Project Fantasy takes flight

Last week brought the news that Xbox had dropped their support for Project Fantasy the, er, fantasy project in development at IO Interactive. The Hitman maker announced they would remain "100% committed" to the game, and ensure "This wonderful universe will see the light of day", but they also acknowledged that there would need to be layoffs.

Kal Penn will never forget seeing his “Trust Me, I’m a Doctor” co-star Abbie Cornish for the first time as Anna Nicole Smith.

“She really embodied Anna Nicole in a very striking way,” Penn tells me. “She was a completely different person. I briefly met Anna Nicole a handful of times way back when I was starting my career, and she was on a reality show. I never really had any conversations of any note with her but it definitely brought me back to that time. Abbie is excellent. She’s phenomenal in this role.”

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Amazon plans to raise at least $25 billion through an eight-part bond sale, as it looks to continue its massive artificial intelligence buildout, sources told CNBC's David Faber.

AUDIENCE AVALANCHE

England’s 3-2 soccer World Cup victory over Mexico on Monday delivered the biggest television audience ever recorded in the U.K. for a live broadcast between 2am and 4am BST, with a peak of 9.1 million viewers tuning into BBC One and BBC iPlayer despite the delayed kick-off. The average audience across the Round of 16 match held at 7.8 million as Jude Bellingham scored twice and Harry Kane converted the decisive penalty to send England into the quarter-finals.

Broadway will be saying “Hello, Dolly” before the end of the year, as the musical telling the life story of country-pop superstar Dolly Parton is set to begin previews at the St. James Theatre on Dec. 7, to be followed by an official opening night on her 81st birthday, Jan. 19, 2027.

In Europe, trees are increasingly dying prematurely. A new study by the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL) on French forests now shows that it is not only drought but also unusually warm or wet springs that increase the risk—even ideal growing conditions can prove fatal later on.

Testing how quickly a biodegradable plastic actually breaks down in the environment can take months, sometimes years, of lab work. A new study from the Agricultural University of Athens, offers a faster alternative: a machine-learning tool that predicts biodegradation outcomes for a widely used bioplastic almost instantly.

The Sopranos creator David Chase held court during the 60th edition of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (KVIFF) in the Czech Republic on Tuesday.

A day before appearing at the expanded and broadened KVIFF Industry Days program of the festival, the seven-time Emmy winner was in much demand but took time to chat with groups of reporters about his work and the state of the industry.

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Published Jul 7, 2026, 10:37 AM EDT

Obsidian Entertainment faces an uncertain path forward

Image: Obsidian Entertainment/Xbox Game Studios via Polygon

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Fury and sorrow from current and former staff

Xbox aren't closing or selling off Doom developers id Software as part of their latest business teardown, but they are reportedly laying off around half the studio, with swinging cuts aimed at id's legendary technology team in particular. Even as out-going staff fulminate about the situation, studio co-founder John Romero has urged all concerned to preserve "code, assets, stories" and other historical artefacts that risk being wiped away during the restructure.