been a perfect combination.

In the meantime, at least we have Big Finish providing new adventures for everybody’s favourite Time Agent. Big Finish Productions have produced two audio series of the popular Jack-fronted spinoff Torchwood, with a further series and three box sets announced (Torchwood: Outbreak starring John Barrowman as Captain Jack, Gareth David-Lloyd as Ianto Jones, Eve Myles as Gwen Cooper, Kai Owen as Rhys Williams and Tom Price as PC Andy Davidson, The Torchwood Archive including a whole host of names such as Rowena Cooper as Queen Victoria and David Warner as The Committee and Torchwood One: Before The Fall starring Tracy-Ann Oberman as Yvonne Hartman and Gareth David-Lloyd as Ianto). Yesterday, Big Finish Productions announced a second spinoff for the fan-favourite character: The Lives of Captain Jack.

The Lives of Captain Jack sees four new audio dramas set during various points in Jack’s life:

1. The Year After I Died by Guy Adams

Set in the year 200,101, on an Earth ravaged by the Daleks, Jack (John Barrowman) struggles to save humanity from its oldest enemy.

2. Wednesdays For Beginners by James Goss

Jack and Jackie Tyler (Camille Coduri) must unite to rescue the Powell Estate from a force whose name Jackie can never say.

3. One Enchanted Evening by James Goss

Captain Jack and Alonso Frame (Russell Tovey) have only just met. But why did the Doctor want them to be together?

4. Month 25 by Guy Adams

He’s the young star of the Time Agency, and his whole life is about to fall apart. But that’s not going to stop him winning.

The new audio dramas are directed by Scott Handcock (Big Finish Torchwood) and executive produced by Jason Haigh-Ellery (The Sixth Doctor: The Last Adventure) and Nicholas Briggs (The War Doctor: Only The Monstrous).The cast list includes John Barrowman as Captain Jack Harkness, Russell Tovey as Midshipman Alonso Frame, Camille Coduri as Jackie Tyler), Sarah Douglas as Vortia Trear, Shvorne Marks as Silo Crook, Scott Haran as Malfi Pryn, Aaron Neil as Gorky Sax, Katy Manning as Mother Nothing, Ellie Heydon as Ginny, Jonny Green as Station Computer, Hannah Barker as Female Passenger, Conor Pelan as Male Passenger, Ellie Welch as Bay Guard, Kristy Philipps as Colby, Joe Wiltshire Smith as Pods, Sakuntala Ramanee as Maglin Shank, Kieran Bew as Krim Pollensa, Alexander Vlahos as The Stranger,Chris Allen as The Council, Christel Dee as The Council and James Goss as The Council.

The Lives of Captain Jack will be released through the Big Finish site in June 2017. You can pre-order the CD now for £25 – or alternatively a download copy for £20: https://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/the-lives-of-captain-jack-1519. The cover art by Lee Binding (the man behind many of the classic series Doctor Who DVD covers, including The Green Death) is below:

 

LEGO Have Used The Resurrection Stone! LEGO Harry Potter Collection Confirmed For PS4

Earlier I wondered if LEGO’s Chamber of Secrets had been opened with the rumours of a remastered LEGO Harry Potter Collection for PS4. Well, enemies of the heir beware because it seems those rumours were true. LEGO have today confirmed that remastered versions of LEGO Harry Potter Years 1-4 and LEGO Harry Potter Years 5-7 are coming in a single disc release for Playstation 4.

The remastered edition of the LEGO Harry Potter games will contain a bunch of new features, including a character pack featuring Hogwarts founders Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw and Salazar Slytherin as well as Peeves the poltergeist, Harry Potter (Yule Ball), Ron Weasley (Ghoul), Hermione Granger (Pink Dress), Luna Lovegood (Lion Head) and Gilderoy Lockhart (Straightjacket).  The release will also feature a pack of new spells (including Cantis, Densaugeo, Ducklifors, Melofors, and Tentaclifors), as well as ‘enhanced graphics, environments, lighting, and visual effects’. New cutscenes haven’t been confirmed yet, although I would suspect this would be the case given that the original scenes featured the old-style LEGO miming rather than dialogue taken from the films.

The LEGO Harry Potter Collection won’t be the only LEGO Harry Potter content released this year. The popular toys-to-life game LEGO Dimensions will be introducing the boy wizard to its players this year with a team pack comprising of Harry Potter, Lord Voldemort, Arthur Weasley’s flying Ford Anglia and the Hogwarts Express. A fun pack has also been confirmed featuring Hermione Granger, although the mini-build featured with the Hermione minifigure has yet to be announced.

2016 is proving to be a great year to be a Harry Potter fan, with the eighth Harry Potter story Harry Potter and the Cursed Child released in the form of a play and script book and Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them coming to cinemas this November. JK Rowling has also featured a trilogy of Hogwarts ebooks containing content from the official Harry Potter site Pottermore entitled Short Stories of Hogwarts: Of Power, Of Politics And Pesky Poltergeists, Hogwarts: AN Incomplete & Unreliable Guide and Short Stories Of Hogwarts: Of Heroism, Hardship And Dangerous Hobbies. The new ebooks are priced at £1.99 each.

The LEGO Harry Potter Collection is due to arrive on the PS4 via floo powder on the 21st October priced £39.99. It is currently unknown whether the collection will be released on other consoles but you can find the box art here:

 

The Power Of The Daleks Animation Is Official! – Daleks Set To Conquer And Destroy The BBC Store This November

The BBC have confirmed rumours that they are to release an animated version of the missing Doctor Who serial The Power of the Daleks. The Power of the Daleks is Patrick Troughton’s first serial as the second incarnation of The Doctor and stars Michael Craze and Anneke Wills as the Doctor’s companions Ben Jackson and Polly Wright. All six missing episodes of the story have been produced by the team behind the recent animation for the lost Dad’s Army episode A Stripe For Fraser.

The animated Power of the Daleks has been produced and directed by Charles Norton (A Stripe For Fraser), with character designs by comic book artists Martin Geraghty (Doctor Who: The Flood) and Adrian Salmon (Judge Dredd).

Charles Norton spoke of the animation “The Power of the Daleks animation is the most ambitious Doctor Who archive restoration ever attempted and we’re all very honoured to be a part of such a an exciting project. Intelligent, suspenseful and magnificently staged, Power of the Daleks is one of the great lost classics of 1960s television and a superb example of the black and white era at its finest,”

The executive producer of BBC Worldwide Paul Hembury said “Charles and his team are remarkably talented and passionate about Doctor Who and we are thrilled that fans will soon be able to enjoy this rather sinister but wonderful, classic story,”

The first episode of The Power of the Daleks will be made available on the BBC Store from Saturday 5th November at 5:50pm, exactly fifty years since its broadcast on BBC1. The remaining episodes will be made available the following five days. Power of the Daleks will be exclusive to the BBC Store until Monday 14th November. The animation will be released on DVD on Monday 21st November. There will also be a BFI (British Film Institute) screening of the serial on the 5th November at the BFI Southbank Cinema in London. Further information will be made available on the BFI website.

You can currently register your interest on The Power of the Daleks animation on the BBC Store website.

A trailer for The Power of the Daleks can be found below:

Power To The Daleks! – Animated Power Of The Daleks Rumours Look To Be True

The BBC posted an animated gif on Facebook this afternoon that appears to be hinting at the rumoured Power of the Daleks animation:

The picture shows an animated TARDIS surrounded by fog – or perhaps the fumes from the mercury pools that can be found on the planet Vulcan (the setting of Power of the Daleks). The post was accompanied with the promise that ‘something is materialising’ at midnight UK time. This wouldn’t be the first time that missing episodes of Doctor Who have been turned into cartoons – the very first animated release was 2006’s The Invasion featuring the Cybermen – but an entirely missing Doctor Who serial hasn’t been animated before. The animation process is costly, therefore it is usually used on serials where only two episodes are missing as opposed to Power of the Daleks’ six.

More news to follow shortly.

SPOILER ALERT! Peter Capaldi To Appear In Class?

The Mirror are reporting today that Peter Capaldi is set to appear as The Doctor in the first episode of the new Doctor Who spinoff Class. A BBC insider told the newspaper “What sort of trouble must these kids get themselves in if they need the Doctor to come and bail them out?”

Of course, this wouldn’t be the first time the current incarnation of the Doctor (at the time of broadcast) has appeared in a Doctor Who spinoff. Both David Tennant and Matt Smith made guest appearances in The Sarah Jane Adventures, in The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith and Death of the Doctor respectively. Torchwood (a spinoff aimed at an adult audience), on the other hand, wasn’t allowed to feature the character amid concerns that it would encourage young kids to watch. The Mirror are claiming that BBC Chiefs had similar concerns about the Doctor appearing in Class (which is aimed at Young Adults) but decided in favour of it in the end.

The TARDIS was spotted at outdoor filming for the show back in April, so it looks considerably likely that The Mirror’s reports are true:

In other news, three new books based on Class were announced for release in October:

Joyride, What She Does Next Will Astound You and The Stone House are to be written by Guy Adams, James Goss and A.K. Benedict respectively and offer us our first glimpse at the Class logo:

Personally, I think the logo for Class is extremely effective in giving off that distinctive  ‘Who’ vibe. It is very close to the style of the Moffat Era‘s Doctor Who logos in the same way that the Torchwood logo strongly evoked the Russell T Davies Era.

Class will be in session on BBC Three Online this October, with episodes due to air a week behind on BBC1. The new spinoff is based in Coal Hill School (where the Doctor is currently caretaker), a location which first appeared in the very first Doctor Who serial An Unearthly Child as the school where the Doctor’s granddaughter Susan Foreman was a pupil. Whether former science teacher and current chairman of the school governors Ian Chesterton (played by William Russell) will appear remains to be seen.