Statement comes as tech firms try to use creative professionals’ work to train AI models Abba’s Björn Ulvaeus, the actor Julianne Moore and the Radiohead singer Thom Yorke are among 10,500 signatories of a statement from the creative industries warning artificial intelligence companies that unlicensed use of their work is a “major, unjust threat” to artists’ livelihoods. The statement comes amid legal battles between creative professionals and tech firms over the use of their work to train AI models such as ChatGPT and claims that using their intellectual property without permission is a breach of copyright. Continue reading...

Mats Steen had muscular dystrophy and died very young. But a touching new documentary has used animation and his own posts to reveal the fulfilling gaming life he led in World of Warcraft – right down to his first kiss The night after their son Mats died aged just 25, Trude and Robert Steen sat on the sofa in their living room in Oslo with their daughter Mia. They couldn’t sleep. “Everything was a blur,” remembers Trude of that day 10 years ago. “Then Robert said, ‘Maybe we should reach out to Mats’ friends in World of Warcraft.’” Mats was born with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a progressive condition that causes the muscles to weaken gradually. He was diagnosed aged four and started using a wheelchair at 10. By the end of his life, Mats could only move his fingers, and required a tube to clear his throat every 15 minutes. As he became increasingly disabled, he spent more time gaming: 20,000 hours in his last decade (about the same as if it were a full-time job). Continue reading...

Using World of Warcraft-style animation, this documentary tells the story of Mats Steen, a boy with muscular dystrophy whose online popularity was only revealed after his death It’s probably just an accident of scheduling, but this deeply affecting documentary is arriving just when there’s a debate raging at the school gates about children’s use of smartphones and social media. So while it’s undoubtedly troubling how tech platforms set out to addict and exploit young minds, The Remarkable Life of Ibelin provides a fascinating counterargument about how online gaming at least can be a lifeline for some individuals who find themselves isolated in the real world, or IRL as the kids like to say. Born in 1989, Mats Steen started out like many other Norwegian children of his generation: energetic, sweet-natured, unusually pale. However, his parents Robert and Trude soon discovered that he had Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a genetic condition that eroded his ability to move and breathe and which would eventually kill him at the age of 25. By that point in 2014, Robert, Trude and Mats’ sister Mia knew that Mats spent hours of his life online playing World of Warcraft using special equipment to accommodate his disability and had been publishing a blog about his life. Continue reading...

Home computing and the gaming industry have their origins in the iconic early 80s hardware, documented here in an homage to an eccentric pioneer You’ll need a pretty high geek tolerance level for this very detailed and specialised account of Sir Clive Sinclair’s bestselling ZX Spectrum home computer, whose appearance in 1982 with its rubbery keys was thought to be as lovably eccentric as the man himself. But with this he revolutionised the market, educated the British public about the importance of computing, and virtually created the gaming industry from scratch. It was originally to be called the “Rainbow” in homage to its groundbreaking colour graphics; Sinclair instead insisted on “Spectrum” as it was more scientific-sounding. Interestingly, the film shows that Sinclair’s flair for the home computing market arose from his beginnings in mail order and assembly kits for things such as mini transistor radios targeted at “hobbyists”, that fascinatingly old-fashioned word. His first home computers were available as kits and to the end of his days, he was more interested in hardware than software; perhaps this intensely serious man never quite sympathised with the gaming culture that drove his product around the world. Continue reading...

Major entertainment company gives Runway access to vast portfolio to help film-makers ‘augment their work’ Lionsgate has signed a deal with the artificial intelligence research firm Runway, allowing it access to the company’s large film and TV library to train a new generative model. According to the Wall Street Journal, the model will be “customized to Lionsgate’s proprietary portfolio” which includes hit franchises such as John Wick, Saw and The Hunger Games. The aim is to help film-makers and other creatives “augment their work” through the use of AI. Continue reading...

MachineGames’ long-awaited tie-in looks set to deliver the most authentic Indy adventure yet. And with George Lucas and Steven Spielberg on board, hold on to your hats for an unforgettable ride It’s the spring of 1977, and George Lucas is petrified. Having just wrapped work on his third feature film, Star Wars, he retreats to Hawaii, unable to face the early reviews. Yet as he frets in a five-star resort, Lucas bumps into another Hollywood hideaway – Steven Spielberg. Making sandcastles together under the Maui sun, Lucas pitches Spielberg a story that riffs on the simpler era of 1950s’ serials, an action-packed spectacular about a James Bond-esque archaeologist. This crypt-robbing Casanova’s name? Indiana … Smith. The hero’s moniker certainly benefited from some finessing, and the action-packed Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) raked in $354m at the box office. Yet as great as Indy’s influence was on cinema, it might have had an even bigger one on video games. It inspired Lara Croft’s tomb-raiding antics and Uncharted’s wise-cracking Nathan Drake. There have also been games starring Indy himself, most notably LucasArts’ brilliant graphic adventures from the early-90s, but it’s been decades since the last interactive Indiana Jones adventure that wasn’t made of Lego. This December, he’ll finally get another crack of the gaming whip with Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, from the studio behind Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus – in a game that actually looks like the films. Continue reading...

Reactions to the trailer have ranged from ‘awful’ to ‘horrendous’. But what does its target audience think? Nothing makes you feel older than watching someone two generations younger than you play Minecraft – except, perhaps, watching someone two generations younger watching someone else play Minecraft on YouTube. (What are they doing? Why are they always so over-excited?) This might all seem a bit 2011: gen A have generally moved on to watching YouTubers play Fortnite, Roblox and Elden Ring with their minds instead. But there are still millions of people, most of them kids, playing every month, and there’s powerful nostalgia for this blocky virtual-Lego game among the gen Z young adults who grew up with it. A Minecraft movie was inevitable. This film has been on the cards since 2012, originally with Ryan Reynolds’ Wrexham FC mate Rob McElhenney on to direct, and Steve Carell to star. Various botched attempts, Covid, and the pesky actors’ strike, meant that filming didn’t start (in Auckland, New Zealand) until early 2024. A Minecraft Movie, out April 2025, is directed by Napoleon Dynamite director Jared Hess, and stars Jason Momoa, Jack Black, Emma Myers, Jennifer Coolidge, Jermaine Clement and Matt Berry. From the trailer released this week, it’s even more bonkers than you would imagine. Continue reading...

The immersive theatrical experience, which sees your seat move, shake and often spray water, has seen a record summer During this long, hot, languishing summer, I have come to believe in one thing and one thing only: seeing Twisters in 4DX. The Oklahoma-set film, directed by Lee Isaac Chung, is about a 7/10 movie in 2D – a blockbuster sequel of sorts to the 1996 disaster flick, starring Glen Powell and Daisy Edgar-Jones as tornado chasers with modest chemistry. But in the immersive theatrical format known as 4DX, in which viewers are buffeted with literal wind and rain, Twisters becomes an unmissable 10/10 experience. In 4DX, you feel every bump and jolt of a truck in an F5 gale, thanks to moving seats that, among other things, punch you in the back and tickle your ankles. When the characters clung to bolted theater seats during a final climactic storm, I too clung to my armrest, lest I get rattled off my wind-ripped chair. Each of the film’s tornado encounters drew loud cheers at my screening, as did the shot of Powell in a tight white T-shirt during a palpable drizzle. I emerged from Twisters with tangled hair and horizontal tear streaks; my friend lost her shoe. In 4DX, you do not just, in the words of Powell’s Tyler Owens, “ride” the storm. You are the storm. Continue reading...

New documentary looks for a woman who was synonymous with typing in the 80s and 90s, with surprising results Before bashing out emails and text messages by thumb became an accepted form of communication, typing was a fully manual skill. In the 80s, “the office” was an exclusive preserve for freaks who could type 40 words per minute at least. Those too modest or miserly to sign up for brick-and-mortar classes could pick up a software program called Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing for $50. At my Catholic high school, the application was the typing class. The priests just switched on the computers. Launched in late 1987, Mavis Beacon quickly assumed pride of place on home PC desks amid floppy disks for SimCity and After Dark. Among other features, Mavis gamified typing drills and tracked typing progress in explicit detail. Its defining feature was the elegant Black woman with a cream suit and slicked-back bob marching proudly off to her high-rise job on the cover of the software package. But it would take a few more decades for the bigger lesson in the pitfalls of relinquishing control over your image and likeness to corporate interests. Continue reading...

Found-footage horror about YouTube pranksters turns into an online phenomenon, giving its star and creator a Hollywood inroad 2024 is already becoming something of a banner year for horror, with Longlegs making over $100m and Late Night with the Devil earning a whopping 97% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. And yet the breakout horror of the year might just be an $800 project currently available to watch free on YouTube. Milk & Serial is a 62-minute, found-footage horror by YouTuber Curry Barker, and it manages to be at once ruthlessly effective and wonderfully authentic. Racking up 348,000 views in the two weeks since its release, its popularity has been supercharged by raves on Reddit that have since crossed over into traditional media. Bloody Disgusting called it “one of the year’s best-kept secrets” and this week Barker found himself being interviewed by no less than Variety. Continue reading...