Early DUNE footage gets a positive reception

The first footage from Denis Villeneuve's Dune has been screened at a film festival in Paris and the reception has been largely positive.

The film only wrapped shooting a couple of months ago and the crew are now deep in post-production on the film, with elaborate effects sequences needing to be added. The footage seen in Paris was mostly missing effects footage and only had a temp score, but viewers drew a comparison between the material and the early screenings of Lord of the Rings material back in 2001. Attendees also got their first glimpse of the new Dune logo (not shown here as it's being taken down at a rate of knots).

Villeneuve's movie only adapts the first half of the first book, with a sequel dependent on the success of the film.

Dune will be released on 18 December this year.

New DUNGEONS & DRAGONS movie script completed

The latest writers for the Dungeons & Dragons movie have confirmed that their script for the film is complete. Jonathan Goldstein and John Daley have worked together on several comedies (including Horrible Bosses and Game Night) but also co-wrote the well-received Spider-Man: Homecoming for Disney.

The current D&D movie project has had a torturous development period. The project was bogged down in a legal action with the previous holders of the film rights (who developed the terrible 2000 movie and its two direct-to-DVD sequels) for several years, and since then has gone through a succession of writers and directors. At one point Hasbro and Paramount firmly committed to a release date of 23 July 2021, but it's unclear if that's still the plan. If so, the film will have to get before cameras pretty quickly.

A previous draft of the film was set in the Forgotten Realms world and would involve Waterdeep, the Yawning Portal Inn and the vast dungeon of Undermountain, but it's unclear if the new draft still shares that setting.

Rumour: new STAR WARS: KNIGHTS OF THE OLD REPUBLIC game in development

Fansite Cinelinx, which broke the news about the Star Wars Obi-Wan TV show last year, has reported that a new Knights of the Old Republic title is in development at Electronic Arts.

The original Knights of the Old Republic was developed by BioWare and released by Lucasfilm in 2003 and is fondly remembered as one of the greatest Star Wars video games of all time. Its sequel, Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords, the first game from Obsidian Entertainment, is almost as acclaimed but was released in a notoriously buggy state. In 2011 BioWare and Electronic Arts released The Old Republic, a massively multiplayer RPG which also served as a sequel-of-sorts to the earlier two games.

BioWare has apparently been keen to make a proper Knights of the Old Republic III for some years and discussed the project several times with parent company EA after they acquired the Star Wars licence. Reportedly some prototyping work was done in 2015 but was then put on ice whilst the company focused on Mass Effect: Andromeda and Anthem.

Cinelinx's report is interesting, as it suggests that the game currently being developed is a reboot of the Knights of the Old Republic game, part-remake and part-sequel, that would bring it into the new canon of the Disney era. The approach is similar to that of the recent God of War reboot game.

This news comes as Lucasfilm is apparently working on "Project Luminous," a multimedia "event" which will apparently encompass video games and comic books launching in 2021, with a design to feeding into the next set of live-action films. These will reportedly be set 400 years before the events of The Phantom Menace in an era called the "High Republic." These reports baffled some fans, who wondered if they'd dropped a zero and were in fact referring to the Old Republic era of 4,000 years earlier, the same time period as Knights of the Old Republic. Another possibility is that the Old Republic era is being retconned to taking place much more recently. This is given credence by reports in 2019 that the showrunner of Altered Carbon was writing a move script inspired by Knights of the Old Republic.

What is interesting is that there is no mention of BioWare being involved in the new project. BioWare are still actively developing Anthem after a less-than-stellar launch, are also developing a fourth Dragon Age game and reportedly are now in pre-production on a fifth Mass Effect game. Electronic Arts developing a new Old Republic game but giving it to another of their studios would seem unlikely and rather disrespectful to BioWare, but given the limited bandwidth at BioWare it would seem the only conclusion if this game is indeed to be released in the next two years or so.

More news as it develops.

BABYLON 5 to leave Amazon Prime next week

Babylon 5, one of the greatest SF shows of all time, is leaving its current streaming home on Amazon next week.

Babylon 5 has not had a regular streaming home, being bounced from service to service for several years. It landed on Amazon Prime in June 2018, but after eighteen months it will leave the service on 31 January. Where it will land next is unclear, but it's long-term home will likely be Warner Media's new streaming platform, HBO Max, which is due to launch in May this year.

If you haven't checked out Babylon 5 yet, it may be too late to do so unless you can cram 110 episodes into seven days. The show remains available on DVD.

Fan-favourite cast in THE WHEEL OF TIME TV series

The latest Wheel of Time casting news has confirmed that a fan-favourite character has been cast in the series, but with a change in gender.

Bela, the Lil' Sebastian of Randland, will be played in the show by Archie, a notably non-female horse. This particular slice of casting news has already sent shockwaves through the Wheel of Time fandom, with literally ones of people remarking on it (albeit mainly with "So?" and "Can you tell?"). Bela is probably the only character that the entire fanbase can agree is awesome, so the casting news will likely engender further almost-controversy in the coming weeks.

Obi-Wan Kenobi TV series on hold at Disney+

In surprising news, Lucasfilm have delayed production on its second Star Wars TV series. This series would see Ewan McGregor return as Obi-Wan Kenobi in a series set between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope.

The series started out as a movie, but after the failure of Solo it was retooled as a TV series. Hossein Amini was slated to write with Deborah Chow directing. The show was gearing up for pre-production, with set construction and location scouting expected to begin imminently. However, the crew have been put on indefinite hold after Lucasfilm decided to request complete rewrites.

According to Collider, two out of six scripts had been fully written, but Lucasfilm were not happy with them. Reportedly there were concerns that the main premise, which would have seen Obi-Wan watching over a young Luke Skywalker on Tatooine, may have been a bit over-familiar given The Mandalorian's recent storyline about a lone warrior watching over an infant whose life might be in danger. There may also have been concerns about treading on the toes of the CG series Star Wars: Rebels, which used Obi-Wan on Tatooine for several storylines in its last season.

Reportedly the scripts are now being refocused with a new writer (Amini is reportedly out), potentially with an idea about Obi-Wan having to leave Tatooine and go off-world on a solo mission. There is plenty of scope for this in the lore (as the idea that Obi-Wan just hung out in a hut on Tatooine for twenty years always felt a bit unlikely). What is clear is that Lucasfilm are very keen to give McGregor a solid outing as Obi-Wan and are hoping to reschedule production to begin in the summer. There is also some talk of the episode order being reduced to four.

The news follows reports that the Disney+ series focusing on Rogue One's Cassian Andor was also being reworked, with Rogue One co-writer Tony Gilroy (who is also credited with saving the film through reshoots) coming on board to lend writing support and direct several episodes.

The news adds to the general sense of chaos and a loss of direction at Lucasfilm. Rise of the Skywalker is approaching the end of its theatrical run having failed to match Rogue One at the box office and falling a billion dollars short of The Force Awakens' performance just four years ago. The next stage of the movie saga is also in doubt after David Benioff and D.B. Weiss quit.

Meanwhile, in good news shooting is already well underway on Season 2 of The Mandalorian, which is expected to air at the end of the year.

Whoopi Goldberg returning to STAR TREK as Guinan

Whoopi Goldberg is returning to her role of Guinan in Star Trek.

Patrick Stewart made the offer, authorised by his fellow producers, live on TV whilst appearing on Goldberg's talk show, The View, and Goldberg accepted.

Goldberg portrayed the role of enigmatic alien Guinan in a recurring role on Star Trek: The Next Generation between the second and sixth seasons of that show. She served as the bartender and owner of the Ten-Forward bar on the Enterprise. She also appeared in the film Star Trek: Generations (1994) in a major role and in Star Trek: Nemesis (2002) in a minor one. Guinan is a very long-lived alien, a member of a species called the El-Aurians who are also known as "listeners." They have an unusual relationship with the universe and with time itself. At one point Guinan apparently holds off the supposedly infinite power of Q (in the episode Q Who?), whilst in another she is able to perceive a major shift in the timeline when no-one else can (Yesterday's Enterprise).

Goldberg took time out of her burgeoning movie career to appear on Star Trek, because of her lifelong love of the franchise. Movie stars (especially Oscar nominees and winners) appearing on weekly TV was extremely unusual in the 1980s and 1990s and Goldberg's presence increased interest in the series, although her appearances were intermittent (eventually totalling 29 out of The Next Generation's 178 episodes).

Guinan will return in Season 2 of Star Trek: Picard, which is expected to shoot later this year for airing in 2021. Season 1 will begin airing on CBS All Access in the United States tomorrow and on Amazon Prime in the rest of the world on Friday.

WARLORD CHRONICLES TV series goes into active development at Epix

American cable network Epix has teamed with Bad Wolf Productions, the company behind His Dark Materials, to develop The Warlord Chronicles novel series by Last Kingdom creator Bernard Cornwell for television.

The Warlord Chronicles consists of three novels: The Winter King (1995), Enemy of God (1996) and Excalibur (1997). The Warlord Chronicles are a "realistic" take on the legend of King Arthur, set during the 5th and 6th Centuries in a Britain riven by religious and political turmoil. The Roman Empire has collapsed, but some of the Roman settlers and armies remain. The native Britons are trying to re-establish themselves, but the first waves of Saxons are starting to invade from the east. Roman religious cults and the newly-arrived religion of Christianity are struggling against the native pagan druids and other old faiths. It's a time of great danger, enhanced when King Uther Pendragon of Dumnonia dies and the protection of his infant son and heir Mordred falls to Uther's bastard child Arthur. Unable to ever become king, Arthur instead takes on the mantle of Warlord. Arthur's stewardship sees Dumnonia - rendered "Camelot" by later chroniclers - become a great power but it is sore-pressed by both internal and external pressures. The story is also notable for being told from the point of view of Derfel Cadarn, a very junior member of Arthur's circle, rather than from one of the better-known characters of the legend. The whole story is being related in exacting detail by Cadarn to some monks. To his horror, they start "sexing up" the stories with magic swords and ladies in lakes, forming the legend as we currently know it.

The Warlord Chronicles is often cited as Bernard Cornwell's strongest work, and the most successful version of the Arthurian legend of recent decades.

Epix is a relatively obscure American cable network, although it his scored some hits with the likes of Godfather of Harlem, Perpetual Grace LTD and Pennyworth. Their plan is to adapt the series under the title The Winter King. So far the project is only in development and has not yet been given a pilot order.

Bad Wolf optioned The Warlord Chronicles in 2015, but has delayed work on the show whilst they were getting The Night of, A Discovery of Witches and His Dark Materials underway.

Maria Doyle Kennedy and other actors join THE WHEEL OF TIME

Irish actress and singer Maria Doyle Kennedy is one of a slew of new castmembers announced for Amazon Prime's Wheel of Time project.

Maria Doyle Kennedy is the best-known of the new intake. She began her career as a musician in the 1980s, touring with the Hothouse Flowers and the Black Velvet Band before beginning both a solo career and an acting career in the 1990s. Her first appearance was in cult Irish music film The Commitments. A recurring roles on the original UK Queer as Folk followed. She had a breakthrough in American projects when appearing as Catherine of Aragon in Showtime's The Tudors, after which she appeared in Dexter and Downton Abbey. Between 2013 and 2017 she co-starred in Orphan Black as lead character Sarah's adopted mother, Siobhan. Subsequent roles have included Sing Street, Jupiter Ascending and Outlander.

Kennedy's role in Wheel of Time has not been disclosed, although she's been my personal pick as Elaida since I saw The Tudors. She'd also make a strong Verin, or Siuan if they wanted to age up that role relative to Moiraine. Another possibility is Cadsuane, since Season 1 will apparently feature the storyline where Logain is captured (where Cadsuane reportedly plays a role) and also possible flashbacks to New Spring.

Katy Fleetwood is best-known as a stage actress. Her television work includes Foyle's War, Hustle, Harlots and Victoria, and her film appearances include The Force Awakens and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I. She is confirmed to be playing the role of Liandrin, an Aes Sedai of the Red Ajah, dedicated to capturing and "gentling" (cutting off from the One Power) male channellers.

Jennifer Cheon Garcia is a Canadian-Korean actress whose resume includes roles on Arrow, The Flash, Fringe, Star Trek Beyond, Lucifer, The 100 and Van Helsing. Her role on WoT is undisclosed, but appears to be an Aes Sedai.

Daryl McCormack's casting was previously leaked, but is now confirmed. He is best-known for Vikings and Peaky Blinders. His role is also undisclosed.

Clare Perkins is a British actress who has recently appeared in The Crown and Young Wallander. She is playing Kerene Nagashi. This is one of the most intriguing casting announcements, as Kerene is one of the Aes Sedai agents dispatched to search for the Dragon Reborn in the prequel novel New Spring. She actually does not appear in the main narrative at all. This suggests that there may be flashbacks to the events of New Spring in the first season.

There is also an additional rumoured casting (via Narg of the Daily Trolloc):

Kate Franz is a young actress with only one significant TV credit to her name, on The Blacklist. This is significant because several Wheel of Time alums, most notably writer Amanda Kate Shuman, worked on that show. Franz notes on an Instagram post that she'll be on set in January, but it's unclear if that's to work or just to visit her colleagues. "On set" suggests the former. From her looks, many fans have already suggesting she could be playing Elayne Trakand, although at 29 she is somewhat older than either the character or the actors playing her contemporaries. It's probably not a huge issue though.

More news as we get it.

Wertzone Classics: Two Point Hospital

If there was a question about who was the greatest video game developer of the 1990s, a clear leading answer would be Bullfrog. From 1989's Populous through 1999's Dungeon Keeper II, Bullfrog delivered a seemingly never-ending string of hits, built around strong mechanics, universal themes and stripped-back interfaces. Syndicate, Magic Carpet, Theme Hospital, Powermonger, Dungeon Keeper and Theme Park were all genre-redefining classics.

With such a body of work behind them, it's surprising that neither Bullfrog themselves nor their successor company, Lionhead, made much of an attempt to keep their legacy going. Lionhead instead got bogged down making MOR action-RPGs (the Fable series) and indulging founder Peter Molyneux's increasingly bizarre ego trips, and their great stable of games was left to rot...until recently, when other ex-Bullfrog staffers started resurrecting their old games as "spiritual sequels." First up was Satellite Reign, a highly enjoyable remake of Syndicate, and now Two Point Studios have joined forces with Sega to resurrect Theme Hospital.

Two Point Hospital is so close to being Theme Hospital 2018 that it's really just missing the official IP. You start off as the administrator of a fairly straightforward, basic hospital and it's up to you to get the place running properly by making sure you build the right treatment rooms and hire the right specialists to deal with the local common diseases. As the game continues, you move to new areas in Two Point County with different requirements, such as hospitals in freezing cold regions where the main struggle is keeping everything nice and warm, and ones on tropical islands which have the opposite problem. There's a hospital that's been built in a haunted old castle (yes, really) and others in run-down areas with (shudder) socialised healthcare where you can't fleece the hospital visitors for cash on the spot. Oddly, this ends up being one of the more straightforward scenarios.

Each hospital requires careful balancing between budgetary needs, answering patient requirements and keeping staff happy. Force your workers to stay on long shifts and provide poor facilities for them and their motivation and efficiency will drop. Keep your patients standing around for hours with no food or toilets and expect to see them storming out or - in extreme cases - dropping dead on the spot (and possibly returning as a ghost to haunt the corridors).

Fortunately the game avoids the potential downer of dealing with real medical issues by adopting a lighter tone. The diseases are all invented, comic creations. One disease turns patients into 8-bit masses of pixels and has to given "more resolution" to return to normal. Another turns patients into giant dogs. Another replaces patients' heads with lightbulbs. The increasingly surreal illnesses and the offbeat ways of treating them keeps the game feeling fresh as it progresses, all accompanied by amusing, detailed animations which reward zooming right into a room to see what's going on (most of the game is played zoomed way out as you rush around the hospital putting out fires, sometimes literally).

The game's comic tone belies the fiendishness of its difficulty curve. The game is relatively forgiving and you only need to achieve a couple of modest objectives per scenario to unlock the next one, but if you want to max out each mission it requires a lot of tactical thinking and understanding the game's systems thoroughly. It's a game which you can play relatively casually but also rewards those who want a much more gruelling challenge.

Since release, the game has also been constantly updated with new maps, scenarios, diseases and challenges, making for a decidedly massive game for this kind of management sim. I have 60 hours in the game and there's still more I need to do and see.

Two Point Hospital (*****) takes a game from the 1990s and updates it for modern audiences with better visuals and a streamlined interface, but loses absolutely none of the wit, humour, intelligence and challenge. A compelling and rich management game which constantly entertains, it is available now on Steam. Console versions are also available.