Phil

SAN DIEGO —  Phil Nevin was 28 years old when he came to play for the San Diego Padres and general manager Kevin Towers in 1999.Nevin played several positions for the Padres at their old ballpark, Qualcomm Stadium, until 2003 and at Petco Park until 2005. In 2001, he earned his first All-Star Game selection.“A lot of great memories for me,” the Angels’ manager said before his team’s series-opening 10-3 loss to his former club Monday night at Petco Park. “I made sure I drove down 15 and cut across 8 so I could see the…

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is hard to describe to those who haven’t seen it. The huge amount of characters on the screen at any time, the beauty of its composition, the kinetics of its action, the sheer variety of its artistry—it’s a stunning visual achievement. And, as we’ve seen far too often recently, this achievement seems to have come at a major cost to the animators that created that beauty, both literally and figuratively.io9 Interview: Oscar Isaac Was 'All In' on Moon KnightWith information gleaned from…

Image via Lucasfilm Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse may have been welcomed with open arms at the beginning of June as one of the finest superhero movies of the decade so far, maybe even the finest, but new intel from behind the scenes tells a much less positive story. Several artists who contributed to the film have claimed that producer Phil Lord put them through incredibly grueling working conditions, something that casts his one-time firing from the Star Wars universe in a new light. According to…

Image: Sony Animation/MarvelBoth of Sony’s animated Spider-Verse movies have helped to turn Miles Morales into a household name, and Spider-Gwen isn’t far behind. The alternate reality version of Peter Parker’s old flame Gwen Stacy has gotten real boost thanks to these movies, and the recently released Across the Spider-Verse is as much about her as it is Miles. We know that Gwen will (eventually) be getting her own spinoff movie, and in addition to that, 2024's Beyond the Spider-Verse will introduce other Gwen variants…

There's no question that Microsoft continues to tout Xbox Game Pass and day-one launches on the service. But Xbox head Phil Spencer was recently asked if he should be concerned with some of the struggles the TV streaming industry has faced, like subscriber losses and content bloat.The Guardian--which traveled to Los Angeles for this interview thanks to Microsoft's paid accommodations--posited this question to Spencer, who responded with one clear difference between Xbox Game Pass and Netflix. "Look at the…

How do you take a massive, expensive game like Starfield, which has been in development with hundreds of developers and artists, release it on a subscription service like Game Pass, and then make it profitable? To explain, Phil Spencer looked back into the history of game development while talking on GameSpot sister site Giant Bomb's at Nite show. Spencer used Halo 2 as an example here. "Let's say we're going to go ship Halo 2," Spencer said. "And we're not shipping it on Nintendo, we're not…

A frame from The Spider WithinScreenshot: SonyThis weekend, at the Annecy International Film Festival and Market, a short Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse film was screened for audiences. Jarelle Dampier, an emerging animation artist and director, was able to direct the short starring Miles Morales (and voice actor Shameik Moore), as part of Sony Pictures Imageworks’ LENS (Leading and Empowering New Storytellers) program.She-Hulk: Attorney at Law Episode 9 Finale ReviewIn this short film, called The Spider Within,…

Microsoft Corp.’s video gaming chief Phil Spencer said he doesn’t “feel an imperative” to come out with a major upgrade of its Xbox game console.“That’s not the feedback we’re getting right now,” Spencer said in an interview with Bloomberg News shortly after the company hosted its annual Xbox Games Showcase on Sunday in Los Angeles. “Right now, we’re pretty set on the hardware we have.”At the event, the company announced a new version of its current Xbox Series S with improved storage. It also addressed shortages of the…

Image: SonyWhen Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse’s Pavitr Prabhakar swings through Mumbattan—the home of Spider-Man in Earth 50101—he shows off a happy-go-lucky, confident attitude that audiences have been praising. Surprisingly, though, that wasn’t in the film’s first draft. io9 Interview: Oscar Isaac Was 'All In' on Moon KnightWhen the animated sequel’s three directors (Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, and Justin K. Thompson) and two screenwriters (Christopher Miller and Phil Lord) studied Pavitr’s sequence as it was…

Screenshot: Sony/MarvelWith great Lego animating power comes great responsibility, apparently. Or so 14-year-old Preston Mutanga discovered after his elaborate, Lego-animated recreation of the Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse trailer went viral. Instead of just receiving praise from Spider-Verse producers Phil Lord and Chris Miller over Twitter, Mutanga was instead brought in to help direct part of the movie—namely the film’s Lego sequence, of course.This Week's Toys Are Straight From a Multiverse of Marketing…