Timmy

After nearly 16 years of game development at BioWare, Executive Producer Casey Hudson has made the decision to move on from BioWare and enter a new stage of his career. We thank Casey for his hard work and dedication as we look back on his time with BioWare.

Starting as a Technical Artist on Neverwinter Nights and MDK2, Casey moved into the Project Director role with 2003’s Game of the Year Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. He then led the team in the development of the Mass Effect trilogy, an award-winning series that I and many others consider to be one of the most important science-fiction universes of our generation. Casey’s focus on production quality, digital acting technology, and emotionally engaging narrative has made a substantial impact on BioWare and the video game industry as a whole.

Casey shared his thoughts with his colleagues in a letter earlier today:

“After what already feels like a lifetime of extraordinary experiences, I have decided to hit the reset button and move on from BioWare. I’ll take a much needed break, get perspective on what I really want to do with the next phase of my life, and eventually, take on a new set of challenges.

Though there’s never an easy time to make a change like this, I believe this is the best time for it. The foundation of our new IP in Edmonton is complete, and the team is ready to move forward into pre-production on a title that I think will redefine interactive entertainment. Development for the next Mass Effect game is well underway, with stunning assets and playable builds that prove the team is ready to deliver the best Mass Effect experience to date. And the Dragon Age: Inquisition team is putting the final touches on a truly ambitious title with some of the most beautiful visuals I’ve seen in a game.

But while I feel that the time has come, this is without a doubt the most difficult decision of my career. BioWare is as magical a place today as it was when I started. The projects we are working on are some of the most exciting and prestigious in the world. The talent in our teams is second to none. And the people here are some of my closest friends. I’ve spent more time with many of you than my own family, and I have enjoyed every day of it.”

Casey also had a message of appreciation for BioWare fans:

“Long before I worked in games, I was fascinated by their ability to transport me to places where amazing and memorable experiences awaited. When I made my very first asset that I knew would actually make it into a game (the laser bolt in MDK2!) I couldn’t believe how fortunate I was to contribute in some small way to the process of creating interactive entertainment.

Now, having led the development of four major titles, I’m profoundly appreciative of the role I’ve been able to play in creating these games. The very idea that so many of you have enjoyed spending time in the worlds we’ve created is the defining achievement of my career, and it’s your support over the years that made it all possible.

Thank you.

I know that I leave our projects in great hands, and I join you in looking forward to playing them.”

As we say a fond farewell, I know I speak on behalf of the entire studio when I say that we will be forever grateful for Casey’s hard work, passion, and everything he has taught us over the years – a methodical dedication to quality, a spirit of teamwork and camaraderie, and putting fans above everything else. But most of all, Casey has challenged every one of us in the studio to be better tomorrow than we were today. It is in that spirit that as we finish Dragon Age: Inquisition, we will continue working on the next Mass Effect game and our new IP project, confident in our goals and progress.

I know what happens when you give George Miller hundreds of millions of dollars to make a contemporary MAD MAX sequel. It may take a few years, and countless days, hours, seconds of anti(pipi)ation, but it'll get completed into a full, exhibitable feature film. And baby, it's a thing of beauty.

The film starts out with the shot you've seen of Max's back and the two-headed lizard, before launching right into a chase where Rockatansky is eventually bested and caught. Max is taken to a citadel run by Immortan Joe, the masked, decrepit warlord worshipped by his devout slaves and a handful of captains, led by Furiosa (Charlize Theron). When Furiosa goes rogue and appears to be hijacking a rig (and its contents) for herself, Immortan Joe sends his army after them. Max only gets involved because one of Joe's footsoldiers, Dux (Nicholas Hoult), straps him to the hood of his car as his "blood bank," literally syphoning off his blood to increase his adrenaline. Through a series of events, Max ends up fighting alongside Furiosa and her cargo, Immortan Joe's bevy of young, gorgeous "breeders" (read: wives), including Joe's crown jewel, a quite-pregnant Rosie Huntington-Whitely. Cue the batshit vehicular mayhem.

This is the movie many of us always dream about, and rarely ever actually get. By that I mean this is a huge, multi-hundred-million-dollar production done by a major Hollywood studio that is both grand and odd, epic and intimate, crowd-pleasing and self-indulgent.

It's not uncommon to see one-time greats falter when given free reign and a limitless budget. Whether they're out of touch with contemporary demands, or that they just don't have the drive they once did, a bunch of directors (Lucas, Cimino, De Palma, Coppola) have hurt their legacies by putting out later films that failed to live up to the promise of their earlier work.

This did not happen with George Miller.

FURY ROAD is just as weird, bombastic, and MAD MAX-y and you'd want a MAD MAX movie to be. Sure, it's apparently PG-13, and Max himself has the least amount of dialogue (and is given the least to do) of the whole series, but there's no doubt this movie is cut from the same cloth. From the chrome Immortan Joe sprays on the teeth of the more worthy of his warriors to the guitar-playing minstrel live-scoring the car chases while harnessed to a moving car, FURY ROAD is permeated with the kind of bizarro world-building that keep the first three so distinctive amidst the wide range of post-apocalyptic action/sci-fi out there. Furiosa, Immortan Joe, and especially Nicholas Hoult's fanatical, half-mad Dux are extremely captivating, original characters; every moment with Dux, the first sorta-sympathetic henchman of the entire series, is striking and surprising, and adds a nice layer to the MAD MAX mythos. Charlize also deserves a ton of credit, both for her take-no-shit, grease-painted asskickery and for still being the most luminous female in the movie with a bald head and head-to-toe dirt and alongside dolled-up supermodels half her age. Furiosa is as much the hero of this movie as Max, and Charlize manages to make you forget she's an international superstar and believe she's an armless, carved-from-an-engine-block Road Warrior.

You'll hear many describe the film as "one long chase scene," and while that's not entirely true (nor would many of us want it to be), it's understandable why it comes across as such. It has such a breakneck pace, only stopping to linger on plot details very briefly and seldomly, that it does kind of feel like one sustained set-piece for the 2-hour running time. Once Furiosa takes off with her rig, the tension never lets up, and the film starts alternating between ROAD WARRIOR's epic vehicular madness and SORCERER-style, "Is something about to happen right now?" slow-burn intensity. I wouldn't dare reveal any more about the joys of the film, except to say that the storm scene you've seen in the trailer really does achieve a sort of mythic beauty in and of itself. But it comes relatively early, and the film's got plenty of gas left in the tank at that point, so don't think that's the end-all-be-all of the movie's action.

I'm not sure whether this movie's going to "set the world on fire," as my buddy said he thought it will, but the people who are going to love this movie are going to LOVE this movie. As a fan of the series, I was hoping for something that (unlike, say, INDY 4) could sit alongside the rest of the series as a worthy entry in Miller's ouvre. FURY ROAD cleared that high bar like it had springs for legs, and transcended into rarified territory: a blockbuster with balls, a pulse, and an unwillingness to do anything safe, all from within the confines of a PG-13 rating. This is a great movie, guys. I really can't wait 'till we can sit around and talk about it with the giddiness and glee I had last Monday.

- Trailer begins with a two-headed lizard running toward Max, who has long hair and looks as wild as ever; it seems as though he's fiddling with a radio. He stomps on the poor thing.
- Max says in V.O. "My world is fire and blood."
- The villain is a badass-looking beast called "Immortan Joe" - he's played by Hugh Keays-Byrne who happened to be in the first MAD MAX as "Toecutter." He's got wild hair and a strange breathing mask that covers the lower half of his face. A very intense dude indeed, he appears to be on the hunt for Theron's character.
- Max is captured by a roving gang (after they run his car off the road). In one sequence he's bound, shaved and tattooed by the savage-looking folks.
- Naturally, there look to be about 200 car crashes in the film, all of them accomplished with practical effects. As in the other movies in the franchise, every car has been outfitted in elaborate ways to survive the landscape, so if you're a fan of the vehicles in ROAD WARRIOR you'll not be disappointed here.
- One of the major set pieces in the film includes massive tornados, as cars attempt to avoid getting sucked into them. A couple do, of course, and they fly and crash through the air in operatic fashion. There's heavy CGI here, so don't believe the rumor that everything will be done practically. It looks impressive as all get-out though.
- Nicholas Hoult's character is clearly a total maniac. During the aforementioned tornado sequence, he drives a car while Max hangs off the back of it and begins spray painting his own face while driving like hell and screaming, "What a lovely day!" Don't ask me what that's all about, but it was bizarre in the extreme.
- Max evidently turns the tables on Hoult's character, as we see him carrying his unconscious body through a desert.
- Many, many shots of vehicles driving through the desert, many explosions, many crashes. Can't stress enough just how many damn car crashes there will be in this movie.

To be perfectly honest, there was so much more carnage but I can't even recall it all. It really does appear as though the film is one non-stop bundle of carnage and excitement, and there wasn't a single thing I didn't like about what I saw.

Na plus Snipes, Banderas, Ronda Rousey i zadyma w ruinach hotelu/kasyna reszta totalnie nijaka.