The 1979 film "Apocalypse Now" is getting the video game treatment, but the people behind the adaptation really need financial help to realize the project. Surprisingly, the Kickstarter project for first-person perspective survival and horror RPG was canceled this Tuesday. Game director Montgomery Markland of Erebus LLC -- the studio working on the game alongside film director Francis Ford Coppola's American Zoetrope -- broke the news on the Kickstarter page for the game. The cancellation of the Kickstarter shouldn't come as a surprise to backers. Despite managing to accumulate $172,514 from the 2,718 backers who pledged for the game's completion, the project was just too far from its $900,000 initial goal.

"We didn't need dialogue," Norma Desmond tells a young screenwriter in "Sunset Boulevard," recalling her silent-film-era glory days. Screenwriters famously suffer all sorts of indignities--dumb studio notes, credit squabbles--but now and then they get to win Oscars. Norma's heyday was just fading when the first Academy Awards were held, in 1929; the three writing categories that year were Best Original Story, Best Adapted Story, and (for the first and last time) Best Title Writing. It took several decades for the categories to settle into the modern dichotomy of Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Original Screenplay, though the distinction can be tricky: originality, of course, is relative. This year's nominees draw on a wide range of sources, including the untold history of NASA, Jacques Demy musicals, science fiction, several lost mothers, and two plays about black life half a century apart.

If you've ever dreamed of being Beyoncé for a day, you're in luck. A small group of game designers created Lemonade Rage: an 8-bit adventure where you dodge haterz, bullshit and Illuminati conspiracists to smash cars, fire hydrants and good hair ads. It's basically the video game version of Beyoncé's video for the song "Hold Up" where she strolls down the street doing damage with a baseball bat. The more mayhem you cause, the more lemons you earn for lemonade. No game is complete without an accompanying soundtrack and Lemonade Rage features the appropriate 8-bit sounds from 8 Bit Universe to complement the visuals. The small group of developers -- Joe Laquinte, Justin Au, Line Johnsen, and Colby Spear -- explained to Pigeons & Planes that the more they thought about the "Hold Up" music video, the more they felt like it could easily translate to a video game.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the branch of computer sciences that emphasizes the development of intelligence machines, thinking and working like humans. Today, Artificial Intelligence is a very popular subject that is widely discussed in the technology and business circles. Many experts and industry analysts argue that AI or machine learning is the future – but if we look around, we are convinced that it's not the future – it is the present. With the advancement in technology, we are already connected to AI in one way or the other – whether it is Siri, Watson or Alexa. Yes, the technology is in its initial phase and more and more companies are investing resources in machine learning, indicating a robust growth in AI products and apps in the near future. The following statistics will give you an idea of growth!

With the Academy Award nominations now out, the race is finally on to guess wildly about which of the nine nominated films will win the big enchilada, best picture. Of course you could read our Buzzmeter panelists (latimes.com/buzzmeter) We here at The Envelope figured that at this point, a backward glance might be just as useful in guessing at the future. Here, we compare each of this year's contenders with a best picture winner from the past, looking for those commonalities that might offer insights into voters' minds. Not to diminish the dramatic elegance of this live-action feature, but no sci-fi film has won in the best picture category, and a paltry few winners have starred women, so we must stretch a bit further afield on this one.

One of the best-kept secrets of 2016 was the fact that a major character in Gareth Edwards' "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" would be appearing on screen for the first time since the actor who portrayed him passed away over 20 years ago. Through visual effects wizardry and a live-action performance by actor Guy Henry, the commander of the first Death Star in 1977's "Star Wars," Grand Moff Tarkin, was brought back to the big screen as though the late Peter Cushing was still portraying him. For John Knoll, it was the most difficult aspect of his responsibilities as visual effects supervisor on the global blockbuster. An Oscar winner for his work on "Pirates of the Caribbean – Dead Man's Chest," Knoll believes the illusion wouldn't have succeeded without Henry's presence. The effects team's job was effectively that of someone who would be creating cosmetic or prosthetic makeup.

In 1958, the Monotones asked, "Who Wrote the Book of Love?". If we fast forward 58 years to the present day, would the'Algorithm of Love' be a more accurate title? It is certainly a valid question; such is the popularity of the modern online dating website. Users can forego the inevitable awkwardness of blind or speed dating altogether, having found out every last detail about their date before they ever have to meet them in person. Most dating websites utilize some form of collaborative filtering or a'Netflix-style' recommendation algorithm that matches people with their potential partners based on shared interests and hobbies or mutual likes and dislikes.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is often used as a plot device for doom-and-gloom science-fiction stories set in the future. The reality, however, is that AI has been around for quite some time--and it's incredibly useful for businesses. In fact, this technology has been assisting us daily in ways we barely even consider. Whenever you say, "Hey Siri," shop on Amazon, play songs on Pandora, or search for a photo on Facebook, AI is quietly working behind the scenes to deliver what you need. Over the past decade, this technology has slowly integrated into our everyday lives, but progress is rapidly picking up speed.

A free talk later this month will examine the relationship between humans and artificial intelligence. Rob Larson, Ph.D., assistant professor of Communication and Media Studies, will give remarks titled "The Robot Next Door" at 3:40 p.m. Friday, Feb. 24 in Tower Hall room 4119. The event is free, and refreshments will be provided. Larson will explore the recent media-related technological progress now regularly depicted in popular culture through film and television. The popularity of HBO's "Westworld," AMC/BBC's "Humans," the "Black Mirror" series on Netflix and films like "Ex Machina" and "Her" reveals society's preoccupation with artificial intelligence and robots.