Fully Charged: Netflix bets big on Snowpiercer director, and Sony is finally killing Betamax

Netflix bets on Bong Joon Ho

Would you give the director of Snowpiercer (pictured above) some US$50 million (about £33 million) to help make his next film – assuming you had the money, of course? That’s what Netflix just did, putting that sum into the production of Bong Joon Ho’s next South Korean film, Okja.

Starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Tilda Swinton, and Bill Nighy, the film spotlights the bond between a young girl and an animal named Okja. Netflix is expected to launch in Korea sometime in 2016, and it seems like the company wants make the same kind of huge splash with original content as it has elsewhere (albeit primarily with television).

Brad Pitt’s Plan B Entertainment will co-produce, and the companies previously worked together on Netflix’s largest film investment to date: US$60 million (about £40 million) on the actor’s War Machine, which is expected to release late next year. That’s double the amount previously reported, by the way!

[Source: The Hollywood Reporter]

Sony finally ends Betamax tape sales

Sony’s Betamax lost to VHS in one of the very first home media format wars, but the company admirably continued supporting the format for those who bought the hardware. It’s now been 40 years. And Sony, finally and understandably, is ready to move on.

The company announced that sales of Betamax cassettes in Japan, perhaps the only country where they’re still available, will end in March. Sony will also end sales of MicroMV camcorder tapes, which debuted in 2001, although the devices themselves have been discontinued for a decade now.

[Source: Sony via Engadget]

MST3K revived on Kickstarter

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Big fan of cult comedy TV series Mystery Science Theater 3000? It was canceled in 1999 after 197 total episodes, but creator Joel Hodgson (who departed the original show partway through) is trying to revive the series for a new season via Kickstarter.

If the campaign raises US$2 million (£1.32 million), they’ll make three new episodes – and the funding promises scale up to as many as 12 new episodes for US$5.5 million (£3.63 million). You can back it for as little as US$10, which basically just gets you updates, while a US$5,000 (about £3,300) pledge gets you into one of the new episodes as a guest star.

The campaign has already raised nearly half of the base goal after less than a day, so its chances of bringing at least three new episodes to life look pretty assured.

[Source: Kickstarter]

Konami making Metal Gear prosthetic

Legendary game maker Konami might be moving away from AAA development, but it’s now turning its attentions to… prosthetic limbs? Well, just one: the company has announced its participation to help create "a highly stylized and multi-functional limb" for James Young, a big fan of the Metal Gear Solid series.

Konami is working with the Alternative Limb Project to create a prosthetic limb inspired by the series, which actually makes a lot of sense: latest entry Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain sees hero Snake wearing a prosthetic arm. The studio has started a blog about the project, and plans to make a documentary as well.

[Source: The Phantom Limb Project via Polygon]