Netflix reportedly paid over US$50 million for ‘Cloverfield Paradox’

As we get more details about Cloverfield Paradox’s debut on Netflix, we realize how smart a move it was for the studio to partner with the streaming service. The film has forgone a theatrical release and instead debuted on Netflix right after the Super Bowl on February 4. The move was supposedly a “rescue plan” by the film’s producer J.J. Abrams, Paramount chairman-CEO Jim Gianopulos, Netflix chief Ted Sarandos, and head of original films Scott Stuber, among others. They worried the film would “perish” at the box office so instead of letting it languish there when it was set to hit theaters on April 20, they went for this approach. Sources claim Netflix paid over US$50 million for the film. But Paramount retains rights for China and home entertainment.

This move made it profitable for the studio as well as avoiding a perceived misfire and costly marketing campaign for the film. And Netflix, who doesn’t seem to care if reviews or ratings are good, got what they wanted: buzz. “It gets them attention and captures some viewing right off the bat,” says eMarketer’s Paul Verna. They might not get the viewership they hope for the film but as Verna says, “they still got a brand jolt.”

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

‘Game of Thrones’ creators will develop new ‘Star Wars’ films

So, the new Solo: A Star Wars Story isn’t the only big news we’re getting from the galaxy far, far away this week. It’s just been announced that the creators of HBO’s Game of Thrones, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, will be coming on board to create a new series of movies for the franchise. These movies “will be separate from both the episodic Skywalker saga and the recently-announced trilogy being developed by Rian Johnson, writer-director of Star Wars: The Last Jedi.” So, yup, there is a whole lot of Star Wars in our futures, ladies and gents. No word yet on the timeline of these films but we’ll definitely hear more when the time comes.

New leaked press renders show off the Samsung Galaxy S9 & S9+

It’s been talked about numerous times in the past how the upcoming Samsung flagships will look like and there have been leaked images of the devices before. But now we get another look at the Galaxy S9 and S9+ this time in one of the more unusual color variants of the phones: Lilac Purple. It’s said the two flagships will also come in Midnight Black, Titanium Gray, and Coral Blue, although not all markets get all the different variants. The renders confirm what have been said all these time that only the S9+ gets the dual rear camera setup and the fingerprint sensor has finally been moved below the camera sensors for easier reach.

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Google rolls out fix for short-duration lags on Android Wear

Back in December some Android Wear 2.0 users were experiencing some short-duration lags or freezes when it came to using their wearables. Turning off the “Ok Google” hotword detection feature seemed to have fixed the problem temporarily. Now, the company has finally been able to remedy this without having to resort to that solution. To get the fix, you’ll need to have version 7.18.50 of the Google app installed.

Source: GSMArena