Netflix has found the star of its upcoming live-action adaptation of classic manga Yu Yu Hakusho. IGN can exclusively reveal that the main character, Yusuke Urameshi, will be played by Tokyo Revengers' Takumi Kitamura.

Netflix announced the adaptation last year, which will present a new version of the 1990 manga in which a teenage boy, Yusuke, dies and begins a new afterlife as an underworld detective. Kitamura (Let Me Eat Your Pancreas, Tokyo Revengers) will play Yusuke, and you can see a first look at him in costume below:

"The original work is a universal and unique masterpiece and a reason why Japan is so proud of its strong manga and anime culture. I am happy to share the masterpiece of Yu Yu Hakusho with the world and I hope we can create something people everywhere will enjoy," Kitamura tells IGN.

Kitamura is the only member of the cast announced so far. Netflix's synopsis of the manga and show follows:

"The manga revolves around Yusuke Urameshi, a junior high school student who spends his days getting into fights and dies in an accident while trying to protect a young child. As he grapples with the fact that he is looking down on his dead body, a woman named Botan, who calls herself a guide to the spirit world, relays to him the shocking truth: no one expected a delinquent like Yusuke to die performing an act of goodness, and there was no place for him in either heaven or hell. Thus, Yusuke is given a chance to be revived, and after passing his trial, he becomes an Underworld Detective. From there, Yusuke becomes entwined in a mystery that envelopes the human, demon and spirit worlds. The spectacular adventure of Yusuke will now become a live action series on Netflix."

Netflix appears to be diligent about calling this a manga adaptation, although Yu Yu Hakusho has also been adapted as an anime in the past. It was a beloved version of the story, and we've previously called it one of the best anime series of all time.

“When I first heard about Yu Yu Hakusho receiving a live-action adaptation, I honestly wondered if it would even be possible—but after being presented with the producer’s vision and possibilities with Netflix, my expectations grew and I found myself burning with passion to make this project come to life. More than anything, I think the appeal of Yu Yu Hakusho comes from its characters, which is why I wanted to highlight the appealing relationships and battles in Yu Yu Hakusho," director Sho Tsukikawa tells IGN.

Tsukikawa says that the show will include "plenty of action scenes."

"The visual effects we use are quite advanced, as we utilize cutting-edge technology, aimed for the best quality we can achieve. Lastly, from the very beginning, we were strongly aware of creating a series for a global audience. Just like when I first heard about this adaptation, there may be people out there who feel it’s an impossible undertaking, but no matter how many ways I express how I feel, I believe the work will speak for itself and prove it's possible. I will continue to pour my heart and soul into the project to deliver the best entertainment from Japan to the world," he says.

Netflix's Yu Yu Hakusho will be released in December 2023. It will be directed by Tsukikawa, written by Tatsuro Mishima and produced by Akira Morii.

Joe Skrebels is the Executive Editor of News at IGN.

Sony Interactive Entertainment has officially completed its $3.7 billion deal to acquire Bungie – the studio behind Destiny and every Halo game up to Halo: Reach – and has welcomed it into the PlayStation family.

PlayStation shared the news on Twitter, saying, "the agreement to acquire Bungie has closed. So now we can officially say… welcome to the PlayStation family, Bungie!"

Bungie also shared some words to mark the occasion and expressed how excited it is to "join the incredible team at PlayStation."

"We are proud to officially join the incredible team at PlayStation, we are excited for the future of our company, and we are inspired to bring together players from all over the world to form lasting friendships and memories," Bungie wrote. "Per Audacia ad Astra!"

Sony announced that it was going to acquire Bungie in February 2022 for $3.6 billion, but the SEC filing for the completed deal from July 15 notes that the total price was "approximately $3.7 billion."

When the deal was made public, Bungie confirmed that it will be run as "an independent subsidiary" of SIE and will remain a multiplatform studio with the option to "self-publish and reach players where they choose to play."

Bungie is currently hard at work on supporting Destiny 2, but it has much more planned for the future. While the details of these projects have yet to be revealed, the studio did confirm Destiny 2 contains an Easter Egg teasing its next game.

In 2019, Bungie said it wanted to release at least one non-Destiny game by 2025. Various job listings have hinted that this new IP could be "comedic" and may feature "whimsical characters."

While this acquisition is completed, Sony has no plans of stopping and is looking to purchase more studios in the future.

As for the future of Destiny, Bungie shared the roadmap it has planned after the PlayStation acquisition and the studio is reportedly working on a Destiny mobile game.

For more, check out our look at how Sony's Bungie buy fits into its larger PlayStation plan.

Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to [email protected].

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

While it's been a while since we've heard any updates, Daniel Kaluuya has confirmed that his "heartbreaking" live-action Barney movie is still in early development and that the script is currently being reworked.

Kaluuya was speaking to The Hollywood Reporter about what projects are currently in development at his production company 59%. He wasn't ready to reveal everything happening behind the curtain, but he did briefly discuss this project regarding everyone's favorite purple dinosaur and why it was a project he was so interested in.

“My last number of films have been so aligned to kind of what I stand for as a man,” Kaluuya said. “But there are a whole lot of things that I do as a man. I love kids’ films. How did everyone get into films? Watching kids’ films. I don’t want to restrict myself to the limitations of what I’m perceived as.”

As for what he is perceived as, Kaluuya says he believes he is seen as "a bit serious. A bit, not mysterious, but like I don't give too much away."

Kaluuya spoke to EW in 2020 about this Barney project, and the premise of the film appears to be a bit "heartbreaking."

"Barney taught us, ‘I love you, you love me. Won’t you say you love me too?’ That’s one of the first songs I remember, and what happens when that isn’t true? I thought that was really heartbreaking," Kaluuya said. "I have no idea why but it feels like that makes sense. It feels like there’s something unexpected that can be poignant but optimistic. Especially at this time now, I think that’s really, really needed."

Barney & Friends was a children's show that aired from 1992-2009 and starred Barney, a purple Tyrannosaurus Rex, and his friends Baby Bop, B.J., Riff, and more.

It may be some time before Barney makes it to the big screen, but fans of Kaluuya can soon see him in Jordan Peele's upcoming film Nope as it will premiere in theaters on July 22, 2022.

Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to [email protected].

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

Baz Luhrmann's Elvis, a biopic about the profligate, tragic life of legendary singer Elvis Presley has just grossed over $100 million at the U.S. box office, doing so without relying on dinosaurs, superheroes, or epic fight jets.

But that's not its only achievement, as the film has made over $65 million at the international box office and has boosted Elvis' music to the top of the charts resulting in a cross-genre reverberation from dance to hip-hop and more, and sales of the Elvis Presley catalog rising, with streaming of his music up 90%, according to a press release from Warner Bros. Pictures.

The film tells the story of Elvis (Austin Butler) through the lens of his, at times abusive, complicated relationship with his enigmatic manager, Colonel Tom Parker (Tom Hanks). The film spans 20 years' worth of the singer's life, detailing Presley's rise to fame, his unprecedented stardom, and the consequences that come with it, like over exhaustion and the effects of overindulging in vices.

"Elvis continues to drive box office in part because younger audiences—none of whom were born during Elvis’s lifetime—are embracing the film and leading the enthusiastic social media conversation," the press release read.

The film's soundtrack is topping Billboard's chart, with Doja Cat's "Vegas" currently at #7 on the U.S. Spotify chart and #14 on Billboard's, but the singer is generating most of his buzz on TikTok—where "engagement has more than doubled since the film's release." The release cited 238 million views of Elvis-related content on the platform.

"We are not only pleased to cross this milestone, but truly thrilled to see it happen with a film like Elvis […] to see a non-branded IP with an up-and-coming lead create not just box office noise but also result in a significant spike in other areas is so gratifying and speaks to the quality of the film on every level," said Jeff Goldstein, President of Domestic Distribution. "With strong playability, positive word of mouth and cross-generational multiple viewings, we expect Elvis to continue to deliver."

You can find IGN's review of Elvis right here.

Diego Ramos Bechara is a Freelance Writer for IGN, and he's a fan of all things Star Wars, Rockstar, Naughty Dog and Batman.

You can follow him on Twitter @DRamosBechara.

Persuasion premieres July 15 exclusively on Netflix.

When it comes to adapting a classic novel to film, there’s a pretty easy formula to abide by in terms of retaining value: it should strive to at least understand, and hopefully, appreciate the soul of what makes it worth adapting in the first place. In the case of Netflix’s adaptation of Jane Austen’s classic 1817 work Persuasion, the movie instead reeks of some executive who determined women still love that “Austen chick” and that Fleabag woman, so why not mush them together with “hot actors” in fancy clothes? Directed by Carrie Cracknell and adapted by screenwriters Ronald Bass and Alice Victoria Winslow, their version of Persuasion has the gorgeous Dakota Johnson transforming the inherently mousy character of Anne Elliot into a boozy, weepy, and unabashedly charming spinster who constantly shares her inner thoughts straight to the camera as she still pines for the man who got away. Oh, that Jane Austen where with us today, I would pay exorbitant sums of money to instead read her notes on this screenplay because the takedown would be delicious.

If you’ve never read Austen’s Persuasion, the slow burn book is about regret and lost love, seen through the eyes of people pleaser Anne Elliot. Eight years prior, she’s persuaded to give up the man she loves, Captain Frederick Wentworth, because her snobby mentor and family don’t think he’s rich enough. Both are heartbroken, so he goes to sea to nurse his ego while she is stuck in the role of family caretaker, reduced to playing agony aunt to her terrible father and sisters. The film mostly keeps that narrative spine of the book intact, opening eight years post breakup when the still unmarried Anne and Wentworth meet once again.

The film forges its own path in portraying Anne as the bright star of her family and extended family. She’s beautiful, self aware, snarky, and quite frankly, a catch among women, so how she hasn't been scooped up by any other suitor is a huge logical flaw from the get-go. And when Wentworth (Cosmo Jarvis) sweeps back into her orbit, he looks at her like he’s beyond besotted. There’s nary a hint of anger in Jarvis’ performance, just simpering heart eyes and a lot of literal sighs directed right at her. All that which means, there’s nowhere for these characters to go, or grow, or attempt to give us a hint of delicious romantic tension. Even Anne’s mentor, Lady Russell (Nikki Amuka-Bird), who dissuaded her from the Wentworth engagement, early on in this adaptation apologizes for the bad advice which effectively snuffs out another obstacle.

What’s left? Anne breaking the fourth wall as she roasts her narcissist father (Richard E. Grant) and younger married sister, Mary (Mia McKenna-Bruce), for their selfish behavior., as well as a lot of sad-girl crying while cringingly moping over trinkets from her failed relationship. And then there’s a lot of anachronistic dialogue littered throughout the screenplay, such as Anne saying, “He’s a 10. I never trust a 10” about her cousin, Mr. William Elliot (Henry Golding), or Wentworth sharing that when he’s on the high seas in difficult situations, he often thinks, “What would Anne do?” Curious, I had no idea there were memes in 19th century England.

Even worse, there’s a lot of Anne being turned into a rom com heroine in the model of Bridget Jones, as she glugs wine directly from the bottle or verbally erupts with loud, embarrassing, public proclamations about prior wedding proposals. And Anne talking to the camera means the movie excessively leans on telling, rather than showing, so we lose a lot of scenes where characters could be speaking to one another. The aforementioned Amuka-Bird and Golding are some of the most interesting casting choices in the movie, yet they’re reduced to cameo parts. And in the case of Golding, who is supposed to be the cousin who almost wins her heart, he’s given an original story beat where he admits to Anne that his sole goal is trying to keep his inheritance from her father. It’s an interesting reframing of their relationship, but it renders any romance between them as ridiculous. Anne’s too smart to give herself over to a cad who’s just shown all his cards, so the script slices away another interesting story turn to, I guess, shore up the love story between Anne and Wentworth. The only problem is their chemistry is just ok.

With neither character having to learn anything about what their estrangement has done to them, or to have to fight to be with one another again, their romance is like watching an amiable walk in the park. It’s ho hum with the original story gutted of what makes it such a satisfying romance in the book. And oddly, this adaptation of Wentworth is arguably the most reduced version of the character in any translation, as Jarvis is directed to play him pining softly, never showing any of the qualities that an almost Admiral might have in regards to having loved and lost Anne.

For Austen purists, this version of Persuasion only gives up the goods when it comes to the English locations and the lovely costume design. But as far as the story goes, it might as well not even be an adaptation of Persuasion. The filmmakers could have applied all their modern tropes in peace and pissed off far less of their core audience. And for those who could care less about the Austen of it all, this is still a lukewarm offering that wants to have its period piece aesthetic but reject everything else that makes a memorable period piece. It’s schizophrenic and deconstructed to the point of being disappointingly hollow.