The Sony Pictures hacking story continued to make headlines over the festive period, with the movie studio announcing plans to push on with the release of anti-North Korea comedy, The Interview. News of a UK theatrical and digital release of the film reached us this week, along with various other announcements.
Happier news has also hit the headlines, with CES bringing some exciting new announcements, Ant-Man's first teaser trailer and more. Here's our round-up of the best of the rest from across the web this week.
Science
- A team of US astronomers have proven that the age of a star can be accurately measured by its spin speed, as had previously been thought.
- An "Earth-like alien world" has been found by astronomers as part of a group of eight new planets discovered.
Film
- The first teaser for upcoming Marvel movie Ant-Man has emerged online. The film stars Paul Rudd, Michael Douglas and Evangeline Lilly. Watch the trailer below:
- FOX has announced a 2016 release for X-Men spin-off Gambit, starring Channing Tatum, pushing Planet of the Apes back to summer 2017.
- The Interview scandal has somewhat died down, and the UK will finally get to see the film from 6 February, Deadline revealed.
The online release of the film made The Interview Sony's number one digital release of all time, unsurprisingly, making $31 million between December 24 and January 4.
- The Imitation Game and Theory of Everything will go head-to-head at the BAFTAs, with both films nominated for Best Film and Outstanding British Film, Eddie Redmayne and Benedict Cumberbatch nominated for Leading Actor, Felicity Jones nominated for Leading Actress, and Keira Knightley nominated for Supporting Actress, among other accolades.
TV & Streaming
- Google is launching an audio streaming platform with Chromecast compatibility, reports TechCrunch, with which users can stream music, podcasts, etc, from.
- Some Netflix users accessing the site through VPNs have noticed that they are being locked out of the service, though Netflix has denied that they have stepped up their policies.
- Netflix will start to put its stamp of approval on the best internet-connected televisions deemed the most suitable for streaming from the service.
- New reality series Hackers is being developed at SyFy, and will look into some of history's most famous cyber-crimes on a weekly basis.
- SyFy and Philips are teaming up to create an immersive experience for viewers of new show 12 Monkeys, fixing Philips Hue light bulbs to mirror the action on the screen when it airs.
Gaming
- Chinese gaming company Snail brought its new console OBox to CES this week, demonstrating its ability to run Android games.
- World of Warcraft creator Rob Pardo has made comments about video gaming being included in the Olympic Games, arguing that the definition of sport has expanded.
- Sony is planning to launch a new $19.99 per month subscription service for Playstation 3 games, allowing Playstation 4 users to stream older games to their console.
- Razer has announced an open source virtual reality headset, to be released in June and sold for $199.
