The first trailer for Batman: Death in the Family has been released, but this is going to be a very different adventure to the ones we’re used to seeing from Warner Bros. Animation. Taking a cue from Netflix’s Black Mirror and Kimmy Schmidt interactive movies, you’ll be given the opportunity to decide how the story plays out for the Caped Crusader and the Boy Wonder. 

Based on the official description, it sounds like this will just be a short, so it’s clearly an experiment for Warner Bros., and one we’ll hopefully get to see expanded on in the not too distant future.

As you might expect, Batman: Death in the Family adapts “Batman: A Death in the Family,” the 1988 landmark DC event where fans voted by telephone to determine the story’s ending. The interactive Blu-ray presentation offers many different ways for viewers to tell the Batman: Death in the Family story, with numerous twists and turns in the middle, and several possible endings. 

Produced, directed and written by Brandon Vietti, the movie takes place in a world where the infamous murder of Batman protégé Jason Todd will be undone, and the destinies of Batman, Robin and The Joker will play out in shocking new ways as viewers make multiple choices to control the story. And while 2010’s Batman: Under the Red Hood provides a baseline, the story also branches in new directions and features several characters previously unseen in the original film.

Check out the trailer below:
 

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Twitch has been pushing the boundaries of interactive streaming with their audience-driven sci-fi series Artificial. Season 3 of the live scripted series embraces the current pandemic by adapting to the situation and moving forward with Artificial: Remote Intelligence.

We at Comic Book Movie have been lucky enough to have the chance to speak with the cast and crew behind this choose-your-own-ending-type series. Over the past few weeks, we have shared our exclusive chats with Dante Basco (Hook, Avatar: The Last Airbender), Jennifer Field (9-1-1), Tohoru Masamune (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Inception), and many more.

Today, we are excited to share the second portion of our chat with voice and mo-cap actor Stephen A. Chang, following our The Last of Us Part II piece from yesterday. We learned a lot about the character of Sebastian that Stephen plays in Artificial: Remote Intelligence, in addition to how surprisingly un-tech savvy he is in his real life!

If you are interested in listening to the audio portion of our conversation, click play on the podcast link below. Skip to 01:32 for our Artificial chat!

Literary Joe: How did you initially become involved with Artificial?

Stephen A. Chang: I auditioned like everyone else. (Laughs) Bernie had a relationship with me prior to Artificial. Emma Approved was my first Bernie Su project and we did Vanity together. Then I was lucky enough to be cast again to work with him.

Literary Joe: Nice, can you tell me a little bit about your character in Artificial?

Stephen A. Chang: Yeah, his name is Sebastian. He is a multi-million dollar backer of this artificial intelligence project. (Laughs) Which always makes me laugh because I’m far from a multi-millionaire so I’m glad I can play it well.

(Laughs) Yeah, I think he’s sometimes he’s perceived as a good guy and sometimes he’s perceived as the villain. He’s definitely back and forth and people consider him to be a manipulator.

In my eyes he’s good-intentioned and I think he’s always tried to push for the evolution of artificial intelligence in humanity. I think that sums it up. He’s kind of mysterious that way.

Literary Joe: Do you think any of your character traits are assigned to you by the fans based on any previous roles that you’ve played?

Stephen A. Chang: I think this is definitely created by Bernie and his team. I can see how previous roles kind of influenced this character and I can definitely see some similarities.

In Emma Approved, I played a character named Frank Churchill who was very similar. He had a lot of bravado and he was the kind of guy that liked to stir the pot.

But it is definitely interesting with the audience, you know they hated Sebastian for a long time and then they started kind of coming around to him. They hate him, they love him. Which I like, I feel like he’s not just a clearly defined character, which is more fun to play.

Literary Joe: Nice! Now, I know you provided your voice to Last of Us II. Does that mean that you were familiar with Twitch as a platform before you got involved?

Stephen A. Chang: No, actually. My introduction was through Artificial to the Twitch platform. I’m like a ninety-year-old man trapped in a thirty-five year old body. (Laughs) I’m not great with technology or video games.

I still like Super Mario and Golden Eye. Those were my video games and I’m not much of a gamer so I’m a little outdated with it. Last of Us II was really fun to work on.

Literary Joe: Have you ever had an interactive role like this or anything similar with an audience chat aspect?

Stephen A. Chang: Nothing as live and to the moment. I feel like we kind of skimmed the surface with Emma Approved, which was definitely an audience-driven show, but this is like Emma Approved on steroids, I feel like.

(Laughs) It’s definitely taken it to a new level of in-the-moment, and, you know, a scene can go two different ways depending on a poll and how people vote, so it definitely keeps you on your toes.

Literary Joe: Nice, now did you join in Season 3, or were you involved with Artificial prior to that?

Stephen A. Chang: I was in Season 2 of Artificial, I was not in Season 1. Thank God I was brought back for Season 3.

Literary Joe: I know things are a little different as far as filming remotely goes, is this the first job that you’ve done remotely acting wise?

Stephen A. Chang: Definitely. It’s the first job and the industry feels like it’s been shut down for months now. I haven’t even gotten any auditions for things or anything, so it’s definitely a relief.

Literary Joe: What kind of challenges do you feel like you’re getting filming from home that you didn’t really have to deal with pre-COVID?

Stephen A. Chang: Well, I realized, like I told you, as a nine-year-old trapped in trapped in this body, that tech-savvy is not my strength. So, you have to do a little bit of everything.

You have to set the lighting, you’re your own crew, you gotta set the camera, you’re on set design, and you do all of this kind of on your own. I realized that I didn’t have a lot of the appropriate tools, so thank God for the Artificial team walking me through this. But it’s definitely been hard.

And I think that even acting during these streams, you know, it’s not like you can look at the other actor. It’s nice to act off of someone, but you’re just kind of looking at your camera on your computer, so you’re kind of isolated and there are some acting challenges that go along with quarantine.

Literary Joe: I know they added a lot of new people in this season, such as Dante Basco. Did you work with any of the cast or crew before working with them on Artificial?

Stephen A. Chang: Just the cast that I worked with from last year. I know some of them — Justin (Lee) and Devon (Werkheiser), I think they worked together a long time ago from what I’ve heard.

Literary Joe: Yeah, that’s what he told me earlier.

Stephen A. Chang: Yeah, no. I’m meeting everyone new just as you are meeting everyone new.

Literary Joe: Some of the other actors have told me that they’ll make a different screen name to interact in the chat. Is that something that you do?

Stephen A. Chang: I don’t. (Laughs) I don’t want to come across in this interview like “who is this old dude?” but I don’t have like social media and all that stuff. I got a Gmail account, so if anyone wants to Gmail me we can chat, but that’s about it for me, man. (Laughs)

Literary Joe: Nice. Now, there’s an unknown aspect to Artificial, where it’s difficult to prepare for what happens next, based on the audience having some control. Do you ever get your hopes up that the character or the plot is going to go one way, and then the audience kind of flips it on you?

Stephen A. Chang: (Laughs) For most of last season I was hoping I’d win some kind of vote, or something, but I was losing most of the votes. I was trying to get my mom to get on like “mom, come on, you gotta help me out man.”

Literary Joe: You gonna get your mom to make a Twitch account?

Stephen A. Chang: Yeah, exactly. Someone help me. I mean, actors, for the most part, we’re sensitive people. So I want them to vote for me and be in my favor, and when you lose it hurts, but you move on to the next vote.

*This interview has been edited for clarity.*

What do you guys think of this interview with Artificial: Remote Intelligence star Stephen A. Chang? Let us know your thoughts in the usual spot; meanwhile, be sure to check out the trailer’s for Chang’s most recent projects, Artificial and The Last of Us Part II.

After a vicious and violent event disrupts the relative peace that Ellie has found in Jackson, she sets out to bring justice to those responsible. As she hunts them down one by one, she is confronted with the devastating physical and emotional repercussions of her actions.

The groundbreaking Twitch series Artificial returns with Artificial: Remote Intelligence. This season takes a huge step forward with a bold new sci-fi vision and ground-breaking interactive methods, including an audience-controlled musical score and revolutionary new interactive Worldbuilding episodes. Viewers will be able to dictate aspects of the production including casting of new characters, story, and set design.

The Last of Us Part II is now available for the Playstation 4. Artificial airs live on Twitch every Thursday at 5:00 pm EST.

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With 2016’s X-Men: Apocalypse, Fox attempted to deliver a Marvel Studios-style blockbuster, and the results…weren’t great. The movie was a critical bomb and underperformed at the box office, and the studio later decided to put the franchise in the hands of Simon Kinberg, a disastrous decision which resulted in the worst-reviewed X-Men movie ever released: Dark Phoenix. 

During a recent interview with Slash Film, The New Mutants director Josh Boone explained why the reaction to X-Men: Apocalypse led to his movie undergoing some major changes. 

As well as deciding it should be standalone in nature, Fox also wanted to move away from the past. 

“They really did want it to be different than other stuff,” Boone explains. “They really pushed us to keep it separate from X-Men stuff, even though it’s set in the X-Men universe. We had early drafts that were supposed to be in the same timeline as [X-Men:] Apocalypse, so it was originally going to be set in the ’80s. Originally, Professor X and Storm were in it, and Storm very much played the Alice Braga role.”

“Over the course of months, a new studio head came in, they said they didn’t want any X-Men movies to take place in the past anymore, as if that was the reason that Apocalypse was bad. [laughs] So we were put in the position where we kind of rewrote it to be set now in a nebulous [point in time], because nobody knew how the movies had turned out. Dark Phoenix wasn’t out yet. Yeah, it’s there – they talk about Professor X and those things, but it doesn’t have cameos from anyone or anything like that.”

That confirms references to the wider X-Men Universe (which is no more), but also that we can forget about any familiar faces showing up. It’s interesting that Storm was going to take the place of Alice Braga’s Dr. Cecilia Reyes, as it’s widely believed that character is The New Mutants‘ lead villain. 

It’s also strange that Fox wanted to move away from certain time periods, as Dark Phoenix took place in the 1990s; however, given how it barely referenced that decade, it too was somewhat “in a nebulous [point in time].”

The New Mutants is now a standalone movie, though it is hard not to wonder what an earlier version of the movie – set in the 1980s – would have looked like. 

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The 2020 Emmy nominations have just been announced, and Star Wars fans will be very happy to hear that Disney+’s The Mandalorian has picked up a nom for Outstanding Drama Series.

The first season of the live-action Star Wars show was a big hit with fans and critics, but it’s still somewhat surprising that it’s been recognized by The Emmys – especially in such a major category. Giancarlo Esposito, who played Moff Gideon in the season finale, was also nominated for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series.

In addition, HBO’s Watchmen picked up some big nominations, with Regina King, Jean Smart, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Jeremy Irons, Jovan Adepo, and Louis Gossett Jr. all scoring acting noms in their respective categories. The show was also nominated for Outstanding Limited Series, and actually received the most nods altogether with 26.

You can watch Saturday Night Live’s Leslie Jones announce the nominees in the video below, or keep scrolling for the full rundown.

Outstanding Drama Series

Better Call Saul

The Crown

The Handmaid’s Tale

Killing Eve

The Mandalorian

Ozark

Stranger Things

Succession

Outstanding Comedy Series

Curb Your Enthusiasm

Dead to Me

Insecure

Schitt’s Creek

The Good Place

The Kominsky Method

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

What We Do in the Shadows

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series

Christina Applegate, Dead to Me

Rachel Brosnahan, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

Linda Cardellini, Dead to Me

Catherine O’Hara, Schitt’s Creek

Issa Rae, Insecure

Tracee Ellis Ross, black-ish

Outstanding Lead Steroids confirmed to help severely ill coronavirus patients primobolan buy uk aurobindo pharma introduces covid-19 drug molnupiravir in india Actor in a Comedy Series

Anthony Anderson, black-ish

Don Cheadle, Black Monday

Ted Danson, The Good Place

Michael Douglas, The Kominsky Method

Eugene Levy, Schitt’s Creek

Ramy Youssef, Ramy Outstanding

Lead Actress in a Drama Series

Jennifer Aniston, The Morning Show

Olivia Colman, The Crown

Jodie Comer, Killing Eve

Laura Linney, Ozark

Sandra Oh, Killing Eve

Zendaya, Euphoria

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series

Jason Batemna, Ozark

Sterling K. Brown, This Is Us

Steve Carell, The Morning Show

Brian Cox, Succession

Billy Porter, Pose

Jeremy Strong, Succession

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie

Jeremy Irons, Watchmen

Hugh Jackman, Bad Education

Paul Mescal, Normal People

Jeremy Pope, Hollywood

Mark Ruffalo, I Know This Much Is True

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie

Cate Blanchett, Mrs. America

Shira Haas, Unorthodox

Regina King, Watchmen

Octavia Spencer, Self Made

Kerry Washington, Little Fires Everywhere

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series

Giancarlo Esposito, Better Call Saul

Nicholas Braun, Succession

Kieran Culkin, Succession

Matthew Macfadyen, Succession

Bradley Whitford, The Handmaid’s Tale

Billy Crudup, The Morning Show

Mark Duplass, The Morning Show

Jeffrey Wright, Westworld

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series

Laure Dern, Big Little Lies

Meryl Streep, Big Little Lies

Fiona Shaw, Killing Eve

Julia Garner, Ozark

Sarah Snook, Succession

Helena Bonham Carter, The Crown

Samira Wiley, The Handmaid’s Tale

Thandie Newton, Westworld

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series

Andre Braugher, Brooklyn Nine-Nine

Mahershala Ali, Ramy

Kenan Thompson, Saturday Night Live

Daniel Levy, Schitt’s Creek

William Jackson Harper, The Good Place

Alan Arkin, The Kominsky Method

Sterling K. Brown, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

Tony Shalhoub, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series

Betty Gilpin, GLOW

Yvonne Orji, Insecure

Kate McKinnon, Saturday Night Live

Cecily Strong, Saturday Night Live

Annie Murphy, Schitt’s Creek

D’Arcy Carden, The Good Place

Alex Borstein, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

Marin Hinkle, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie

Dylan McDermott, Hollywood

Jim Parsons, Hollywood

Tituss Burgess, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy vs. The Reverend

Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Watchmen

Jovan Adepo, Watchmen

Louis Gossett Jr., Watchmen

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or Movie

Holland Taylor, Hollywood

Uzo Aduba, Mrs. America

Margo Martindale, Mrs. America

Tracey Ullman, Mrs. America

Toni Collette, Unbelievable

Jean Smart, Watchmen

Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series

Andrew Scott, Black Mirror

James Cromwell, Succession

Giancarlo Esposito, The Mandalorian

Martin Short, The Morning Show

Jason Bateman, The Outsider

Ron Cephas Jones, This Is Us

Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series

Cicely Tyson, How to Get Away With Murder

Laverne Cox, Orange Is the New Black

Cherry Jones, Succession

Harriet Walter, Succession

Alexis Bledel, The Handmaid’s Tale

Phylicia Rashad, This Is Us

Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series

Fred Willard, Modern Family

Dev Patel, Modern Love

Brad Pitt, Saturday Night Live

Adam Driver, Saturday Night Live

Eddie Murphy, Saturday Night Live

Luke Kirby, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series

Angela Bassett, A Black Lady Sketch Show

Maya Rudolph, Saturday Night Live

Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Saturday Night Live

Maya Rudolph, The Good Place

Wanda Sykes, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

Bette Midler, The Politician

Outstanding Limited Series

Little Fires Everywhere

Mrs. America

Unbelievable

Unorthodox

Watchmen

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