The film still has no director, but negotiations will no doubt be already under way. The film does have a scriptwriter, though, in the form of Michael Lesslie, who has mainly scripted short films and has not worked in Hollywood before. Expect to hear more details coming soon.

Meanwhile, the fourth numbered Assassin’s Creed title, Black Flag, has a new trailer. IN this latest instalment, you play as Edward Kenway, a young pirate skilled with a sword, and the game takes place during the Golden Age of Pirates in 1715. Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag will be available for Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii U on the 1 November, and will be released on the next-gen consoles at a later date.

Toshimichi Mori, the game designer of the BlazBlue series, previously said in 2010 that he wanted his games to be adapted into an animation. The Game creators Arc System Works’ European partner Zen United responded to this by creating an official petition to support the anime adaptation.

The first BlazBlue title, BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger, was released in 2008 as an arcade game. BlazBlue: Clone Phantasma is the latest title in the series, and was released in Japan on the Nintendo 3DS in December last year.

The film centres around a war between humanity and aliens that appeared from rifts in the Pacific Ocean. To fight these monsters, known as Kaiju, giant robots, or Jaegers, were built; these robots are controlled by two pilots whose minds are connected as one by a neural bridge. Even with the Jaegers, humanity is losing the war, and the forces fighting the Kaiju have no choice but to turn to Raleigh Becket (Charlie Hunnam), a washed up former pilot, and an untested trainee named Mako Mori (Rinko Kikuchi) to pilot a legendary Jaeger.

Two viral images were also released:

“This was only the beginning.”

“What once evoked fear now inspires awe.”

Very little is known about this title apart from the fact that PlayStation applied for a European trademark on Panopticon; the symbol (pictured right) was filed to include computer and video games, toys and playthings, and entertainment.

A panopticon originally comes from English philosopher and social theorist Jeremy Bentham in the late 1700s, and was a design for a prison that meant a watchman could monitor all the inmates from one position without their knowledge. Although an exact version of Bentham’s panopticon has ever been built, it has been said that some prisons were influenced by Bentham’s design. The word panopticon is derived from the Greek words “pan” and “optikon”, which together mean “all-seeing”.

The story of the manga follows Dr. Kenzo Tenma, a doctor who risks his reputation to save the life of a 12-year-old boy; however, this boy has now become an infamous sociopathic killer. After discovering the killer was his patient, Tenma goes on a worldwide search to stop him.

With Joss Whedon having already shown an interest in showing the public response to superheroes in The Avengers, it will be interesting to see if this series delves deeper into the consequences of prolonged exposure to superheroes – and villains – for the ordinary public.

Shin Oonuma (Baka and Test – Summon the Beasts) is directing the series at SILVER LINK, while the scriptwriting will be supervised by Kenji Inoue (Baka and Test – Summon the Beasts) and written by Hazuki Minase (C³). Also among the staff are Nozomi Ushijima (animation director on Dusk Maiden of Amnesia episodes), who is the character designer; Tatsuya Katou (Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere), who is scoring the music; and Takashi Sakamoto (episode director on Baka and Test – Summon the Beasts 2) is the series chief director. The singer Choucho (Heaven’s Memo Pad) will perform the anime’s opening theme song, although its title is yet to be announced. 

The anime’s main cat will be reprising their roles from the previous drama CD:

• Illyasviel von Einzbern (Ilya) – Mai Kadowaki
• Rin Tohsaka - Kana Ueda
• Miyu Edelfelt - Kaori Nazuka 
• Luviagelita Edelfelt (Luvia) - Shizuka Ito
• Magical Ruby - Naoko Takano
• Magical Sapphire – Miyu Matsuki
• Kuro - Chiwa Saito

Hey guys, it’s abridger interview time again. Today I’m chatting with the handsome face behind many of Yugioh GX Abridged’s most prominent characters, xthedarkone. We discuss the process of creating an average episode, the greatest experiences he’s ever had with fans at conventions, his advice for those who want to fllw in his footsteps and more.

Laura: Firstly, could you introduce yourself and give a short explanation of what you do for any readers who’ve not heard of you?

xthedarkone: Well my name is xthedarkone, and I’m an abridger. I Started doing Yugioh gx abridged when my friend shadyvox asked me to help write it when he attempted to do it himself however didn’t feel his first ep was very good. I found writing and voice acting so much fun that after shady asked if we could do the series togetherIi was more than willing. I now do amateur voice over work as well as my own abridged series Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood and one with MasakoX Rosario + vampire.

Laura: And was acting, voice acting or script writing something you’d ever considered before getting into Yugioh GX Abridged, or was that how you first got into it?

xthedarkone: Well I did a lot of writing before GX as I used to write fanfiction so I enjoyed writing long before I started abridging but yeah when I first started doing GX I found it a lot of fun to voice act and soon found a passion in it.

Laura: At what point did you realise GX Abridged was a successful series that you’d be sticking with? Was their a moment where it became clear?

xthedarkone: Well I was going to stick with GX despite how successful it became but i guess one of the first things that told me the series had become successful when people started doing fanart from the show.

Laura: What’s the process of creating a typical episode of GX Abridged like for you from start to finish?

xthedarkone: Well our style of creating episodes has evolved but our modern style we use now involves shady either coming round to my place or I will go to his, we get the episode in question and watch the entire thing first just collecting ideas then we go through the ep again and begin writing the script, knocking ideas back and forth. Once that is done I will go round to his to do the recording needed, we may still tweak the script here and there during recording. Once that it done it left to shady to mix and edit the ep together.

Laura: In what ways has your life changed since you started Abridging?

xthedarkone: My life has changed in almost every way since I started abridging, I’ve made soooo many new friends because of it. Abridging has changed my life thanks to all the taleted people who I’ve been able to meet and know from the gang of whachow to meeting littlekuriboh, masakox and Faulerro, three people I would definatly call my brothers. But the biggest and by the BEST thing that abridging has done for me was helping me meet the amazing girlfriend Lady_nanaki who I met thanks to a con I was invited to for abridging.

Laura: Have you ever had any weird experiences with fans?

xthedarkone: Once at a convention, masakox and I were hosting a quiz at a con and while they were totting up the answers masako and I had to ablib some comedy, then later on at our panel a fan approached us during q and a and told us that our time during the q and a seemed very scripted when it wasn’t at all

Laura: In contrast, have you ever had any particularly memorable positive fan experiences?

xthedarkone: tbh nearly all my expirences with fans have been positive but to name a few would be: a couple of years ago I attended a convention wthout being a guest and I went to the Yugioh cosplay photoshoot and as everyone had grouped up for a photo I asked everyone to look at the camara and say reaction shot, they didn’t really hear me until one of the cosplayers and my friend ExShadow a really talented cosplayer who along with Malindachan had been looking after me the whole con repeated what I had said one of the cosplayers too a good look at me and his face seemed to light up when he figured out who I was. Another great expirence was at an english convention last year when I was asked this very same question and we mentioned a girl who was a cancer patient who said that listening to GX abridged really helped her get through it all, and it turned out the girl in question was there AT THE PANEL so shady and I approached her and we hugged, at the same con I also met some fans who had travelled all the way from Berlin to see us

Laura: Do you have any advice for any aspiring voice actors or abridgers reading?

xthedarkone: Well for voice actors I would say find your own voice, a lot of people think the only way to be a good voice actor is to sound like a current famous VA when in fact directors are looking for NEW sounds a lot of the time, if they are looking for Dan Green they will try to hire Dan green. So Voice actors yeah learn how to express your emotions through your voice and find your own sound. As for Abridging I would say have fun with it and only do it IF you are interested in voice acting, writing or just entertaining. Not to try and get famous.

Laura: lastly, do you have any final words?

xthedarkone: butts, cheese, dalmations!

The role of the 13-year-old witch, Kiki, will be played by 16-year-old Fuka Koshiba, who was chosen from approximately 500 candidates, and this will be her first acting job. In order to make sure Kiki’s flying scenes look beautiful, Koshiba is currently doing practice swings with the bokken (wooden sword for practice) 200 times everyday.

Shooting for the film will begin on an island in the Seto Inland Sea in Japan around the end of May.

T.J. Fixman, the writer of the recent Ratchet & Clank games, will be writing the script for the film.

Though we’re only given a glimpse of Loki, the nature of his involvement will be interesting as he will have cooperate with his brother, and it’s always a pleasure to watch Tom Hiddleston (Loki) and Chris Hemsworth (Thor) acting together.

Space Battleship Yamato 2199, directed Yutaka Izubuchi (RahXephon), debuted in April last year as a series of films; the first episodes aired in Japan earlier this month. The original Space Battleship Yamato TV anime series was dubbed, and partially rewritten, in English as Star Blazers.

A viral trailer, narrated by Benedict Cumberbatch’s character, Khan, was released just a few days earlier. It seems that most of the trailers for the film either feature a rousing speech by Captain Kirk, or a menacing monologue by Khan. The trailer uses many of the same visuals previously seen, and Khan fails to offer up anything new to film villainy.