Vin Diesel Could Be The Last Witch Hunter

Fast and Furious star Vin Diesel is now in negotiations to star in Lionsgate-Summit's The Last Witch Hunter.

The story, which was penned by Cory Goodman (Priest), is about the last remaining witch hunter, who is tasked with discouraging a group of witches and warlocks from reproducing. Wanted director Timur Bekmambetov was once set to helm the film when the pitch was first picked up, however, the filmmaker has since dropped out.

The Wrap reports that The Crazies' Breck Eisner is now attached to direct the film, with Adam Goldworm executive producing. Emmett/Furla Films will also produce.

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Road to Oz #1 Review

If there’s something as synonymous with The Wizard of Oz as Dorothy, Toto, and the Wicked Witch of the West, it most assuredly is the yellow brick road. In Road to Oz, Dorothy wanders away from her Kansas farm with a shaggy old man and gets lost when the road inexplicably splits into 16 different paths. The fabled yellow bricks don’t show up, but once the duo set out on one road at random, you can be sure it will lead to another wonderful adventure in the land of Oz.

Eric Shanower adapts the classic L. Frank Baum book with the same grace and care he put into the past four Oz adaptations. The narrative delivery is clear and light, and while certainly geared towards younger readers, anyone would be hard pressed to not enjoy the telling. There are times when the story moves onward without considering the consequence of the characters’ actions, but that could be attributed to the carefree nature of the protagonist, the ever-kindly Dorothy. Shanower uses different dialects for Dorothy, the shaggy man, and another new character named Button-Bright, instantly making them feel unique and full of life. Even Toto’s got some attitude.

Giving this story its fantastical signature look is Skottie Young. His settings are as simple as they are breathtaking. He has mastered the idea of “less is more” and uses it to great effect throughout the book. Just as masterful are his beautifully rendered characters, who laugh and look sad and get angry in the most captivating way. Young’s Dorothy could give any Pixar character a run for most endearing cartoon character ever.

Joshua is a writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter or IGN, where he is hell-bent on making sure you know his opinion about comic books.

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Ubisoft officially drops always-on DRM. Won't strictly admit it was a mistake, but drops it anyway

In a turn of events akin to the Munchkins' realisation that the Wicked Witch of the East had taken up a new career as a building foundation, long-protesting PC Gamers can today celebrate the official death of Ubisoft's never-popular always-on DRM policy.

A new interview over at the ever-lovely Rock, Paper, Shotgun with Ubi's worldwide director for online games Stephanie Perotti (in conjunction with the company's corporate communications manager Michael Burk) reveals that no longer will PC players of Ubisoft's games be required to maintain a constant internet connection to the company's servers in order to play, nor will they suffer the kind of limits previously seen on the number of possible installations of any given game.

"We have listened to feedback, and since June last year our policy for all of PC games is that we only require a one-time online activation when you first install the game, and from then you are free to play the game offline."

Perotti stops short of admitting any regret or mistake, however, stating instead when questioned, 

"We’ve listened to feedback, we will continue to listen to feedback, we will continue to make sure that we deliver great games and great services, and are now operating under this policy."

Head over to RPS for the rest of the interview, which also discusses Ubisoft's often staggered console and PC game release schedule, as well as the mysterious never-revealed numbers which backed its previous anti-piracy policy. And don't forget to drop a line in the comments on whether this admission will change your attitude towards Ubisoft's PC games in the future.

Source : gamesradar[dot]com

Doctor Who, Hellraiser Comics Find New Blood

Last year, Image Comics launched a great new series called Witch Doctor, which we adored here at IGN Comics. Now, Witch Doctor scribe Brandon Seifert is prepping the second volume of the series alongside tackling the comic book adventures of some iconic genre franchises: Clive Barker's Hellraiser and Doctor Who. We caught up with him to see what he's unleashing on us this fall.

IGN Comics: First, congrats on all the new work. We’ll talk about this again closer to release, but what’s the status of the next volume of Witch Doctor?

Brandon Seifert: Witch Doctor: Mal Practice #1 (of 6) goes on sale November 28! I’m excited to finally be back — it’s been a little while since we did Vol. 1, but we wanted to make sure to “come correct” on this. So the whole mini-series is already written, and issues #1-3 were all drawn before we even announced the release date!

IGN: That's great to hear. Now, how did the Hellraiser and Doctor Who gigs come about?

Seifert: If we’re going to be perfectly honest, they came about because of Allison Baker — the co-publisher of MonkeyBrain Comics, and wife of writer Chris Roberson. Allison and Chris have always been super supportive of me and my work. Chris has written for both BOOM! and IDW, and Allison put in a good word for me at both of those companies. In the case of BOOM!, it led to them offering me a writing gig on the Hellraiser Annual that came out in April. In IDW’s case, I got in touch with them about something unrelated — and found out that Editor-in-Chief Chris Ryall had read Witch Doctor and thought my handling of that eccentric doctor character and his weird sci-fi adventures would translate well into me doing something on Doctor Who. And it so happened that I’d already pitched some ideas to Who editor Denton Tipton a few months before, because Doctor Who is one of my favorite things ever!

So — Allison, thanks again!

IGN: I’ll admit that I’m not a Hellraiser fan. Like, at all. So to that end, what would you tell someone like me – who loves your work on Witch Doctor – is a reason to pick up Hellraiser?

Seifert: I feel like the Hellraiser comics are very different from the movies. The movies are very self-contained, like horror movies tend to be — they have to be, if they’re going to give you any real sense of peril for the characters. When you’ve got a horror franchise that’s based on a hero rather than a villain, like Scream or something, that’s different because you’ve got a protagonist who you can reasonably expect is going to survive the movie — because they’re survived the past ones. The Hellraiser films aren’t like that.

But the comic series is about both the villain — Pinhead — and about the heroine — Kirsty Cotton. Kirsty’s been the heroine throughout the comic series — which kind of makes it less of a straight-up horror story, and more of a multi-genre piece. The Hellraiser comics have horror, but they’ve also got action and drama — same as Witch Doctor. So when I sit down and write a Hellraiser comic set in this universe, I’d argue it’s honestly more like Witch Doctor than like a Hellraiser film — although without the sci-fi element, and with way less humor.

As a writer, I like exploring the ramifications of things. In Witch Doctor, that shows up as we examine classic monsters you feel like you know, but then reveal there’s lots more going on with them than you expect, and it’s all tied into the darkest corners of real-world biology. In Hellraiser: The Road Below, I’m doing the same kind of exploration, but it’s with Kirsty Cotton, the choices she’s made and the power she now has.

IGN: What’s the general plot of Hellraiser: The Road Below?

Seifert: In the last couple years of the Hellraiser ongoing comic, Kirsty Cotton has gone from being the “final girl” of the first two movies, to being a Cenobite-hunter — and now, to being a Cenobite herself! Pinhead stepped down — and convinced her to become his replacement, so she could “change the system from the inside.” But when Kirsty became the new Pinhead, she realized that if Hell is evil, it’s a necessary evil.

Hellraiser: The Road Below is a sort of “year one” story, picking up really early in Kirsty’s time as the new Pinhead. This is Kirsty still really committed to carrying out Hell’s work, catching the people who deserve to be punished and bringing them back to Hell. She’s really convinced she’s doing something good for the universe... but there’s ramifications for her actions she’s not expecting. And when she’s summoned by a frightened mother who wanted to make a deal with a devil to save her child from a blood feud that’s almost wiped out their family, Kirsty’s going to learn just how true that whole thing about Hell and good intentions is!

IGN: While I’m not one of them, Hellraiser has a very passionate fanbase. How do you balance bringing your own vision to the story while staying true to what the fans want/expect from a Hellraiser story?

Seifert: That’s honestly hard, because I can’t really guess what Hellraiser fans “want,” and it’s easy to second-guess myself if I start doing that. At the end of the day, with Hellraiser or anything else, the only thing I can do is make sure I’m telling a story that I want to tell, and a story that I, as a reader and fan, want to read. And I’m doing stuff in The Road Below that I’ve wanted to read since I first got into Clive Barker back in high school — so I think that part is going well!

IGN: How involved is Clive Barker in the ongoing work of the Hellraiser comics?

Seifert: Hellraiser is definitely still Clive’s baby, and even in Hellraiser books like The Road Below that he’s not actually co-writing, he’s still there behind the scenes reading and vetting everything, and bringing things back onto the track he wants them on if they wander off it. And the ongoing Hellraiser title — that’s Clive. He’s co-writing it, and the other people he brings on are there to help implement his vision for the world and the characters.

IGN: Which Hellraiser movie is your favorite and why?

Seifert: I think the first one is still pretty unmatched — but I’ve got a lot of affinity for Hellbound: Hellraiser 2. This is the one where you got to see Hell, where you got to see people turned into Cenobites and where you got to see the Cenobites’ god, Leviathan. That’s my jam, right there. One of my favorite things about Clive’s work, the thing I found more inspiring when I got super-into his writing when I was in high school and my brain was all squishy and influence-able, was his worldbuilding and the scope of his vision.

The original Hellraiser is great, and it’s definitely the scariest movie in the series — but it doesn’t have the scope or the depth of Hellbound. Hellbound actually gets into the world of the Cenobites, who they are, where they come from and what they do — and that’s the sort of thing that interests me, as a fan and a writer.

Head over to Page 2 for some Doctor Who and Witch Doctor goodness!

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