Every superhero needs a trusty sidekick, and it looks like Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) just got one.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Benedict Wong — who shined as the chronically overworked director of a jet propulsion laboratory in Ridley Scott’s The Martian — has been cast as Strange’s loyal assistant.
To coin a metaphysical term, this casting choice feels like a synchronicity for a few different reasons. First: Benedict Wong shares a last name with the character he’ll be playing. Second: He shares a first name with his co-star. Third: He just so happens to be an excellent actor.
The character he’ll be playing is a recurring figure in the Marvel universe with an interesting resume of talents. He is knowledgeable in the occult as well as the martial arts but is also a faithful servant who keeps the Sorcerer Supreme’s affairs in perfect order. Wong’s most important function, however, is to keep a watchful eye on Strange’s body while his spirit is off visiting alternate dimensions.
Known for his roles in Prometheus, Moon, and Sunshine, Wong is currently playing the part of Kublai Khan in the Netflix original series Marco Polo.
When he arrives on set, Wong will join a talented and diverse cast that includes Chiwetel Ejiofor, Rachel McAdams, Tilda Swinton, Michael Stuhlbarg, Mads Mikkelsen, and of course, Benedict Cumberbatch. These days, the presence of the Sherlock star alone is enough to intrigue us, but there’s more than one name on that list capable of moving the proverbial needle.
If you’re looking for a mind-bending, metaphysically stimulating trip to the movies, this one should be right up your alley. Doctor Strange is filming now and is set to hit theaters on November 4, 2016.
China just gave Hollywood a cautionary tale about AI filmmaking. Sanxingdui: Future Past, billed as the country's first fully AI-generated movie, hit theaters on October 23 and bombed at the box office.
According to Futurism, the film's reported $1.5 million production budget landed on more than 10,000 screens. Yet it pulled in only about $181,000, averaging roughly $20 per screen, making the budget difficult to recover.
Some of the best shots in Grok Imagine’s AI-made Odyssey don’t contain actors. Ancient landscapes stretch into the distance. Close-ups of grimy hands suggest people who have touched something rougher than a keyboard. For a few seconds, the illusion holds.
https://twitter.com/imagine/status/2113712964419063911
YouTube videos could soon look better without eating quite so much data, right? Thankfully, the platform plans to introduce a new video format called AV2 on its web player in early 2027, promising more efficient streaming and potentially fewer playback hiccups on slower internet connections. The big headline is a roughly 30% improvement in compression efficiency over AV1, YouTube's existing video format. That doesn't guarantee every video will use 30% less data, but it could make streaming a little easier on both internet connections and data allowances.
What is AV2, and why should viewers care?