Skyfall Breaks Box Office Record in UK

While his opening weekend box office trailed behind Harry Potter in the UK  - by £2m - James Bond’s latest movie defeated the boy wizard over the course of its first week.

Indeed Skyfall had the biggest seven-day haul in British box office history, taking a whopping £37.2m from 587 screens. The film is now on course to be the biggest ever Bond in the UK.

In a statement, Bond producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli said “We are very grateful to the Bond fans and all UK cinema audiences for making Skyfall the biggest opening week ever during our 50th anniversary year."

Skyfall opens in the U.S. on November 9, so expect further Bond box office records to topple then.

Chris Tilly is Entertainment Editor for IGN and still hopes to be the next Bond. His idle chat can be found on both Twitter and MyIGN.

Source : ign[dot]com

Win A Pair Of Gold Passes To Destination Star Trek

This coming weekend Destination Star Trek London beams down to the ExCeL boasting special guest appearances from FIVE Star Trek Captains including William Shatner, Patrick Stewart, Avery Brooks, Kate Mulgrew and Scott Bakula, plus many more original cast from all incarnations of the sci-fi shows, and we've got a pair of Gold Passes to give away for the Saturday and Sunday thanks to Star Trek: The Game and Namco Bandai.

As well as celebrity guests doing talks and signings there will be a wealth of costumes, props, photo opportunities, parties and all sorts of Trek-based brilliance, including a 3D screening of the Star Trek: The Game game demo. Usually retailing at £299 each the Gold Pass includes:

• 2 Day Event Access
• 5 Individual Captain talk tickets
• Priority Seating in the talks/presentations in main auditorium
• 6 In-Person Autographs
• Priority Scheduled Queuing
• 1 Exclusive rare signed card
• 1 Bridge Photo shoot
• 1 Ticket to Stunt Show
• Limited Edition Print
• Exclusive Goodie Bag
• Exclusive Gold Collectors Card
• 1 Ticket to the Party

For more details on what the Gold Pass gives you head to http://www.startreklondon.com/ticket-info

HOW TO ENTER

To be in with a chance of winning this amazing prize simply follow @IGNUK on Twitter and RT the following Tweet before 2pm tomorrow - October 19 - when we'll pick one winner at random.

Tickets will be collected from the ExCel Box Office, with NO travel or accommodation costs incurred attending the show included in the prize. This competition is open to UK residents over the age of 18 only with full terms and conditions on the next page.

Source : ign[dot]com

The Dark Knight Rises Blu-ray Trailer

Following New York Comic Con this past weekend, where Warner Bros. screened the Batmobile Documentary, the studio has unveiled an official trailer for the upcoming, and much-anticipated, Dark Knight Rises Blu-ray.

The sizzle reel reveals a few of the disc's bonus features including the aforementioned Batmobile documentary, as well as the film's innovative Second Screen app. Check it out:

The Dark Knight Rises Blu-ray combo pack SRP is set at $35.99, and $39.99 for the Limited Edition Bat Cowl set. The DVD SRP is $28.98. Amazon's current pre-order price is $24.99 for the Blu-ray combo pack, $35.99 for the Bat Cowl Limited Editionset, and $17.99 for the DVD.

Stay tuned for more news, and look for a review of The Dark Knight Rises on Blu-ray in December!

Holy Social Networks, readers! Now you can follow R.L. Shaffer on Twitter, Facebook or IGN for quotes, rants, reviews, news and more!

Source : ign[dot]com

Taken 2 Remains Box Office Champ

Liam Neeson kicked more ass this weekend as Taken 2 repeated as the No. 1 movie at the domestic box office.

As for the new releases, Argo and Sinister enjoyed strong Top 5 debuts, while Here Comes the Boom and Seven Psychopaths underperformed.

Here are the weekend estimates via Rentrak:

1. Taken 2 $22.5 million
2. Argo $20.1 million
3. Sinister $18.3 million
4. Hotel Transylvania $17.3 million
5. Here Comes the Boom $12 million
6. Pitch Perfect $9.3 million
7. Frankenweenie $7 million
8. Looper $6.3 million
9. Seven Psychopaths $4.3 million
10. The Perks of Being a Wallflower $2.2 million

Source : ign[dot]com

Sir Roger Moore: "Daniel Craig Is The Best James Bond Ever"

Sir Roger Moore has predicted that Skyfall is going to be a huge hit following a private screening over the weekend, and has nothing but good things to say about the incumbent 007.

Speaking at "An Evening With Roger Moore" at the Rose Theatre in Kingston-Upon-Thames last night Sir Roger revealed, "I was invited on Saturday morning to a private screening of Skyfall. Now, I have always said that the best Bond was obviously Sean [Connery], but I’m happy to say when Skyfall is released on October 26, it is going to be the biggest [Bond film] there has ever been in the cinema, and he [Daniel Craig] will go down as the best Bond in history. It is fantastic."

Speaking to packed house on the former 007's 85th birthday to promote his new book Bond on Bond, Sir Roger went on to reveal how he had always backed Craig to make a big impact, "Before I saw Skyfall, I felt very angry about the way that the English press treated Daniel Craig. Before he’d started [Casino Royale] they predicted doom and gloom and they criticised him. I used to write letters of support to him, and I was so pleased when I saw Casino Royale because he was truly excellent in it. He’s a wonderful actor, if you’ve seen Munich or In Cold Blood, you know he’s a terrific actor."

We also happen to agree with Bond No. 3 as you'll find out in our Skyfall review here.

Bond on Bond by Sir Roger Moore is out now. Skyfall is in UK cinemas on October 26, and US cinemas November 9.

Tom is IGN's Social Media Editor and his favourite Bond is Timothy Dalton, come at me bro. You can stay abreast of his current pet peeves by following him on IGN and Twitter.

Source : ign[dot]com

Hotel Transylvania, Looper Top the Weekend Box Office

It was a record-breaking weekend at the domestic box office as Hotel Transylvania dethroned Sweet Home Alabama as the best-ever September opening. It's also the biggest opening to date for a Sony Pictures Animation film. The acclaimed sci-fi thriller Looper also had a strong debut with a second place finish.

Fellow new release Won't Back Down flopped in 10th place, while fanboy fave Dredd 3D fell out of the Top 10 after just one week in cinemas.

Here are the weekend estimates via Rentrak:

1. Hotel Transylvania $43 million
2. Looper $21.2 million
3. End of Watch $8 million
4. Trouble With The Curve $7.5 million
5. House at the End of the Street $7.2 million
6. Pitch Perfect $5.2 million
7. Finding Nemo 3D $4.1 million
8. Resident Evil: Retribution 3D $3 million
9. The Master $2.7 million
10. Won't Back Down $2.7 million

Source : ign[dot]com

Jake Gyllenhaal Takes Prisoners With Hugh Jackman

With his cop drama End of Watch hot at the box office this weekend, Jake Gyllenhaal is poised to pick up a badge and gun again for the Alcon Entertainment thriller Prisoners. The Denis Villeneuve-directed pic already has Hugh Jackman and Melissa Leo set to star.

Although Gyllenhaal's deal isn't closed yet, Variety says he'll play a big city detective who comes up against a small town carpenter (Jackman) out for revenge after his young daughter and best friend are kidnapped. Aaron Guzikowski wrote the script.

Filming is slated to begin early next year for a fall 2013 release.

Gyllenhaal and Villeneuve previous worked together on the thriller An Enemy.

Source : ign[dot]com

Dredd is Dead at the Box Office

Audiences had no trouble with Jennifer Lawrence's curves this weekend as her first big post-Hunger Games release, House at the End of the Street, topped the domestic box office. Hot on its heels was the acclaimed cop thriller End of Watch, while Clint Eastwood's baseball drama Trouble With The Curve posted a surprisingly disappointing third place debut.

But no film had a more disappointing opening this weekend (at least for fanboys) than Dredd 3D. Those who saw the reboot by and large loved it. The problem was that no one else showed up for it. The Karl Urban/Lena Headey starrer bowed in sixth place with even less than the meager openings that had been predicted for it.

Here are the weekend estimates via Rentrak:

1. House at the End of the Street $13 million
2. End of Watch $13 million
3. Trouble With The Curve $12.7 million
4. Finding Nemo 3D $9.4 million
5. Resident Evil: Retribution 3D $6.7 million
6. Dredd 3D $6.3 million
7. The Master $5 million
8. The Possession $2.6 million
9. Lawless $2.3 million
10. ParaNorman $2.3 million

Listen to Keepin' It Reel to find out how we did with our box office predictions!

Source : ign[dot]com

Resident Evil: Retribution Has Series' Second Lowest Opening Ever

Alice fought her way back onto the big screen this weekend with Resident Evil: Retribution 3D debuting in first place at the box office with $21.1 million. However, that's the second lowest opening ever for the Resident Evil series, ahead of the 2002 original but behind Afterlife, Extinction, and Apocalypse, respectively.

How Retribution fares overseas will likely be the bigger factor as the Resident Evil movies have all performed better abroad than at home. (Indeed, Resident Evil: Afterlife made almost four times its domestic total internationally.)

Pixar's 3D re-release of Finding Nemo opened in second place, while the acclaimed drama The Master opened with $730,000 from just 5 screens. Nicolas Cage's Stolen played on just 141 screens for a debut of $204,000. The IMAX re-release of Raiders of the Lost Ark made $400,000 in its second weekend.

And finally, The Dark Knight Rises fell out of the Top 10 releases after 9 weeks in theaters. Its domestic total stands at $441 million. It's global cume is currently $1,044,411,000.

Here are the weekend estimates via Rentrak:

1. Resident Evil: Retribution 3D $21.1 million
2. Finding Nemo $17.5 million
3. The Possession $5.8 million
4. Lawless $4.2 million
5. ParaNorman $3 million
6. The Expendables 2 $3 million
7. The Words $2.9 million
8. The Bourne Legacy $2.9 million
9. The Odd Life of Timothy Green $2.5 million
10. The Campaign $2.4 million

Listen to Keepin' It Reel to find out how we did with our box office predictions!

Source : ign[dot]com

Fall 2012 TV Preview

Well, it's here. The beast has arrived. With the premiere of the new season of Doctor Who last weekend, Fall TV is officially upon us - on the heels of shows like Grimm that went the extra step of debuting in August! So now it's time to get out a pad of paper, a sharpie, some duct tape, a protractor and some wood glue and map out your own person viewing/DVRing schedule. And we're here to help!

So please welcome back Dexter Morgan, Nucky Thompson, Carrie Matheson, Jax Teller, Olivia Dunham, John Reese, Amanda Clarke Emily Thorne, Jeff Winger, Leslie Knope, Liz Lemon, Sheldon Cooper, Barney Stinson, The Doctor, Schmidt, Cartman and, um, American Horror Story monster... guy. But if you know Fall TV, then you know that it's not just about the returning favorites. Oh no. There's an avalanche of new shows waiting to tumble down on top of your heads; like a nuclear sub drama from The Shield's Shawn Ryan, a post-global blackout adventure series from J.J. Abrams and Jon Favreau, and new NBC comedies from folks like Glee/American Horror Story's Ryan Murphy and Jimmy Fallon.

There will be plenty of familiar faces too. Friends' Matthew Perry returns to NBC with Go On, Lost's Terry O'Quinn is back on ABC with 666 Park Avenue and The Office's Mindy Kaling's got her own new show on FOX called The Mindy Project. A few long-running shows will also come to an end as The Office returns for its 9th (!!!) and final season, FOX's Fringe wraps up its run with 13 exciting, Observer-filled episodes and Liz and Jack say goodbye on 30 Rock's 13-episode farewell.

So here's your rundown. Spotlight shows first, in order of premiere date. Then a full list at the end, on the last page of the feature. There's a system.

Doctor Who

Network: BBC America

Airs: Saturdays at 9pm

Premiere: 9/8/12

Going into Season 7, the big question is just how Amy Pond and Rory Williams will depart the series. The fall run of the show is a short one, with just five episodes (the rest of Season 7 will air next year), culminating in Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill leaving Doctor Who behind. But will they get a happy ending?

Fans are also extra curious about this year’s Christmas special, which was said to introduce the Doctor’s new companion, played by Jenna-Louise Coleman. Of course this past weekend, the season premiere threw a curve ball at us in regards to that...

Robot Chicken

Network: Adult Swim

Airs: Sundays at Midnight

Premiere: 9/9/12

Season 6 of Robot Chicken kicks off with the Robot Chicken DC Comics Special, with Seth Green as Batman, Robin and Aquaman, Neil Patrick Harris as Two-Face, Alfred Molina as Lex Luthor, Nathan Fillion as the Green Lantern, Megan Fox as Lois Lane, Breckin Meyer as Superman – in a parody of all things Justice League, Super Friends and more.

The remainder of Season 6 will feature a ton of ever-impressive guest voices, including Elizabeth Banks, Sarah Chalke, Kat Dennings, Sam Elliott, Ben Foster, Whoopi Goldberg, Lucas Grabeel, Megan Hilty, Gillian Jacobs, Robert Kirkman, Zachary Levi, J.B. Smoove, Liev Schreiber, Jon Stewart, Patrick Stewart, Stanly Tucci, Olivia Wilde, and Alex Winter.

Go On

Network: NBC

Airs: Tuesdays at 9pm

Premiere: 9/11/12

After airing a special preview of its pilot episode after their Olympics coverage a few weeks ago, NBC has high hopes for its new Matthew Perry comedy, Go On. Perry, after failing with ABC's Mr. Sunshine back in 2010, is back in semi-Chandler mode, playing a sportscaster who joins a support group to help him grieve for the recent death of his wife. Yes, the premise sounds a bit dark, but given that Perry's Ryan King finds himself surrounded by a multi-ethnic, multi-generational cast of kooky characters, it's clear that NBC's trying to pull from Community's Column A and create a show that has a chance of reaching a broader audience. Laura Benati, Julie White, Brett Gelman and John Cho also star.

Check out IGN's review of Go On's pilot episode here!

The New Normal

Network: NBC

Airs: Tuesdays at 9:30pm

Premiere: 9/11/12

From Ryan Murphy, creator of Glee and American Horror Story, and Ali Adler comes a new NBC comedy about a gay couple (Justin Bartha and Andrew Rannells) and the woman, Goldie (Georgia King), acting as the surrogate for their baby. Ellen Barkin is on hand to provide some Archie Bunker-inspired homophobia as Goldie's grandma while Real Housewives of Atlanta/Glee's NeNe Leaks provides enough sass to put grandma in her place. Murphy has found enormous success with risky, off-kilter TV, so will he reign supreme over the realm of half-hour comedies as well?

Check out IGN's review The New Normal's pilot episode here!

Sons of Anarchy

Network: FX

Airs: Tuesdays at 10pm

Premiere: 9/11/12

How will things go for Jax, now that he’s taken over as president of SAMCRO? We’re guessing it won't be smooth sailing…

Season 5 will bring two major new players in, including Harold Perrineau (Lost) as a new antagonist, Damon Pope, who's transitioned from being a drug kingpin to running a legitimate empire. Jimmy Smits also joins the cast, trading in his usual suit-wearing characters to play Latino gang leader Nero Padilla – someone described as becoming a “dangerous mentor” to Jax.

The X Factor

Network: FOX

Airs: Wednesdays at 8pm

Premiere: 9/12/12

Arriving with a ton of hype last year, Simon Cowell’s US version of his smash hit UK reality series did… fine, but notably wasn't nearly as big as American Idol. That being the case, the second season will see some major overhauls, with judges Paula Abdul, Nicole Scherzinger and host Steve Jones all gone. The new judges are Demi Lovato and Britney Spears and yes, Lovato’s young age is a bit of an eyebrow raiser, given her role as a judge and mentor. But that’s overshadowed by the media attention bringing Spears onto the show is achieving. Given Spears’ own troubles through the years, many are curious to see just how she handles this role on The X Factor – but are they curious enough to give the show a ratings boost?

Guys With Kids

Network: NBC

Airs: Wednesdays at 8:30pm

Premiere: 9/12/12

The brain child baby of Late Night's Jimmy Fallon, Guys with Kids features Jesse Bradford (Swimfan), Anthony Anderson (Law & Order) and Zach Cregger (Whitest Kids U' Know) as dads. Wait! I mean dudes with infants. No, wait. Sorry, we'll get it right some day. But if you're a fan of guys being dumb with not only their kids, but their spouses as well, then saddle up, put some silly sunglasses on your toddler and act like an idiot in front of your hot wife who you probably don't deserve.

Glee

Network: FOX

Airs: Thursdays at 9pm

Premiere: 9/13/12

It’s always a struggle for a TV series that begins in a high school setting to then transition into something else when the characters graduate. Glee is going about this dilemma in an interesting (and risky) manner, having had some of the characters graduate last season – but not all. Storylines will now apparently take place in New York, where Rachel and Kurt live, but also back at McKinley, with the characters who have not graduated, plus some new students. And there’s also some of the other graduates to deal with as well, who are living in various cities. All of which certainly sounds... crowded.

J.J. Abrams' global  blackout, NBC's Thursday night comedies and Nucky Thompson's prohibition-era Atlantic City on page 2...

Source : ign[dot]com

We Came. We Saw. We ShootMania'd at PAX.

The IGN ProLeague was at PAX in Seattle, Washington all last weekend showing off Nadeo and Ubisoft's newest competitive first person shooter title: ShootMania. The weekend was packed with a ton of FPS eSports action. We had North America's best ShootMania team, ESP, along with SK.Rapha, EG.nOthing, and Chance in attendance to compete against each other all weekend. Check out our recap below!

Friday

Everything got started early on Friday morning with fans signing up to play with a Joes and Pros Elite mode tournament. After a couple of fun showmatches in SpeedBall and Siege, the Round of 8 in this tournament began. Chance, a former Quake professional player, seemed to pick up the game extremely quickly, knocking out SK.Rapha's team in the Round of 8. In a team kill situaion, we had ESP.Xp3's team advance past ESP.Godson's team in quick fashion. Also advancing to the next round were Area51.PineKone and ESP.Gillz.

Saturday

Saturday contained a lot of demos of different game modes, but the main event was a Best of 7 showdown between ESP, our qualified team, vs Area 51 Gaming. ESP again showed their complete dominance as they won the $750 top prize with an easy 4-0 map score. Area 51 didn't have a lot of time as a team going in to the event, and while they picked up a decent aim with the Laser as the match went along, their coordination was a little too weak to compete with ESP.

Sunday

The true draw of the event happened on Sunday, though, as the event came to a close. After a series of show matches in the Heroes game mode, the Round of 4 and Finals of the Joes and Pros Elite mode tournament were played out. The first match was played out between ESP.Xp3's team and Chance's team, and, despite being a 2-0 in map score for Xp3's team, proved to be incredibly exciting as maps were very close in score. The second match was had ESP.Gillz' team handily defeated Area51.PineKone's team when PineKone was unable to make the match and had to be substituted in for eLe.DarkRabbi. The final score was 2-0 in maps. The finals, though, were outstanding. It was a great setup as teammates Gillz and Xp3 from ESP matched their teams against each other. It went down to the final map, but ESP.Xp3's team was crowned the champion.

Source : ign[dot]com

Oogieloves Failure: The Worst Wide Release Film Debut Ever

The worst news at this Labor Day weekend's domestic box office was for The Oogieloves in the Big Balloon Adventure, featuring Toni Braxton, Christopher Lloyd, Chazz Palminteri, Cary Elwes, Jaime Pressly and Cloris Leachman.

The $20 million film opened in 2,160 theaters earning just $448,000 or a mere $207 per theater average, making it the new worst ever wide release opening. Yes, even worse than Creature or Delgo.

Behold the brightly colored, smiling faces of abject failure:

The Oogieloves in the Big Balloon Adventure comes from Kenn Viselman, who, as the publicity materials proclaimed, is "the marketing visionary" behind The Teletubbies and Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends.

Viselman, who heavily promoted the film to exhibitors at this past spring's CinemaCon, doesn't see his film's record poor showing as a bad thing. "This was never about box office,” said Viselman in an interview with TheWrap. “It was about exposure. We’ve now got the notoriety we were trying to get for weeks before the film opened. ... The attention we’re getting as a result of this is going to help our video on demand and DVD campaigns, and it’s going to help the next films, whether they’re theatrical releases or video."

Spoken like a true producer!

Source : ign[dot]com

The Dark Knight Rises Makes $1 billion

The Dark Knight Rises reached a series of box office landmarks over the weekend, outgrossing its predecessor The Dark Knight while at the same time becoming only the 13th film in history to pass the $1bn mark.

The Dark Knight grossed $1.003bn worldwide, and as of Sunday, The Dark Knight Rises has made 1.005bn.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, however, TDK did bigger business domestically than internationally, whereas TDKR made more money internationally. The Reporter suggests that may be down to the Aurora theatre shootings.

Whatever the case, The Dark Knight Rises now has Alice in Wonderland in its sites in the all-time box office list, while it will have to surpass The Phantom Menace to make the top 10.

Chris Tilly is the Entertainment Editor for IGN and still can't quite believe that many people went to see Alice in Wonderland. His idle chit-chat can be found on both Twitter and MyIGN.

Source : ign[dot]com

God of War: Ascension Bosses Revealed

At the conclusion of the God of War: Ascension panel at PAX this weekend, key members of the development team treated the audience to a world exclusive: the video reveal of the "big bosses" to appear in Kratos' next (bloody) quest. The iconic antihero will face three powerful beings known as the "Furies." Not to be confused, I should note, with the Furries, which would present a wholly different and -- perhaps --- more terrifying threat to Kratos.

While we know that three Furies will appear in Ascension, only one was revealed in the video: a woman of horrible power with spider-like appendages clawing out of her back. The God of War team also took note of her ability to infect her victims with parasites that emerge from her "upper chest area." This unnerving skill wasn't shown today, but I fear the day when it will.

God of War: Ascension launches next year on March 12th, and introduces multiplayer to the franchise. So prepare to bring a friend along for the limb-rending fun!

Ryan Clements writes for IGN. He saw an Ellie (The Last of Us) cosplayer today that was super adorable. Follow him on Twitter if you have nothing else to do.

Source : ign[dot]com

FrightFest the 13th - Five of the Best

So FrightFest happened at the weekend, with the good, the bad and the ugly of the horror film industry descending on the Empire Cinema in London’s Leicester Square to shock and scare thousands of gore-hounds.

The weekend was a resounding success, but if you couldn’t make it down, the following are five of the best flicks that played (alongside the brilliant Sinister, which we previously reviewed here).

Sleep Tight

My favourite film of the festival, Sleep Tight is less an out-and-out horror and more a dark, psychological thriller in the tradition of Hitchcock’s very best. Luis Tosar delivers a grandstanding performance as Cesar, a quiet doorman working at an upscale Barcelona apartment. But below that unassuming surface, Cesar is something of a monster, creeping into his most beautiful tenant’s room at night and doing… well you’ll just have to watch the movie to find out, but rest assured it’s suitably sick and twisted.

V/H/S

Horror anthologies tend to be a mixed bag, and V/H/S is no different, though when it’s scary, it’s bloody terrifying. The wrap-around story finds a group of unpleasant pranksters breaking into a supposedly deserted house to retrieve a VHS tape, and while there they find footage that makes up the rest of the movie. The likes of Adam Wingard, Ti West and Joe Swanberg direct, and the film features the first chiller to tell its story purely through Skype. The undoubted highlight is a very novel twist on the devil worshipping sub-genre.

Berbarian Sound Studio

I’m not even going to pretend I understood this one, though while the vague plotting is frustrating, the bizarre sound and imagery stays with you long after the credits have rolled. Hunger Games star Toby Jones plays Gilderoy, a shy and retiring sound engineer invited to Italy to work on horror flick The Equestrian Vortex. But things turn strange as soon as he arrives at the titular sound studio, with life imitating art as the horror bleeds from the screen and into his life. As Gilderoy endeavours to retain his sanity, the film too starts to lose the plot, but it all looks beautiful, and as an homage to Italian Giallo, it's spot on.

Grabbers

So three serious choices, but what about something a little more light-hearted? Cockney’s vs. Zombies went down well with the FrightFest crowd, but for me Irish effort Grabbers narrowly edged the East End pensioners out. Playing like a cross between Tremors and Whisky Galore, the film stars Richard Coyle as a disillusioned Garda with a drink problem who is lazily seeing out his years in a sleepy coastal town. But when an alien invasion hits, Coyle’s character is forced to step up to the plate, no-more-so than when a scientist discovers that the aliens are allergic to humans with a high blood alcohol level. As ridiculous as it is entertaining, Grabbers is perfect midnight movie fare.

American Mary

Jen and Sylvia Soska – the directors of Dead Hooker in a Trunk – return with what may have been the most talked-about film at the festival. Ginger Snaps star Katherine Isabelle plays Mary Mason, a medical student who enters the shady underground world of body modification in search of a quick buck, and soon finds it taking a terrible toll on her own psyche. Brutal, gripping and genuinely horrifying, American Mary is the kind of film that FrightFest was created for, and should be sought out at the earliest opportunity.

Chris Tilly is the Entertainment Editor for IGN and is finding it hard to sleep after all that horror. His idle chit-chat can be found on both Twitter and MyIGN.

Source : ign[dot]com

Expendables 2 Runs Over Premium Rush at Box Office

As expected, The Expendables 2 remained the box office champ for the second weekend in a row. This was a particularly anemic weekend at the domestic box office, where none of Hollywood's new releases cracked $10 million.

The Joseph Gordon-Levitt bike thriller Premium Rush was dead on arrival, debuting near the bottom of the Top 10. The biggest box office surprise was the anti-Obama indie documentary 2016: Obama's America, which only played in a third of the cinemas as Hollywood's new releases.

Here are the weekend estimates via Rentrak:

1. The Expendables 2 $13.5 million
2. The Bourne Legacy $9.3 million
3. ParaNorman $8.5 million
4. The Campaign $7.4 million
5. The Dark Knight Rises $7.2 million
6. The Odd Life of Timothy Green $7.1 million
7. Premium Rush $6.3 million
8. 2016: Obama's America $6.2 million
9. Hope Springs $6 million
10. Hit and Run $4.7 million

The long delayed horror flick The Apparition debuted in 12th place with $3 million, but it was only playing in 810 locations.

Listen to Keepin' It Reel to find out how we did with our box office predictions!

Source : ign[dot]com

Star Wars: The Clone Wars - Exclusive Season 5 Republic Commando Action Scene

Straight from its debut during the big Star Wars: The Clone Wars panel at Star Wars Celebration VI this weekend, we’ve got the exclusive online debut for you of a new scene from Season 5 of the hit animated series.

The Clone Wars: What to Expect in Season 5

Back in Season 3, fans were incredibly excited by the first appearance on the series of the video game-created Republic Commandos – though it was basically a cameo, in the midst of a dialogue-driven scene.

But in Season 5, we’re going to finally see at least one Republic Commando in action. This gentleman’s name is Gregor, and as the clip shows, he’s got a group of droids he’s working in tandem with, including R2-D2 himself. As we learned at The Clone Wars panel, Artoo and these droids are tasked with infiltrating the separatists to get a crucial encryption code, and along the way, they meet up with Gregor. While the specifics on his history and involvement in the storyline have yet to be revealed, you can see in the following clip that his skills in battle become crucial to this mission's success.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars Season 5 premieres Saturday, September 29th at 9:30am in the show’s new timeslot.

For more info on Season 5, including new inclusions to the series taken from both the films and the expanded universe, check out my full report on The Clone Wars panel from Star Wars Celebration VI.

Source : ign[dot]com

Star Wars: Attack of the Clones 3D Preview Footage Impresses

Lucasfilm is continuing with 3D conversions and rereleases of the Star Wars saga and this weekend at Star Wars Celebration VI, the first footage was shown from Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones 3D.

I was among those who was not impressed by the conversion of The Phantom Menace. It didn’t include that ugly, off-putting look that cheaply done conversions like Clash of the Titans have, but it also didn’t really impress as 3D – and it was hard not to wonder if it was just an innate limitation when it comes to converting old movies that were never intended to be in 3D.

However, based on what was shown at Celebration, the 3D in Attack of the Clones is a marked improvement. We were shown a long sizzle reel for the film, taking us through the movie via short clips, which showed off the 3D to an admirable extent.

In the opening sequence of the Naboo cruiser arriving on Coruscant, the ship truly seemed to be coming out of the side of the screen. And there was a lot of cool 3D visuals in the footage we saw of Anakin and Obi-Wan’s speeder chase through Coruscant – especially when Anakin leapt from the speeder down towards Zam Wesell, and Anakin himself appeared to be a physically present figure, falling away from the viewer into the distance.

I was also impressed by the waves on Kamino, which looked incredibly lifelike and ready to splash onto the audience in the establishing shots of the water-covered planet.

Some of the scenes from we saw weren’t quite as notable. The Droid Factory bit and the Yoda/Dooku lightsaber battle both looked fine, but unremarkable, from a 3D perspective. Still, overall, the sequences we saw from the 3D version really stood out and seemed like a giant step up from Phantom Menace.

ILM’s Dennis Muren (who worked on all six Star Wars films) and John Knoll (who worked on the Special Editions and the prequels) discussed the conversion process and how meticulous and time-consuming it was - about a year-long in total for each film. It involved going through the entire film and separating the elements and working to make sure the 3D looked correct and gave objects the proper amount of depth. In some cases, the shift in perspective in a scene has led to new digital work having to be done. An example was shown from the end of Attack of the Clones, as the 3D meant we were looking at Palpatine, Bail Organa and the other politicians looking down at the Clone Troopers from a slightly different angle, leaving blank spaces on the background which needed to be filled in, using the original matte paintings and backgrounds.

Since this whole process involves going back into a lot of the digital elements, Knoll admitted, “We might have archived things a bit differently if we knew we were coming back to it,” noting with Phantom Menace, they were dealing with elements from “13, 14 years ago. The backups only last so long. Sometimes the priorities on what you back up change over the time.”

Knoll said the process had been easier on Attack of the Clones than Phantom Menace, because, "The newer the film is the easier it is to go into the archives and recover things.”

That makes a lot of sense and probably accounts for some of the differences in the 3D visuals for the films, and hints at Revenge of the Sith 3D looking great too.

It’s less comforting in regards to the original trilogy, which obviously are much older films and lacking in as many digital elements that can be separated as easily. Still, if anyone can pull it off, it would be ILM.

Discussing why he felt it made sense to convert Star Wars into 3D, Knoll said, “The cool thing about 3D is it’s immersive,” noting it helped make you feel “You are there." He added, “What better universe would you want to have that feeling with than Star Wars?”

No release date has been announced for Attack of the Clones 3D, thought it seems likely it will be around the same time as the February release date The Phantom Menace 3D had this year.

Source : ign[dot]com

The Expendables 2 Tops the Box Office

The star-studded action sequel The Expendables 2 opened atop the weekend box office, bumping last weekend's champ The Bourne Legacy to second place. The Bourne Legacy fell 55% from its opening last weekend for a current domestic cume of $69.6 million. Newcomers ParaNorman and Sparkle, the latter featuring the final screen performance of the late Whitney Houston, both debuted in the Top 5.

Here are the weekend estimates via Rentrak:

1. The Expendables 2 $28.8 million

2. The Bourne Legacy $17 million

3. ParaNorman $14 million

4. The Campaign $13.4 million

5. Sparkle $12 million

6. The Dark Knight Rises $11.1 million

7. The Odd Life of Timothy Green $10.9 million

8. Hope Springs $9.1 million

9. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days $3.9 million

10. Total Recall $3.5 million

Listen to Keepin' It Reel to find out how we did with our box office predictions!

Source : ign[dot]com

Battlefield 4, God of War, Dishonored and More

Every week, IGN collects the best quotes from the last seven days and packages them all up in a weekend-friendly bundle. The list of things up for discussion today includes:

Battlefield 4
DayZ
Dear Esther
Diablo III
Dishonored
Fable: The Journey
Fez
Gabe Newell
Gamer Pledge
God of War: Ascension
Medal of Honor: Warfighter
Mega Man
Ouya
The Secret of Monkey Island.

You can see all of the past 15 weeks worth of quotes by Googling IGN Games Quotes.

Battlefield 4

"There will be other ways to get into the beta aside from MoH Warfighter. At this time, however, it is the only way to guarantee entry."

Battlefield 3 community manager Ian Tornay calms the community, some.

Reddit.

DayZ

“While we began developing our game before DayZ, we've been encouraged by fact that DayZ has become so popular. And yes, of course some of our latest design decisions were influenced by the DayZ community forums.”

Sergey Titov, executive producer of The War Z says there is some cross-over with runaway hit DayZ (pictured).

IGN

Dear Esther

“Dear Esther has now sold over 250,000 copies since launch. We always said we'd celebrate if we shifted 20,000.”

Life in the fast lane for developer Dan Pinchbeck.

Twitter via VG247

Diablo III

“Diablo III was designed from the beginning to be an online game that can be enjoyed with friends, and the always-online requirement is the best way for us to support that design...While we…’ve never said that this requirement guarantees that there will be no cheating or game cracks, it does help us battle those problems.”

Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime, explaining things.

Battle.net

Dishonored

"It's been a poor, poor five years for fiction in the video game industry. There have been too many sequels, and too many established intellectual properties that have been ruling the market."

Dishonored creator Victor Antonov.

Eurogamer

Fable: The Journey

"I think the presentation itself is partly to blame. It looked a bit like some spammy shooter, but actually we were building this big world around it. Y'know, you have about two minutes and 45 seconds to demonstrate what you're doing. I know that a main problem people have is they think we've taken the Fable series and trivialised it."

Lionhead creative director Gary Carr on Fable: The Journey’s difficult introduction at E3 2011.

CVG

Fez

"It’s a s**tty numbers game to be playing for sure but as a small independent, paying so much money for patches makes NO SENSE AT ALL. Had Fez been released on Steam instead of XBLA, the game would have been fixed two weeks after release, at no cost to us. And if there was an issue with that patch, we could have fixed that right away too!"

Polytron’s Phil Fish on Microsoft’s standard  $10K charge to update his Xbox Live game.

IGN

Source : ign[dot]com