News Round-Up for the Week Ending 18/3/18

FILM

• Syfy will air a new sequel to the 1993 horror comedy Leprechaun in March 2019, the cable channel announced on St. Patrick’s Day. Titled Leprechaun Returns, the new television film is the eighth instalment in the infamously cheesy series which follows a Leprechaun (Warwick Davis) as he mounts various killing sprees in an effort to protect his beloved gold. Unfortunately, Davis will not return for this instalment, instead being replaced by Linden Porco as the Leprechaun wreaks bloody havoc on a group of college girls who tear down his cabin to make way for a new sorority house.

TELEVISION

• ABC (the American one) will air a four hour documentary miniseries in August titled The Story of the Royals. The documentary will (get this) cover the British Royal Family and current ruling monarch Queen Elizabeth II. The series hails from the same creative team that last year produced The Story of Diana for ABC, which focused on Princess Diana.
• Nicole Kidman is doubling down on television following her success in series like Big Little Lies and Top of the Lake. She’s now signed on for HBO’s new series The Undoing, from writer David E. Kelley (The Practice, Boston Legal, Big Little Lies). Kidman will play a therapist whose life is upended by the disappearance of her husband and the disturbing revelations about him which follow.
• Starz has commissioned a third instalment in it’s series of miniseries adaptations of the novels of Philippa Gregory. The Spanish Princess, like The White Queen and The White Princess before it, will adapt Gregory’s popular historical fiction books (in this case The Constant Princess and The King’s Curse) which invariably focus on the romance and political intrigue in the palaces of European monarchs during the Middle Ages. The eight episode series will focus on Catherine of Aragon, whose unfortunate life grew even more unfortunate following her marriage to the infamous King Henry VIII.
• The History Channel has unveiled an extremely ambitious new initiative they call History 100, a series of 100 documentary productions to be produced over the coming years, with each instalment covering a different significant event from the last century. Currently announced instalments in the series include a recounting of the Watergate scandal, a history of video games, a biography of former Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev, a look at the unsuccessful attempt by the American military to rescue hostages during the Iran Hostage Crisis, an examination of the bitter contest for market supremacy between Coca Cola and Pepsi (spoiler alert: Coke won) and an account of the events that took place on Air Force One on September 11, 2001.
• USA Network has renewed it’s acclaimed mystery series The Sinner for a second season. The sophomore run will focus on a new mystery investigated by Bill Pullman’s detective character.
• Netflix will release Bobby Kennedy for President, a four part documentary miniseries, on April 27. The series examines the final years of Robert F. Kennedy, brother of President John F. Kennedy, from his appointment as attorney general during the presidency of his brother to his assassination less than three months into his 1968 bid for president.

VIDEO GAMES

• Ubisoft released Curse of the Pharoahs, the second expansion for it’s open world action adventure game Assassin’s Creed: Origins, on March 13 for PS4, XB1 and PC.
• Sega will release Sega Genesis Classics, a compilation of fifty old games released on the Sega Genesis system, on May 29 for PS4 and XB1. The collection includes several Sonic the Hedgehog, Phantasy Star and Streets of Rage games among many others.
• Annapurna Interactive has revealed Outer Wilds, an open world mystery game set for release on PC and to-be-confirmed consoles later this year. Players will be tasked to investigate a time loop they find themselves stuck in.
• Ubisoft has issued a June 29 release date to it’s upcoming open world racing game The Crew 2. The racer, which can be played offline unlike it’s predecessor, features a truly massive open world and will launch on PS4, XB1 and PC.
• Sega’s tactical RPG Valkyria Chronicles 4 is receiving a western localisation later this year, unless you’re in Australia in which case the game won’t release locally until 2019 for no apparent reason. Seriously, how is this still acceptable? Australia is an English speaking country, it’s not like they need to do any extra work. The game will be available for PS4, XB1 and the Nintendo Switch.
• Square Enix has revealed Shadow of the Tomb Raider, the third instalment in the rebooted series of the classic video game franchise, for release on PS4, XB1 and PC on September 14. Little further information is currently known about the game, but it will receive a full unveiling on April 27.
• Curve Digital will release a game based on the Netflix crime series Narcos next year on to-be-determined platforms.
• Rising Star Games will release RICO, a first person arcade shooter, on to-be-determined platforms later this year. The game sees players tasked with cracking an organised crime case.
• Sega will release Yakuza Kiwami 2 in English speaking countries on August 28. The game is a total remake of the 2006 Japanese crime game Yakuza 2. The remake will release exclusively for PS4.