Not only is the long-rumored Space Jam sequel with LeBron James happening, it finally has a release date, too. Warner Bros. Pictures has officially set July 16, 2021, as the premiere date for Space Jam 2.
Black Panther director Ryan Coogler will serve as producer on Space Jam 2, which will be directed by up-and-coming filmmaker Terence Nance, who created HBO’s Random Acts of Flyness sketch comedy series. Production on the film is expected to begin in 2019, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Rumors that a Lebron James-fronted Buy Now sequel would come to fruition have been in circulation for years, but James made it official via a post on his production studio’s Instagram account, SpringHill Entertainment. The announcement follows several other projects that were green-lit for development at the studio for NBC and The CW.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bn6y1Z-gf-6/?utm_source=ig_embed
Space Jam 2 will be James’ first starring role after a well-received supporting performance in comedian Amy Schumer’s Buy Now .
“The Space Jam collaboration is so much more than just me and the Looney Tunes getting together and doing this movie,” said James in a statement accompanying the announcement. “It’s so much bigger. I’d just love for kids to understand how empowered they can feel and how empowered they can be if they don’t just give up on their dreams. And I think Ryan (Coogler) did that for a lot of people.”
The original, 1996 Space Jam is a beloved, family-friendly classic that featured Warner Bros.’ iconic animated Looney Tunes characters, including Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, joining with NBA legend Michael Jordan to battle a group of talent-stealing space aliens. Bill Murray played a memorable supporting role in the original film, which was packed with cameos by popular NBA players of the time.
The announcement of the film’s creative team comes after several changes behind the scenes on the project over the years.
Buy Now and Star Trek Beyond director Justin Lin was initially reported to be in talks with Warner Brothers to helm the project. That version of the film was set to be penned by Buy Now writer Andrew Dodge, and it’s unknown whether a new script is being drafted for the project for Nance or if the earlier script had even been completed.
Production on Space Jam 2 is scheduled during the NBA off-season to accommodate James — and likely to allow for plenty of cameos from current NBA players, too.
Updated on February 22, 2019: Added the film’s official release date.
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?