It seems Empire is going to keep these coming at a steady drip until Thursday, and who am I to complain? The latest tease is of Phoebe Waller-Bridge's character Helena: Indy's goddaughter and by all accounts primary sidekick for his last adventure.
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The opening reel of Indy 5 will see a de-aged Harrison Ford infiltrating a Nazi castle during World War II. More at the link in the tweet embedded below.
Source: Empire Magazine
Did you enjoy Mixnmojo's cautious preview of Full Throttle: Hell on Wheels from our E3 2003 coverage, but wish you could have been there in person? Well, some footage from that very booth has made it into the wild, so now you can do the next best thing. As an added bonus, you get celebrity developers Malena Annable and Dan Connors hanging around the sides of the frame for some reason:
The uploader is the same archeologist who brought you leaked cutscene footage from the rarely-lamented game this past summer. I'm not entirely sure I understand where this was sourced from, although he attempts to contextualize it in his video description.
Only Father Torque knows what he means by that last statement, but maybe we somehow haven't heard the last of Full Throttle II. For now, enjoy the latest discovery -- ideally with a slice street pizza.
Thanks to forumgoer Radogol for bringing this to our attention.If you don’t keep at least semi-regular track of the LucasArts posters thread, you’re missing out. Just over the last few months, Laserschwert has gifted to the world dazzling new versions of Peter Chan’s Day of the Tentacle Star Wars parody, Zak McKracken’s cover art, and, in a direct valentine to mine own heart, some marriage-threateningly seductive Maniac Mansion alternatives. Freshly endowed with some superior Outlaws source material, he’s promising to bring that one to similar heights in the future as well.
It’s all there for the taking in the internet’s finest forum thread. Sleep on it at your own peril.
It would appear that the first three (out of eight) episodes of Willow have been distributed to distinguished members of the press, or in any case to a bunch of sites with “geek” in the name. (Not to be a churl, Craig, but Ronda Scott would have hooked us up.) And while an embargo prevents full reviews from being published until Nov. 30th, these critics can at least tweet their general reaction, and so they have:
Well, if you’re inclined to put your trust in whomever those people are, the show sounds like it’s more fun than a sharp stick in the eye.
Need more to sustain your excitement? You might also want to check out Gizmodo’s new interview with showrunner Jon Kasdan, who among other things discusses how the show somehow features Val Kilmer without featuring him. TV Line also got in on the action with an exclusive clip. I’m telling you, with Monkey Island 6 out the way, you can all finally devote yourselves body and soul to the true messiah. That would be Willow, for those playing at home.
Guess they wanted to save some stuff for the weekend. The latest Indy 5 tease is our first glimpse at Voller, the villain played by Mads Mikkelsen.
Follow the link for some new quotes and an image of Voller's "lapdog" played by Boyd Holbrook.
Source: Empire Magazine
In Mojo’s typical mad dash to be the first to press, we overlooked the fact that Empire also released a new production still for Indy 5. Check it out beneath this excerpt from the first look you can enjoy in full when the magazine is published next Thursday.
Indiana Jones. Indy. Henry Jones Jr. Whatever you call him, Harrison Ford’s whip-cracking, Nazi-punching, relic-relishing archaeologist is cinema’s ultimate action hero – a man whose very image invokes the smell of popcorn and the thrill of big-screen adventure. Through the decades, he’s fought fascists, come face-to-face with the Ark Of The Covenant (albeit with his eyes closed), restored the Sankara Stones, drunk from the Holy Grail, and encountered interdimensional life. And he’s not done yet: 15 years after his last Indy outing, Harrison Ford is donning the fedora one last time in the as-yet-untitled Indiana Jones 5. Now, in a major world-exclusive, Empire presents your first look at his epic comeback.
In the new issue, we get the first word on the film that brings the iconic hero back to the screen – and its star promises all the excitement, emotion, spectacle, and unexpected turns that only Indiana Jones can provide. “It’s full of adventure, full of laughs, full of real emotion. And it’s complex and it’s sneaky,” Harrison Ford tells Empire. Stepping back into the world of Indy was no mean feat. “The shooting of it was tough and long and arduous,” he says. “But I’m very happy with the film that we have.”
Why go back, then? 2008’s Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull left our hero happily married to Karen Allen’s Marion Ravenwood. But while it found Indy older and perhaps wiser than we’d ever seen him in the original trilogy, it wasn’t necessarily an ending. That’s where Indiana Jones 5 comes in. “I just thought it would be nice to see one where Indiana Jones was at the end of his journey,” Ford explains. “If a script came along that I felt gave me a way to extend the character.”
That script comes from Jez and John-Henry Butterworth, writing alongside director James Mangold – the Logan and Ford V Ferrari filmmaker, now facing the daunting task of following up a certain Steven Spielberg (on board here as producer). For Mangold, it was all about the challenge of making a final Indiana Jones film. “It became really important to me to figure out how to make this a movie about a hero at sunset,” he says, noting that he steered the film further in that direction. “The issues I brought up about Indy’s age were not things I thought were being addressed in the material being developed at the time. There were ‘old’ jokes, but the material itself wasn’t about it. To me, whatever you greatest liability, you should fly straight towards that. If you try to pretend it’s not there, you end up getting slings and arrows the whole way.”
But let’s not get too hung up on the end just yet – the adventure is only just beginning. Stay tuned for more Indiana Jones exclusives coming soon from Empire, and seek out the world-exclusive Indiana Jones 5 issue – packed with the very first images and interviews, speaking to Harrison Ford, James Mangold, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Mads Mikkelsen, Shaunette Renée Wilson, Boyd Holbrook, James Mangold, Jez and John-Henry Butterworth, Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall and Simon Emanuel – when it hits newsstands on Thursday 24 November. Pre-order a copy online here.
Source: Empire Magazine
Look, I don’t know much about the Bilbao International Games Conference, but it warms the heart to see Return of Monkey Island [sic] winning its “Best Art Direction” award.
Goddamn well deserved it is, too. And why not revisit our interview with Rex, the art director behind the game?
Sure enough, Empire had something to share about Indy -- or will, in the upcoming edition of their magazine hitting newsstands November 24th. But to tease that preview, they do have these rad covers to show off:
Source: Empire Magazine
At least, that seems to be the consensus interpretation of this announcement:
If Empire is running the first magazine spread for the picture tomorrow, it would be a nice appetizer ahead of the teaser trailer, which director James Mangold has already alluded to appearing in a matter of weeks. Maybe Empire will unveil the title? Or maybe Lucasfilm just wants to cease-and-desist a fan game on a bigger stage this time.
Vainamoinen, your patience has paid off: Return to Monkey Island will be released on GOG “soon.”
(That’s literally all I got.)
Xbox Wire—apparently an official Xbox publication—coaxed Dave Grossman into writing what looks suspiciously like a Buzzfeed article: “Eight Things You Should Know Before Playing Return to Monkey Island.” And, if you, like me, had prepared to drop some hardcore anchor facts during your next cocktail party, well . . .
Also, in case you don’t forget them, I want to be sure you understand that the “facts” are made up. The character in question is not a deliberate liar, but she is a confident person who is not very good at doing research. Please do not use Return to Monkey Island as a factual source for your Wikipedia article about anchors. It’s probably best not to use the game as a factual source, period.
. . . I apparently have a lot of opinions I have to reconsider.
Sometimes, the DIY spirit benefits us all. While waiting for an official OST, BillyCheers said enough is enough and released his own mix of the Return to Monkey Island tracks. You can download them from Google Drive.
Listening through the “Suites” version of the soundtrack—the complete score is also available—I gotta say . . . the three guys did a pretty OK job with the music. It’s almost like they knew what they were doing.
I wouldn’t be against a vinyl version of the OST, so, y’know, if anyone with some clout is reading this . . .
Variety is reporting that Disney+ is eyeing up an Indiana Jones TV series. Seems perfect timing now that Harrison Ford has retired from that iconic role to join the Marvel universe. Quite what the show will entail is still a ways off.
Details are still scant as Disney isn’t sure what kind of show this will be, a prequel, a sequel, a spin-off, or a reboot. But the vital thing to know is that the company has something non-specific in mind, the perfect place to start when reviving a beloved character.
Nice to see the character finally getting some more attention, what with the forthcoming movie and videogame.
Source: Variety
You can never have too much Sam & Max in your life, nor too much vinyl, which is why this is a perfect package for you.
Chef’s kiss!
Sam & Max Save the World OST on three discs in a loving analog format, composed, of course, by Jared Emerson-Johnson. I mean, look at the thing, how could you not want that on your living room shelf? Go purchase, but note: Only two per customer. So don’t be too greedy.
You saw it coming—possibly because you were using the pre-release version—and now it has landed: Quick and Easy’s Dinky Explorer. Meaning, Return to Monkey Island-hacking has arrived at your fingertips. Benzo says:
A huge amount of work has gone into supporting Return to Monkey Island and very little of it was by me. The wonderful Jan Frederick has restored my faith in open source, contributing tons of code to ensure that all file types in ReMI can be heard, viewed, decoded and dumped. He’s even added the ability to edit the functions within the main weird.dink script and create patches that others can then use.
Getting other people to do the work for you: It’s a page out of Thrik’s playbook. Now go find the secrets hidden within ReMI’s source files.
Apparently, November 8th will be another Return to Monkey Island milestone: Not only will we see the game available for more consoles, it’ll also be available with German voiceovers. Wunderbar! (That’s all I got.)
Disney is meeting the interesting challenge of resuscitating Lucasfilm’s Willow with a certain amount of “How do we do this?” where the marketing is concerned. Few things say Modern Trailer quite like monotonous pop music and overdelivered comic beats that land with a thud, and the latest promo for the series is nothing if not fashionable:
Sorry you had to go through that, but you’ll probably find yourself less cringe-stricken on average by this poster:
I can’t identify the artist, but the victory here is that a poster was commissioned that actually called for one.
In any event: Willow.
It might not come as much of a surprise, but Return to Monkey Island is headed to Game Pass next Tuesday, the 8th. That means PC, cloud, and, indeed, Xbox. Hey, it plays great on Switch, so the more console platforms, the merrier. Presumably, PlayStation can’t be far behind.
Update! PS5 confirmed, too.
It's time to put that kidney up for auction.
Limited Run is throwing together yet another boom of a collector’s edition, this time for Grim Fandango. We’re talking USB drives, posters, prints, Bone Wagon replicas, and postcards. All for a mere $99.99.
The sale goes live on November 4th and runs through December 18th. Platforms:
Oh! There’s also a triangle box for those who order Grim, DOTT, and Throttle. This is literally getting ridiculous.