'Black Mirror' is coming back in June for its 'most unpredictable season yet'

Black Mirror is returning after a three-year hiatus with what it claims to be its "most unpredictable season yet." Series creator Charlie Brooker claimed that Black Mirror's new season would tackle tropes he "previously sworn blind the show would never do."

The sixth season of the show draws in another star-studded lineup, including Aaron Paul (Breaking Bad), Annie Murphy (Schitt’s Creek), Ben Barnes (Shadow and Bone), Himesh Patel (Station Eleven), Josh Hartnett (Black Hawk Down), Kate Mara (House of Cards), Rory Culkin (Columbus), and Salma Hayek Pinault (Frida), among many others.

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Netflix's ad-supported tier to get 1080p video quality, two simultaneous streams in Canada

Netflix is making its ad-supported plan a more viable option for users who don't mind ads for a more affordable price. Subscribers of this tier in Canada and Spain will get a video quality boost from 720p to 1080p and support two simultaneous streams. Other markets with the ad plan will get it sometime this month.

The streaming service has supposedly been "pleased" with the progress of its Basics with Ads tier. Add to that the recent licensing deals mean the ads tier now offers "on average ~95 percent content parity globally (by viewing)" with the no-ads plans.

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Netflix plans to release fewer original films to improve quality

Image: Netflix

At least that's what Netflix hopes. The streaming service is restructuring its movie division to release fewer films overall. Even with the number of titles it's released, only a few won accolades, reached millions of hours of streaming or achieved the cultural impact some big blockbusters have achieved. Netflix Film chief Scott Stuber reportedly decided to do this cut so the division guarantees it produces high-quality projects. 

Before this announcement, it debuted at least one movie per week in the past two years. Netflix plans to combine its team working on small projects with a budget of USD 30 million or less and the unit that makes mid-budget films costing between USD 30 million and 80 million. This restructuring will result in a "handful" of layoffs, but Netflix hasn't specified a number. It's unclear if Netflix's division for big-budget projects will be affected by this restructuring. But two notable executives are leaving the company after over a decade. Lisa Nishimura, who oversees documentaries like Tiger King and small-budget films, and Vice President for film Ian Bricke are departing.

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'Alto's Odyssey' creator teases 'Laya's Horizon' game coming to Netflix

Toronto-based game developer Snowman has a new game coming. The team known for creating the soothing snowboarding  Alto series teases its upcoming title called Laya's Horizon. There really isn't much we can glean from the new video teaser, except we see a beautiful seaside village in the mountains and a caped character we assume to be Laya. What we do know is the game is coming to Netflix, which offers mobile games as part of its subscription. Laya's Horizon will be the second release on the platform following Lucky Luna. 

Snowman hasn't shared a release date yet. But these collaborations with Netflix aren't the developer's only foray into mobile game subscriptions. There is an updated version of Alto's Odyssey available on Apple Arcade.

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