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01.01.2024 - 13:51 / polygon.com
The “new on Netflix” list is finally coming back to life. Despite being the Xerox of streaming platforms, Netflix’s library strategy has dramatically shifted from licensed to original content as other studios have jumped into the on-demand content game. Meaning the answer to “Is the movie I want to watch on Netflix?” has mostly been: “No, bruh.”
But this year, with the studios and streamers recoiling, consolidating, and trying to make money and increase subscriber growth by any means necessary, we’ve seen a huge uptick in criss-cross availability of titles. Suddenly movies like Aquaman, a cherished DC comic book prize on Max, is popping up on Netflix. Seasons of Survivor, the bedrock of Paramount Plus, are on there too. It’s a wild time as Netflix once again grows into a smorgasbord of stuff (quality notwithstanding).
What does January on Netflix hold? Get ready for a Freaks (1932) / Cats (2019) double feature! Plus everything else below.
Director: Sean Baker
Cast: Brooklynn Prince, Bria Vinaite, Valeria Cotto, Willem Dafoe
New to Netflix on: Jan. 6
The Florida Project meanders through a sunny-but-strapped-for-cash ecosystem just outside Walt Disney World. Six-year-old Moonee, a kid living with her mom at a nearby motel, spends her days adventuring through abandoned condos and along strip-mall-encrusted highways like Florida’s version of Max in Where the Wild Things Are. Shot on 35mm, The Florida Project is filled with eye-popping colors that bring a fairy tale quality to the Magic Kingdom-adjacent world. But Moonee’s dream is falling apart, as her mother scrambles to make ends meet and the motel manager (Willem Dafoe) chooses between caring for a kid and managing his teetering business. Baker’s films are all about considering the overlooked, but in sizing up a modern America where survival and economics clash, The Florida Project is his most heartfelt and searing.
Bitconned (Netflix Documentary)
From Netflix: Ray Trapani had always wanted to be a criminal, even as a young boy. In 2017, amidst the economic frenzy of the Bitcoin boom, there was no better place for scammers than cryptocurrency. So when Ray’s friend approached him with the idea of creating a debit card for crypto, Trapani jumped at the chance. There was only one problem: He had no idea how to do that. But thanks to fake LinkedIn profiles, paid celebrity endorsements, and the online community’s insatiable desire to “get rich quick,” Centra Tech was soon raking in millions of dollars a day.
Fool Me Once (Netflix Series)
From Netflix: When ex-soldier Maya sees her murdered husband on a secret nanny cam, she uncovers a deadly conspiracy that stretches deep into the past.
You Are What You Eat: A Twin Experiment (Netflix Documentary)
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A new ride for the upcoming Donkey Kong-themed section of Universal Studios Japan's Super Nintendo World will give parkgoers a very hands-on and thrilling series throwback, according to reports. The attraction apparently uses a simple yet clever design to provide this experience.
Everything was going right for Wonderbow co-founder Laia Gonzalez. Her small publishing company’s latest project, a board game called Kelp, had wildly exceeded expectations and was closing in on its final crowdfunding total of more than $1.5 million. Delivery was scheduled for October 2024, so there was plenty of time to begin finalizing the game’s components and coordinating with a manufacturer for production. Hoping for a little extra dose of dopamine, Gonzalez did a quick Google search to see if anyone in the vast and turbulent sea of tabletop influencers was particularly hyped about her company’s game. But instead of a new video of someone sitting in front of an overstuffed Ikea shelving unit, she was surprised to find Kelp already up for sale on Amazon. She, Wonderbow, and game designer Carl Robinson had become the latest victims of board game counterfeiters.
Fans were just surprised with two exciting Tekken 8 trailers, one revealing the game’s opening cinematic and another showing off the returning character Lee Chaolan. The next chapter of Bandai Namco’s blistering 3D fighting franchise is now over a week away, and much of Tekken 8’s roster and premise have already been shown to the eager gaming public. Many fan-favorite characters from past entries are returning in Tekken 8, with one of the most recent ones highlighted being the warrior tombkeeper Zafina.
January is already half over; can you believe it? But with the passing of days comes the opportunity to get closer to the big game releases of the month! There will be quite a few within a short span, and one of them comes from Bandai Namco! On January 26th, “Fist Meets Fate” as Tekken 8 will be released. The company is definitely banking on the title doing as well sales-wise as the previous entry, if not better. You can see this in the videos they’ve been posting with regular frequency so that gamers know it’s coming and know who they’ll be playing as.
A fan of FromSoftware's acclaimed open-world RPG Elden Ring created a moving prop arm to cosplay as one of the game's most beloved characters, Ranni the Witch. The fan is hoping to finish the costume in time for an upcoming American convention.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Jan. 12, 2024 – Super Wild Card Weekend is here! To celebrate, Saber Interactive, in partnership with the NFL Players Association and OneTeam Partners, is excited to unveil the first post-launch premium DLC for Wild Card Football, the over-the-top arcade football game for PlayStation®5, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation®4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store. The “Legacy QB Pack” DLC introduces four iconic legends with their own unique outfits – Warren Moon, Steve Young, Kurt Warner and Randall Cunningham – and will be available soon. A free update adding a new field, players, cosmetics, vanities, and celebrations is also coming soon for all players.
After sharing an anecdote online, singer-songwriter T-Pain revealed that he's working on Grand Theft Auto 6 with Rockstar Games. Not much is known about his involvement with Rockstar's latest open-world project, though it means T-Pain won't be able to participate in NoPixel, a popular Grand Theft Auto 5 role-playing server.
A demo for action RPG Granblue Fantasy: Relink will launch for PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4 on January 12, publisher Cygames and developer Cygames Osaka announced. It is available now in regions where it is already January 12, such as New Zealand (PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4).
Sony has made it abundantly clear that it intends to expand the audience for PlayStation’s biggest properties through TV and film adaptations, and sure enough, plans have accelerated with the likes of The Last of Us, Twisted Metal, and Gran Turismo. Beyond that, several other projects are also confirmed to be in development- including, curiously enough, Gravity Rush, a franchise that was never really among Sony’s biggest, and looks unlikely to get a new game instalment at any point in the foreseeable future.
The Gravity Rush movie just got a surprise glimpse during Sony's CES 2024 presentation. No release or plot details were revealed but the footage, a showcase for Torchlight — the company's newest visualisation tech — showed one of the characters leaping off a building, straight into some rubble dominated by a red, winged demon ready to fight back. The video largely cuts between CGI and motion capture clips, proving that previous reports about it being a live-action adaptation were wrong. Anna Mastro (Secret Society of Second Born Royals) was attached to direct the film then, from a script by Emily Jerome (Panopticon), marking her second writing gig.
In a big setback for US space agency NASA, a historic private mission to land on the Moon was facing near-certain failure Monday after the spacecraft suffered a "critical loss" of fuel, in a major blow to America's hopes of placing its first robot on the lunar surface in five decades.