- Elon Musk Calls Out Disney Ad “Boycott”, Mopes About Getting “S–t From Idiots” Despite Being A “Philosemite, Climate Crusader” And World’s Richest Man Deadline
- X struggling to win advertisers back after Elon Musk’s profane outburst The Guardian
- Walmart drops ads on X as Elon Musk fallout grows CNBC
- Opinion | Elon Musk Is Making a Giant Mistake … Unless? The New York Times
- If Dems can target billionaire Elon Musk to control speech, who WON’T they target? New York Post
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Tag Archives: Crusader
Batman: Caped Crusader Cut by HBO Max
Upcoming animated series Batman: Caped Crusader won’t be coming to HBO Max. According to TV Line, the show from Bruce Timm, Matt Reeves, and J.J. Abrams is one of six animated titles that have been pulled from HBO Max’s upcoming slate and will no longer be produced by the company.
However, all six will continue production with the intention of shopping them to other studios.
Announced last year, Batman: Caped Crusader is an interesting project – seemingly taking inspiration from Timm’s earlier work on the hugely popular Batman: The Animated Series.
“We are beyond excited to be working together to bring this character back, to tell engrossing new stories in Gotham City,” said the three producers in a joint statement. “The series will be thrilling, cinematic, and evocative of Batman’s noir roots while diving deeper into the psychology of these iconic characters. We cannot wait to share this new world.”
Considering Batman: The Animated Series appeared on HBO Max back in January, it felt like a slam dunk for the Warner Bros-owned online streaming service. After all, fans have been clamouring for more episodes of The Animated Series for as long as I can remember.
However, it looks as though HBO Max parent company Warner Bros. Discovery is continuing its cost-cutting mission as it prunes projects across the board.
A side effect of the Warner Bros. Discovery merger, the company has been cancelling projects left, right, and centre since the high-profile cancelation of Batgirl. We’ve seen 36 shows recently removed from the service as well as over 200 episodes of Sesame Street taken down.
Thought to be a cost-cutting measure, the cancelation and removal of shows is paving the way for the merger of HBO Max and Discovery+, the company’s two streaming services which are now set to become one.
Want to read more about Batman’s animated projects? Check out how The Batman adapts the Batmobile from The Animated Series, as well as which DC shows and movies could be affected by the recent Batgirl cancelation.
Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.
Caped Crusader Not Moving Forward At HBO Max – Deadline
Batman: Caped Crusader, an animated series from executive producers Bruce Timm, J.J. Abrams and Matt Reeves, will not be moving forward at HBO Max, sources have confirmed to Deadline. It is among six animated projects, along with family action comedy Merry Little Batman, The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Toons Movie, Bye Bye Bunny: A Looney Toons Musical, Did I Do That to the Holidays: A Steve Urkel Story and The Amazing World of Gumball: The Movie (working title) that will no longer be produced by HBO Max but will be shopped, sources say.
They are among dozens of titles have been cut or removed from the streaming service as Warner Bros Discovery continues its cost-cutting measures and ahead of the merger of the HBO Max and Discovery+ services next year.
Batman: Caped Crusader was given a straight-to-series order in May 2021. The reimagining of the Batman mythology was produced by Warner Bros Animation, Bad Robot Productions and 6th & Idaho and marked Batman: The Animated Series producer Timm’s return to Batman in animated episodic series.
TVLine was first to report that the projects were not moving forward.
‘Batman Caped Crusader,’ Urkel Holiday Not Moving Forward at HBO Max
Batman: Caped Crusader, which 15 months ago received a series order from HBO Max and Cartoon Network, is among six animated projects that are no longer being produced for HBO Max, sources confirm for TVLine.
TVLine hears that all six projects, mostly from Warner Bros. Animation, will continue production while they are shopped to other outlets.
This news of course comes amid numerous programming changes at an in-transition HBO Max, where some projects are being nixed and others that already stream on the service are being (not-so-)quietly removed.
Batman: Caped Crusader is an animated reimagining of the Batman mythology by way of Batman: The Animated Series‘ own Bruce Timm, with J.J. Abrams, Matt Reeves and Ed Brubaker also serving as EPs. Reeves of course directed The Batman, the big screen’s most recent live-action take on the Dark Knight (now played by Robert Pattinson), while Abrams — in addition to of course numerous Star Trek and Star Wars projects, plus TV’s Lost and Alias — is an EP on HBO Max’s still-in-development Justice League Dark series.
Utilizing state-of-the-art animation techniques and technologies, the creative partnership between WB Animation and the EPs promises to “reinvent Batman and his iconic rogue’s gallery with sophisticated storytelling, nuanced characters and intense action sequences all set in a visually striking world.”
What other animated offerings are no longer bound for HBO Max, but will hopefully land elsewhere upon completion? Read below:
Crusader Kings III Will Officially Support Same-Sex Marriages
The Crusader Kings series has long supported same-sex relationships in certain forms, but thanks to the way so much of the games have been built around historical ideas of marriage and succession, if players wanted gay characters to get hitched, they had to use mods.
This was explained last year by developers Paradox, after same-sex concubinages were briefly and accidentally enabled in the vanilla game, a scenario that had the potential to basically…break everything:
Paradox note that while modders had briefly enabled “same-sex concubinage” a little while ago, the developers had to quickly restrict it, “as part of fixing a concubine-related bug, believing it’d never been possible at all.”
“Since then, we’ve made changes to properly support same-sex concubinage, and it will come alongside other modding improvements,” as part of the game’s series of 1.3 updates. “Further, we plan to support same-sex marriage for mods in 1.4,” Paradox add. “Due to larger technical risks surrounding it, it was not feasible to include that in 1.3.X; we need more time to test it to ensure that this support does not introduce bugs in the vanilla game.”
That was April 2021, and while Paradox originally promised same-sex marriage was coming in the 1.4 update, it’s now coming as part of the 1.5 update, alongside the Royal Court DLC, the first major expansion for the 2020 release.
Players will be able to toggle the ability to have same-sex marriages from the main menu before starting a game, and Paradox says they’ve “updated a variety of AI logic and interactions and content to take that into account when playing.”
“This is something that we’re very happy to be able to put into the game and have support in the game rules for unmodded games too, it is something that a lot of the team and community wanted and we are glad it is finally going to be shipped in 1.5.”
The Royal Court DLC is due to hit on February 8, and this update will be released alongside it. And in other CK3 news, the game is somehow coming to PS5 and Xbox Series X|S on March 29.
Scuba diver finds 900-year-old Crusader sword off the coast of Israel
(CNN) — A scuba diver has found a 900-year-old Crusader sword with a three-foot blade off the coast of Israel.
The amateur diver spotted the sword and other ancient artifacts on the seabed off northern Israel, according to a statement from the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) published Monday.
He was diving on October 9 when he spotted the sword, which boasts a foot-long hilt, along with stone anchors, metal anchors and pottery fragments.
The artifacts were “apparently uncovered by waves and undercurrents that had shifted the sand,” the IAA said.
The sword’s blade is three feet long.
Ariel Schalit/AP
The diver took the sword up to the surface so it wouldn’t be stolen or covered up again, before handing it in to the IAA.
The sword was found 200 meters (656 feet) from the shore, at a depth of four meters (13 feet), Koby Sharvit, director of the IAA’s Marine Archaeology Unit, told CNN on Tuesday.
Its size and shape suggest it belonged to a Crusader, as does the fact that it was found just a few kilometers from Atlit castle, a Crusader fortress, Sharvit added.
Dating from 1096 to the late 13th century, the Crusades were a set of military expeditions by Western European Christians that aimed to retake the Holy Land in the Middle East after centuries of Muslim wars of expansion.
Koby Sharvit, director of the Marine Archaeology Unit of the Israel Antiquities Authority, pictured with the sword.
Ariel Schalit/AP
Nir Distelfeld, Inspector for the IAA’s Robbery Prevention Unit, said the sword is a rare find that has been preserved in perfect condition.
“It was found encrusted with marine organisms, but is apparently made of iron,” Distelfeld said in the statement.
“It is exciting to encounter such a personal object, taking you 900 years back in time to a different era, with knights, armor and swords.”
Sharvit told CNN the sword is well preserved because it was buried in a deep layer of sand, without oxygen.
The sword will be cleaned of encrusted stones and shells.
Ariel Schalit/AP
It currently weighs around 5-6 kilograms (11-13 pounds) due to the incrustation of stones and shells, but the sword itself probably weighs 1-2 kilograms (2.2-4.4 pounds), he said.
The coastline in the area has many natural coves that provided shelter for ancient ships, and settlements such as Dor and Atlit developed around the larger coves, according to the IAA.
This means the area was popular with merchant ships — and that means a wealth of potential archaeological finds.
The site has been monitored since June, when some artifacts were first discovered by members of the public. But the movement of the sands means artifacts are “very elusive,” according to the statement.
“Our work actually is like a puzzle,” Sharvit told CNN, explaining that even small storms can move the sand around and expose new objects.
Other artifacts recovered from the site show it was used in the Late Bronze Age, some 4,000 years ago, by ships seeking shelter, Sharvit added.
He told CNN that the team will closely monitor the site in the coming months.
“It’s very strange to find just one artifact” from the Crusader period, he said, explaining that the sword could have been left following a shipwreck, or a Crusader landing party.
Winter storms could expose more artifacts, he added, and archaeologists will carry out further surveys in the area.
In the meantime, the sword will be sent to the IAA labs to be cleaned, said Sharvit, who hopes to learn more about its history when the metal itself is revealed.
IAA Director-General Eli Escosido said: “Once the sword has been cleaned and researched in the Israel Antiquities Authority’s laboratories, we will ensure it is displayed to the public.”
Crusader Kings 3’s First Paid DLC Arrives Next Week With the Viking-Themed Northern Lords
Crusader Kings 3: Northern Lords is a Norse-themed flavor pack that is set to be released on March 16, 2021 as the game’s first paid DLC.While this isn’t a full-blown expansion to Crusader Kings 3, Northern Lords will still give players “dozens of new stories” and chances to “raid foreign shores, brave harsh winters, or establish a new Viking realm.”Players will have a chance to found a new realm and establish power in foreign lands. Furthermore, Holy Norse warriors, shield-maidens, and poets will be available as new character roles.
Since the Norse culture is the focus of this flavor pack, it will allow players to immerse themselves in that world by doing everything from erecting runestones to honor your ancestors to sacrificing prisoners in a sacred blot ritual.
There will also be new Dynastic legacies, cultural innovations, and other events that will add depth to these new experiences.
Crusader Kings 3: Northern Lords can be purchased for $6.99 USD or as part of the game’s expansion pass that includes a new expansion and another new flavor pack.
In our 10/10 review of Crusader Kings 3, we said that it “takes the throne as the new king of historical strategy by expanding on and deepening the best parts of what made its predecessor memorable and unique.”
Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.
Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.