Rebooted Batman to Debut in Justice League Movie?

Rumor has it that the live-action Justice League of America movie will also ostensibly serve as the reboot of Batman on the big screen.

Batman-on-Film reports that a "solid as they come" source tells them the Batman "reboot will come after the JL film, not before. Therefore, the new cinematic Batman will be introduced in the JL film as opposed to a solo film. This would ... assure the new Batman film series will be part of a 'DC Cinematic Universe.'"

The site cautions, however, that while their source is legit, they still advise readers to take the rumor "with a grain of salt" for now.

Next summer's Man of Steel is expected to be the final DC Comics movie until at least 2015, when scuttlebutt suggests the JLA film will be released.

JLA is being scripted by Will Beall. No director is currently involved, although recent reports claims the Wachowskis are high up on Warner Bros.' wish list to helm it.

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Wachowskis Rumored as Justice League Director Contenders

Warner Bros. is actively looking for a director to finally bring their live-action Justice League of America movie to life. Ben Affleck recently shot down reports that he might do the film, and now there's a rumor that the studio is looking at not one but two filmmakers to direct JLA: Lana Wachowski and Andy Wachowski.

According to Moviehole, the sibling directors behind the Matrix trilogy, Speed Racer and the upcoming sci-fi epic Cloud Atlas are on the studio's list of possible contenders to helm JLA, which was scripted by Gangster Squad's Will Beall. The site claims the studio is "apparently jazzed with Cloud Atlas, and love that it’s as much a spectacle as it is a showcase for the immense ensemble involved, so it makes sense the W’s are under consideration. Justice League needs to be as big on character, as it does bells & whistles, and the Wachowski’s could probably offer that."

Moviehole cautions, however, that  the Wachowskis "definitely like to work at their own speed, and definitely like to do their ‘own’ thing as opposed to being merely one ‘cog’ in a venture, so I can’t see them jumping through hoops to pull the strings on a ‘we want it done now’ large corporate statement like this. Still, exciting possibility nonetheless."

The Wachowskis are no strangers to adapting DC Comics for the big screen. They produced the feature film version of V for Vendetta and once tried to turn Plastic Man into a movie, but to no avail.

Mad Max's George Miller came closest to making JLA a few years ago, casting Armie Hammer as Batman, Common as Green Lantern, and Adam Brody as Flash.

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Ben Affleck Denies Justice League Reports

Actor-director Ben Affleck has shot down recent reports that he's up for helming Warner Bros.' Justice League of America movie.

In a chat with 24 Hours Vancouver, the Oscar winner said, "I'm not working on the Justice League. One of the problems with entertainment web sites is that they need to fill pages, and that's how rumours get started."

Affleck added, "Justice League sounds really exciting, but it's not something I'm working on."

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3DS XL Launch Guide

For highly patient gamers across the country, the wait for a better, slicker 3DS model finally paid off last Sunday, when the 3DS XL officially launched in North America. With bigger screens, a better battery life, a sleeker design and larger buttons, this new system represents a giant step forward for the little system that could. But while the XL is a fine piece of machinery, a gaming system is no good if you have nothing to do with it. You can only Raid so many Faces, after all.

If you want the lowdown on how to truly ock being a 3DS owner, check out the guide below. From the games you should definitely pick up to a couple of things you should take care of to maximize your experience, this is everything you need to know to get the most out of your new investment. And for those of you who are upgrading from the old model, browse through to make sure you’re all caught up on the big items too - and skip to the end if you want help making the jump to a larger SD card.

Must Buy Games

While it took a while to find its stride, the 3DS library is now rather strong for a system just barely past its first birthday. Below you’ll find the handful of titles you absolutely can’t pass up, and a pretty good sampling of what the 3DS has to offer. No, not every amazing 3DS game is included here (calm down, 3DS owners!). This is just a good starting point for people to whet their 3D appetite with. Oh, and the first isn’t a suggestion - it’s required playing.

Super Mario 3D Land

The definitive 3DS experience and the best portable Mario game ever made. Super Mario 3D Land looks amazing - especially on the XL’s larger screens. It’s Mario magic incarnate.

Check out our full review of Super Mario 3D Land

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D

A gorgeous and faithful remake of one of the greatest games of all time, presented in stunning 3D. You’ve never seen Hyrule field like this before.

Check out our full review of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D

Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance

A great action RPG that leads right into the (presumably) forthcoming Kingdom Hearts III. Sora and Riku are back - and keep an eye out for some awesome The World Ends With You cameos!

Check out our full review of Kingdom Hearts 3D

Resident Evil Revelations

Revelations pushes the system to its limits, offering a full Resident Evil experience that feels right at home on a portable.

Check out our full review of Resident Evil Revelations

Kid Icarus Uprising

After far too long, Pit has returned thanks to Smash Bros. creator Masahiro Sakurai. Help the angel soar in this exciting new adventure.

Check out our full review of Kid Icarus Uprising

Mario Kart 7

Challenge friends and strangers alike in MK7, which features Nintendo's most sophisticated example of online multiplayer to date.

Check out our full review of Mario Kart 7

3DSWare

The 3DS’s offerings aren’t only limited to retail games. Your first step to getting at these awesome downloadables is to connect your system online. You can do this in System Settings, and once you're online you'll also be able to receive SpotPass content from Nintendo. Once that's done, grab some 3DS cards - or a credit card, either way - and hop on over to the eShop to catch up on these downloadable goodies. Again, this is only a small sampling of what the eShop has to offer, but it should be more than enough to get you started.

Pushmo

A delightful and wholly unique puzzle game that will keep you coming back for more… and more… and more.

Check out our full review of Pushmo

Sakura Samurai: Art of The Sword

Master the sword in this delightful action game. It has a Kappa in it!

Check out our full review of Sakura Samurai

Dillon’s Rolling Western

Defend your towers - and some weird, sheep-like creatures - in this Western-inspired title.

Check out our full review of Dillon’s Rolling Western

Mutant Mudds

Old school platforming with an epic use of 3D. If only it were 10 times longer!

Check out our full review of Mutant Mudds

Colors! 3D

The painting tool to end all painting tools. Doodle in 3D, then share it with your buddies!

Check out our full review of Colors! 3D

3DS Virtual Console

As for the 3DS Virtual Console, check out the titles below, then begin your journey into gaming’s portable past.

The Legend of Zelda

The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening

Super Mario Land

 

Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins

Super Mario Land 3: Wario Land

Metroid II: Return of Samus

Donkey Kong ’94

 

Kirby’s Dream Land

Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters

Tetris

 

Game & Watch Gallery 2

Update Your Firmware and Get StreetPassing!

Now that you’ve dipped your toes in the 3DS software pool, there are just a couple things you should take care of before your 3DS is good to go. The first thing you’re going to want to do is update your system - you’ll find this option in System Settings. Once the update is complete - it should only take a minute or so, depending on your connection - you’ll be able to create folders on your Home Screen. Just tap a blank spot, click Create Folder, name it, and fill it with awesome games.

Make sure you also create a Mii for yourself in the Mii Maker, then visit your StreetPass Mii Plaza application to get the StreetPass party started. Once you’re all set up, just carry your system around in sleep mode to tag other 3DS owners, collect puzzle pieces, and unlock tons of hats in the included Find Mii RPG mini-game. Enjoy!

SD Card Transfer

If you look to online retailers like Amazon, you can easily find a 32 GB SD card to upgrade to for around $20. Then, even if you take to downloading full retail games like New Super Mario Bros. 2, you’ll never have to worry about card space again. Here’s how you transfer your data to the new card once you have it:

Step 1: Pop your SD card into your computer. Use an SD card reader if your computer doesn’t have a card slot.

Step 2: Drag everything in your old SD card to an empty folder on your Desktop.

Step 3: Remove the old SD card and insert the new one. Drag the contents of the folder (not the folder itself!) to the new card.

Step 4: Remove the new card from your computer, pop it into your system, and voila! Transfer complete.

That about covers everything you need to know to begin your 3DS XL adventure. Keep in mind that the games mentioned are only the tip of the iceberg - I’d wager you can look to the comments below to find more game suggestions for once you’ve worked your way through these.

Audrey Drake is an Associate Editor at IGN and a proud member of the IGN Nintendo team. She is also a lifelong gamer, a frequent banisher of evil and a wielder of various legendary blades. You can follow her wild adventures on her IGN blog and Twitter. Game on!

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Captain America Seeks Leading Lady

The cast for Captain America: The Winter Soldier is heating up, with three actresses apparently in the running for the film’s female lead.

According to the New York Post, Anna Kendrick – who appeared in Scott Pilgrim and The Twilight Saga – is up for the role, alongside Felicity Jones (Cemetery Junction) and Imogen Poots (28 Weeks Later).

Anthony Mackie is rumoured to have landed the role of Cap’s partner Falcon, while Chris Evans will be returning as the title character.

Joe and Anthony Russo are directing the super-sequel, which will hit cinemas summer 2014.

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Copper: "Surviving Death" Review

Advance Review: From TV crime veteran Tom Fontana (Oz, Homicide: Life on the Street) comes BBC America's first ever original scripted series, Copper - a gritty, gloppy "Uptown/Downtown" look at law and order in 1864 New York City. And you don't have to look much further than the cinematic world of Five Points, Manhattan in Scorsese's The Gangs of New York to know that justice rarely reared its head in this time and area that we now consider to be a fascinating hotbed of socioeconomic strife.

Copper has the appealing grime and soot for a show dedicated to showing the corruption that permeates through an entire city system, but I never quite felt invested in any of the characters; especially (and most importantly) the hero of the tale, Irish immigrant Officer Kevin Corcoran (Tom Weston-Jones). Within this first episode, entitled "Surviving Death," we're loaded up with so much back-story that there's almost no way one leading man can live up to all the potential.

Old Timey Pew Pew Pew!

Corcoran is a beloved Civil War hero and a former prized pugilist looking for his missing wife and a mysterious ship all while mourning the death of his six year old-daughter, Maggie. Sure, he's corrupt, but only enough to make him fit in with his historical surroundings, and nowhere near as corrupt as his higher-ups. As a man with - conveniently - no prejudices, Corcoran is able to utilize the entire city in order to solve a crime - from a black forensic expert named Matthew who's opinion no one will accept, to a posh city-aristocrat who Corcoran saved in the war. Copper never stops being interesting, but the predictable way that Corcoran is allowed to be, for example, the only one who cares about the death of a young prostitute sinks the show into the mire a little bit.

Business does pick up however when Corcoran starts running into bureaucratic walls after his investigation begins pointing to places and people whose reputations simply won't allow for sordid accusations. And so while a case might get solved in the pilot episode, it doesn't necessarily mean that things will play out the way we might expect them to on a contemporary cop show. And I'm not sure whether the loose ends from this premiere will get wrapped up as soon as the second episode, or if they'll play out in a Terriers/Luther-style through the rest of the season.

I will admit to enjoying watching how Matthew (Ato Essandoh) uses the science and lab techniques available at the time to run his CSI: Five Points experiments, even though anybody who's watched enough procedural autopsy TV could look at the dead girl's body and tell you the exact murder weapon.

As Copper moves forward, with several mysteries yet to play out, we'll watch issues of immigration, segregation and voter rights texturize the background, giving the series extra weight and significance. And like Scorsese showed us previously, any hero of this era is mostly likely marked by past tragedy as a way of helping us believe that he would want to see true justice served. A yearn for vengeance works well in that respect too. Unfortunately, any hero surrounded by so much interesting history can be easily overshadowed and made bland. Run Lola Run's Franka Potente is also on board as Eva, a hooker with a heart of silver - aka Corcoran's lust interest. As female characters go on this series, it'll probably be hard to find one that isn't a prostitute or a princess as such was the times.

Copper has some good seeds planted down in its muddy Mulberry Street and I'm hoping that the reason that some of it came off as bland to me is due to the fact that I've seen a lot of these characters before; in Westerns and other films and shows taking place post-Civil War. Still, a decent start.

Copper premieres Sunday, August 19th at 10/9c on BBC America.

Matt Fowler is a writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter at @TheMattFowler and IGN. WARNING: No Nudity!

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LittleBigPlanet Karting Release Date

LittleBigPlanet Karting finally has a release date. You'll be able to play, create and race when the game arrives on November 6th in North America and November 7th through the 9th in the EU.

LittleBigPlanet Karting is, of course, PlayStation's new kart racer. Building off of ModNation Racers and the LittleBigPlanet franchise, LBP Karting has you speeding around Craftworld and creating your own racing-based games.

Get the full 411 with our IGN LittleBigPlanet Karting Wiki.

Greg is the executive editor of IGN PlayStation, cohost of Podcast Beyond and host of Up at Noon. Follow IGN on Twitter, and keep track of Greg's shenanigans on IGN and Twitter. Beyond!

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Even More Marvel NOW! Teasers

After teasing new Thor, Hulk, Iron Man, Deadpool, and Captain America series for Marvel NOW!... Marvel's not done yet. Also unveiled today were teasers for what appear to be X-Men Legacy, Fantastic Four, and FF. See below:

Debuting at MTV Geek, it seems Simon Spurrier and Tan Eng Huat will be taking over a relaunched X-Men Legacy, while USA Today revealed that Matt Fraction will follow-up Jonathan Hickman on Fantastic Four and FF, joined by Mark Bagley and Mike Allred, respecitively. Not bad at all.

Joey is IGN's Comics Editor and a comic book creator himself. Follow Joey on Twitter, or find him on IGN. He loves superhero pets so hard.

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LittleBigPlanet Vita Release Date Announced

Sony has announced that LittleBigPlanet Vita will hit stores on September 19th in Europe and September 25th in North America. The game is set on “the mysterious traveling planet of Carnivalia” and allows players to share levels on the go over 3G or Wi-Fi.

LittleBigPlanet Vita also features new touchscreen support allowing players to manipulate multiple objects at once using the lasso tool. The rear touch screen can be used to move the camera, and the Vita’s microphone can be used to record sound effects or voiceover for levels. The front or back camera can also be used to take pictures to create custom stickers.

Players who pre-order the game can receive a free BioShock costume. For a look at LittleBigPlanet Vita’s new Memorizer feature, check out our LittleBigPlanet Vita impression from E3.

Andrew Goldfarb is IGN’s associate news editor. Keep up with pictures of the latest food he’s been eating by following him on Twitter or IGN.

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Win a Signed Copy of The Last Story

After a long, long time of waiting, The Last Story is finally on its way to North America in just a couple of weeks. The game will be available to purchase on August 14 - and to celebrate, we’re giving away five standard edition copies of the game. But that’s not all - all five copies are signed by Hironobu Sakaguchi, the game’s director and the creator of the Final Fantasy series.

So how do you win? Just send us the answers to the five questions below to nintendo@ign.com. DO NOT POST YOUR ANSWERS IN THE COMMENTS - unless you want to seriously destroy your chances of winning. The first five people to correctly respond to all five questions will earn themselves one of the signed copies of the game. Winners will receive their copy on launch day, so if you win you can still dive into the adventure right away.

Once we have selected the winners, we’ll update this article to announce who the lucky gamers are. Please note that this contest is only open to readers living in North America. And again - this is just for a standard boxed copy of the game. If you're waiting the special edition that includes the art book, or you want the pre-order incentive soundtrack, you'll have to head to the store on August 14. But those won't be signed by Sakaguchi... Decisions, decisions.

Now for those questions…

1. What is the name of the main hero in The Last Story?

2. What was The Last Story’s Japanese release date? Be specific - month, day and year!

3. What was developer Mistwalker’s first game?

4. Which movie marked Hironobu Sakaguchi’s debut as a film director?

5. Name the legendary composer of both The Last Story and the Final Fantasy series.

Good luck, Koopalings! The contest starts... NOW! Go! E-mail!

Audrey Drake is an Associate Editor at IGN and a proud member of the IGN Nintendo team. She is also a lifelong gamer, a frequent banisher of evil and a wielder of various legendary blades. You can follow her wild adventures on her IGN blog and Twitter. Game on!

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