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This little dinosaur had feathery wings 150 million years ago—but definitely couldn't fly

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This little dinosaur had feathery wings 150 million years ago--but definitely couldn't flyThis charming little fellow is Eosinopteryx brevipenna, a feathered dinosaur that lived during the Jurassic period more than 150 million years ago. Recently unearthed in northwestern China, Eosinopteryx suggests the evolution of flight is more complex than we suspected.

Eosinopteryx was a tiny little guy, measuring only about a foot long. That's actually not unduly small for a feathered dinosaur — and, thus, a potential ancestor of birds — as the most famous of the lot, Archaeopterx, itself only measured about a foot and eight inches long. But Eosinopteryx is diminutive in other ways, and that's what caught the attention of University of Southampton paleontologist Dr. Gareth Dyke.

In particular, it appears to have had significantly fewer feathers on its legs and tail than Archaeopteryx and other early feathered dinosaurs. Not only did it have a small wingspan, but the bones in its wings were actually put together such that it would have been impossible for Eosinopteryx to flap its wings, let alone to fly. Its wings still would have had their uses down on the ground, but it's clear Eosinopteryx took an evolutionary path that had nothing to do with flying, feathers notwithstanding.

According to Dr. Dyke, that means that, even 150 million years ago, feathers served lots of different adaptive purposes, with flight only one of many reasons why these generally tiny dinosaurs would evolve plumage. And while Eosinopteryx decidedly doesn't threaten Archaeopteryx's claim as the first bird-like creature to attain flight, this discovery might well mean that flight isn't what defines these most primitive of birds. Speaking to the BBC, Dr. Dyke adds:

"This discovery sheds further doubt on the theory that the famous fossil Archaeopteryx - or 'first bird' as it is sometimes referred to - was pivotal in the evolution of modern birds. Our findings suggest that the origin of flight was much more complex than previously thought. It's such a well preserved complete skeleton of a small dinosaur. It would have lived in a forested, swampy environment. I imagine it running around and jumping around from tree trunk to tree trunk, maybe using its wings to speed up its running."

Nature Communications via BBC News. Image via Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences.


Why male bats take the high road and female bats take the low road

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Why male bats take the high road and female bats take the low roadDaubenton's bat is found throughout Eurasia, its habitat stretching from the United Kingdom to Japan. But as one northern English population reveals, these bats divide their space along strict gender lines, with males living up the bachelor existence at high altitudes while females raise their young at low altitudes... except when a few bats are able to find a middle path.

That's the finding of University of Leeds biologist John Altringham, who examined the distribution of the bat populations throughout the Yorkshire Dales. He found that females tended to make their roosts in the lowland areas of this hilly region, meaning the males have to look for homes at higher altitudes. According to Professor Altringham, the females' territoriality is probably due to the huge amount of food required to provide milk for their young.

Why male bats take the high road and female bats take the low roadThe one exception is near the town of Grassington, which sits at an altitude somewhere between the lowland female roosts and the uphill male ones. There, and seemingly only there, male and female bats lives together. Professor Altringham offers one possible explanation as to why males and females might set aside their usual gender barriers, despite it seemingly being against both of their best interest:

When you look at the nursery colony in Ilkley, mothers and pups often have a lot of ectoparasites like ticks and mites. In a warm, crowded nursery, parasites can thrive, especially if there's less time for good personal hygiene. Parasites not only make life uncomfortable but can affect a bat's health. The males that live by themselves are usually very clean in their bachelor pads, so you can understand why they might not want to move in.

"Females may roost as high up the dale as Grassington because they have these warm, cuddly males to bunk up with. This way, females use less energy keeping warm and babies grow faster. In these marginal conditions, they may just tolerate a few males to keep them warm. Otherwise they kick them out. Why do the males co-habit if they are going to get parasites all over them? Well, that may be down to the usual answer: sex."

The researchers have found that the male bats cohabiting with females around Grassington enjoy a definite reproductive advantage over their bachelor counterparts. Altringham explains this phenomenon with the help of an extended clubbing metaphor — basically, the Grassington bats are settling down early and avoiding all the sweat and hard work of trying to win a mate on the bat equivalent of the dance floor, all while cutting down on their travel costs:

"In and around these caves the bats gather in huge numbers to mate, in a behavior known as swarming. This is clubbing for bats, with males displaying to females in lengthy acrobatic chases. As winter closes in, these caves will ultimately be their hibernation sites. There are nearly 2,000 cave entrances and hundreds of kilometers of cave passages in the Dales and these attract bats from all over Yorkshire, Lancashire, Cumbria and beyond for mating and hibernation. The males in Grassington may be giving themselves the opportunity to mate with the females late in the summer before they even get to the caves."

"At Grassington, most of the fathers of bats born there spent the summer with the females. If we look at pups in Addingham and Ilkley, their dads were males caught when swarming at caves. So, as well as two different mating systems, you have distinct social groupings. A bachelor from Buckden is always a bachelor from Buckden. He doesn't pop down to Grassington to visit the females in the summer. His only option seems to be to go clubbing in the autumn.

Check out the original paper at PLoS ONE.

Quotes via the University of Leeds. Image of young Daubenton's Bat by Gilles San Martin on Flickr. Map courtesy of University of Leeds.

J.J. Abrams shares his first thoughts on Star Wars: Episode VII... and he might already be changing what we thought we knew!

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J.J. Abrams shares his first thoughts on Star Wars: Episode VII... and he might already be changing what we thought we knew!Kevin Feige confirms Ant-Man and another famous Marvel superhero will be new arrivals in Marvel's Phase Three. Cobie Smulders might bring Agent Maria Hill to S.H.I.E.L.D. after all.

Spoilers from here on out!

Top image from The Avengers.

Star Wars: Episode VII

Now that J.J. Abrams is officially, completely confirmed as the director for the new Star Wars movie, what does the man himself have to say about it? Here's an unabridged transcript of every last thing the as always loquacious Abrams had to say when first asked about it this past weekend:

"It really is an incredible thing. It's wildly surreal. It's obviously way too early to talk specifics. But I'm excited to actually start it."

Scintillating, scintillating stuff. Actually, here's an equally terse but somewhat more forthcoming quote, at least by Abrams's standards:

"I can just say what I want to do: I want to do the fans proud. I want to make sure the story is something that touches people. And we're just getting started. I'm very excited."

[E! Online via Comic Book Movie]

Given Abrams's legendary penchant for secrecy, it kinda figures that he would take the only two things we previously knew for sure about Episode VII — that it's being written by Little Miss Sunshine's Michael Arndt and that it's coming out in 2015 — and threw one of them into doubt. Specifically — and this is the part where Michael Arndt gets to breathe easy — Abrams reportedly isn't 100% committed to the 2015 release date, and he might end up pushing it back like he did the release dates for both previous Star Trek movies. [The Hollywood Reporter]


Star Trek 3

In case you were wondering what J.J. Abrams is going to do with those Star Wars movies he was making before he got the actual Star Wars gig, it's now been confirmed that he will at least produce the third Star Trek movie. It's still at least conceivable — though, let's be honest, probably pretty damn unlikely, given how big an undertaking Episode VII is likely to be — that he could end up directing it as well. [Hero Complex]


Captain America: The Winter Soldier

How I Met Your Mother star Cobie Smulders confirms she will be in the Captain America sequel as S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Maria Hill, but says she doesn't know much more beyond that:

"I don't know the exact [filming] dates. I know it's some time in March or June. I've seen parts of [the script], but yeah I don't know much. This is Marvel! They don't let you know anything. It's very watermarked scripts, heavily watermarked. Yeah, they don't let you know like the day of, but they are very secretive and I think they are still figuring stuff out."

[I Am Rogue]


Ant-Man

Marvel Studios wrapped up Phase One of its cinematic universe with the release of The Avengers, with everything between Iron Man 3 this May and The Avengers 2 in May 2015 comprising Phase Two. As for Phase Three, that kicks off in November 2015 with the long-awaited release of Hot Fuzz director Edgar Wright's Ant-Man, as Marvel Studios head honcho Kevin Feige explains:

"'Ant-Man' is definitely part of Phase Three. Like 'Iron Man 3,' it's certainly set in the Marvel Universe, but it's also through the lens of Edgar Wright - which is the only reason we're making the movie. I've known Edgar since our first lunch together at Comic-Con in 2004. He asked me what Marvel was doing with 'Ant-Man' - we weren't even a studio then; what a difference eight years makes! It's very much an 'Ant-Man' origin movie from the perspective of Edgar Wright and his co-writer Joe Cornish. It will of course be firmly planted in the MCU, but a different corner than we've seen before."


Doctor Strange

Although Ant-Man is the only film officially confirmed for Phase Three, Kevin Feige does confirm another superhero who will make his cinematic debut a few years from now:

"Beyond that… Ant-Man is the only one officially announced, but you probably don't have to look too far to guess at the next list of characters we're toying with and beginning to develop. Doctor Strange, which I've been talking about for years, is definitely one of them. He's a great, original character, and he checks the box off this criteria that I have: he's totally different from anything else we have, just like Guardians of the Galaxy. He's totally different from anything we've done before, as is Ant-Man, which keeps us excited."

[MTV Splash Page]


Riddick

J.J. Abrams shares his first thoughts on Star Wars: Episode VII... and he might already be changing what we thought we knew!Here's the latest promo image, featuring star Vin Diesel and returning cast member Karl Urban, better known as Star Trek's rebooted Dr. McCoy. [Shock Till You Drop]


Oz the Great and Powerful



Being Human (UK)

Here's a trailer for the upcoming fifth series.


Being Human (US)


Here are some promo photos for the following week's episode, "Cold Turkey." [KSiteTV]

And here are some for the episode after that, "Trust No One." [KSiteTV]

Sendhil Ramamurthy, who is yet to even make his debut as the justice-minded, Beast-seeking Assistant District Attorney Gabe Lowen, has reportedly been promoted to a series regular. [TV Equals]


Additional reporting by Amanda Yesilbas and Charlie Jane Anders.

Robert Downey, Jr. reveals some new Iron Man 3 clues. Plus Bryan Singer on X-Men: Days of Future Past!

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Robert Downey, Jr. reveals some new Iron Man 3 clues. Plus Bryan Singer on X-Men: Days of Future Past!A producer for The Wolverine explains precisely why Logan ends up in Japan. Sam Raimi talks about the relationship between Oz the Great and Powerful and previous Wizard of Oz stories. One of cinema's greatest batshit insane directors wants to bring Arnold Schwarzenegger's Conan back to the screen. Plus a bunch of new photos for upcoming superhero movies!

It's all spoilers from here on out!

Top image from Oz the Great and Powerful.

Iron Man 3

Star Robert Downey, Jr. discusses a sequence from the movie and what returning costar Don Cheadle brings to the part of James Rhodes, otherwise known as War Machine:

We've just been talking about one sequence –- the top-secret name is the Boot/Glove Sequence, I can tell you that, just between you and me -– it's where Tony only has one gauntlet and one boot and he has to escape multiple captors. It's really fun, dude. We're taking everything from his first gauntlet test in the first movie up through the most extreme stuff we thought up for Iron Man 2 and The Avengers and pulling on all of it and making this one big, extended challenge of physics...

Rhodey is much more in the dead center of things. He's much more dynamic. We've made this decision that while Tony is a technical guy, he's not really a trained guy. There's a lot of fun to be had with Don because he's really good with hardware and he's a martial artist, so it's been really fun exploiting this possibility of Tony having moments like the one in Avengers, like the one with Cap where he decides, "Oh screw it, he probably knows what he's doing." So there's a lot of that and a lot more fun and a lot more depth to Rhodey this time around.

[EW]

Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige and Iron Man 3 writer-director Shane Black discuss with Empire Magazine the new character Maya Hansen, as played by The Town's Rebecca Hall:

Feige: Maya is a scientist who makes a pretty astounding discovery that leads her to places - and some are healthier than others. It's not dissimilar to what Tony's been through, and it's a great parallel.

Black: It's one thing we loved about the comic book, which was that it's someone Tony meets in one capacity at one point in his life, and he proves to be touched by that encounter. We needed a snappy and exciting actor to play the part, and not make it this 'female scientist who takes off her glasses and suddenly she's beautiful!' There's a certain element about her being the female Robert Downey Jr in a way.

[Comic Book Movie]


The Amazing Spider-Man 2

While the big casting news is that Marc Webb is apparently trying to build a Sinister Six composed entirely of stars of the 2004 Best Picture Nominees — next up, expect to see Thomas Haden Church back as Sandman, plus Leonardo DiCaprio as Mysterio, Johnny Depp as Morbius, and Clint Eastwood as Vulture, obviously — there are also reports of another new cast member. British actress Felicity Jones, who is probably best known in the US for her main role in the 2011 romantic drama Like Crazy, is reportedly in negotiations for an undisclosed role. [Heat Vision]


X-Men: Days of Future Past

Returning director Bryan Singer discusses what to expect from the First Class followup:

"It's epic. I don't think people realize how big this movie's going to be. We get to bring both casts together. We've cracked it in a way that it makes sense. I had a two-hour conversation with James Cameron about time travel, string theory, multiverses and all that. You have to create your rules and stick wtih them. That's why Terminator and Back To The Future work so well. And there are certain mechanisms in X-Men, certain powers, perceptions and characters, that make this possible. It has a lot of aspects of the comic. The actual comic of Days Of Future Past had a whole ton of stuff going on, so it's like any of these things; you have to distill it. But I think the fans will be pleased that some of the most exciting parts of Days Of Future Past are going to be connected to this movie."

He also reveals that the film will acknowledge the continuity of all previous X-Men movies, including The Last Stand and X-Men Origins: Wolverine, even if no one particularly required that of him:

I'm taking into account every movie – I'm not just grabbing my first two movies and First Class and smashing them together. I'm taking into account the entire universe as it's been laid out so far on the screen, and really respecting it and trying to work with that. People took things in various directions, so there's some clean-up. But ultimately I'm not just ignoring them either."

[Empire Online]


The Wolverine

Producer Hutch Parker offers the most detailed explanation yet as to just why Wolverine finds himself in Japan, and he also confirms that the World War II prison camp seen in set photos is part of a flashback sequence:

We pick up Logan in a very isolated state, full of self-loathing. He is sought out by a young Asian woman for reasons he doesn't fully understand, who is asking him to follow her to Japan where he is meant to reconnect with someone he spent prison-time with in Nagasaki. And the legacy of that experience - effectively Logan saved him - is that this man is on his deathbed, and is looking to give him a gift, to thank him for the life he's had. But this gift draws Logan into a very complex and very unexpected world within both contemporary Japan, and to some degree the feudal history of Japan. The quality of this story is that it takes Logan on such a challenging personal journey. He's so in isolation, so out of his element. It's a much more powerful distillation of his character than you've seen before. It's why people have always love this particular story.

[Comic Book Movie]


The Legend of Conan

As a general rule, I try to avoid stories where it's just some random, unconnected person saying they would like to be involved in a project. But when it's Paul Verhoeven saying he wants to reteam with his Total Recall star Arnold Schwarzenegger to make a new Conan the Barbarian movie, well... yeah, exceptions must be made:

"If they asked me, I'd certainly love to — let's put it that way. But I don't know what the script is. I don't know what Arnold wants. I'm a big fan in fact of Conan. That's a great movie and I found that the composer, Basil Poledouris, basically inspired many of my movies [the soundtracks] like Flesh and Blood, RoboCop, Starship Troopers and Total Recall. The score of Conan is great. The style of editing that Milius used was very beautiful, and Arnold does a great job. He was really the perfect choice."

For what it's worth, the creative team has said they want an A-list director to helm Schwarzenegger's return to one of his more iconic characters. Verhoeven probably doesn't qualify as A-list these days, but he's got the kind of style and cachet that distinguishes him from a lot of other likely contenders. [IGN]


Person of Interest



Arrow

Here's a pair of promos for this Wednesday's episode, "Vertigo."



The Vampire Diaries


Being Human (US)

Star vampire Sam Witwer discusses what changes to expect both off-camera and on-camera in season three:

Anna Fricke is now our sole showrunner. The first two seasons, it was her and her husband Jeremy Carver, so she is really staking her claim and is doing a version of the show that, frankly, I have been waiting to do since I read the pilot. Jeremy helped write the first five or six scripts, then went over to Supernatural [where he is showrunner].

Even though there is this flu killing vampires, it still seems lighter than Aidan's brutal storyline last year.
It was really dark. My character was dealing exclusively with the vampires and was kind of removed from the roommate situation. This season, if Aidan isn't dealing with the roommates, he's with some other very interesting human beings. And I emphasize that they are humans, because that is when my character is at his best. He's scarier because we know who he is and how he can hurt people, he's sadder because he wants to be like them, and he's more interesting because he's living this double life. You get to see all of that this season. He's introduced into the general population but how can he just turn off the killer part in him? He's a blood addict and a trained killer!

[TV Guide]


Additional reporting by Amanda Yesilbas and Charlie Jane Anders.

Will Iron Man 3 feature some surprise superhero cameos after all?

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Will Iron Man 3 feature some surprise superhero cameos after all?If a new tie-in toy, an inside source, and an absurdly close reading of a new Robert Downey, Jr. interview have anything to say about it, then yes. Plus Hugh Jackman promises The Wolverine will finally feature the definitive Logan.

All that plus a Thor: The Dark World producer explains what director Alan Taylor brings to the sequel, star Henry Cavill and screenwriter David Goyer drop Man of Steel tips, and there's lots of new clips for Jack the Giant Slayer, Beautiful Creatures, Arrow, Supernatural, and more!

Spoilers from here on out!

Top image from Thor.

Iron Man 3

EW.com has posted the second installment of their five-day interview with star Robert Downey, Jr., and the main focus of this latest batch seems to be how he describes this film's connection to The Avengers. Here's the quote:

The whole Avengers thing [with $1.5 billion in global box office] was such a relief and such a confirmation of [Marvel Studios President] Kevin Feige's vision for this all along. As Kevin has put it, the next step after that is to bring in someone like Shane Black and – without pretending that the Avengers don't exist – find a way to go back to a kind of re-investigation of Tony's world, which he thought would be, one, fun for the audience and, two, would rock in a different way than The Avengers. But we can't help it - everywhere you look now in every Marvel movie there are opportunities where certain new pals of his could be useful. So they're in the atmosphere, so to speak, but I wouldn't expect to see them on the ground in this one.

There seems to be some speculation that Downey's final sentence means that an Avenger or two will cameo... but they'll do so in a flying capacity. That seems like an overly literal interpretation of what he said. I'd suggest he means that the existence of the Avengers will be acknowledged in some way during the film — hence why they're in the movie's "atmosphere" — but they won't actually appear in it — or be "on the ground", as it were. That seems to fit better with all previous discussions of the movie, which suggest it's by far the most standalone of the three upcoming sequels, perhaps to make up for the messiness of Iron Man 2. [EW]

Of course, I'd be remiss if I didn't point out that there is a rumor that supports the incredibly literal reading of Downey's statement. Specifically, there's a report from a supposed inside source that Tony Stark will head into space at the end of the film and "hook up with the Guardians of the Galaxy", and in fact Stark will make a return cameo at the end of Guardians of the Galaxy. Assuming this is confirmed, one would assume this is a post-credits scene — or, regardless of its exact placement, functions in a manner similarly independent of the main movie — especially since it really should be hard to film such a sequence when none of the Guardians have actually been cast yet. Anyway, the only tangible "proof" of this report is a tie-in toy that advertises Iron Man's "Deep Space Suit." Make of all this what you will, but I'd still bet that other Marvel characters — especially Tony's fellow Avengers — won't be showing up during Iron Man 3 proper. [Latino Review]


Thor: The Dark World

Producer Craig Kyle explains what new director Alan Taylor brings to the franchise:

"By bringing director Alan Taylor into the mix, with his expertise on The Sopranos, Mad Men and Game of Thrones, we came up with a take that allows us to get more into the nooks and crannies of Asgard and its people. We spend more time on the ground with the commoners, as opposed to in the palace. It's a very complicated blend [of genres: high science fiction, gritty fantasy, and realism]. Thor is, until Guardians of the Galaxy hits, by far our most wild, fringe Marvel piece. But that's why it's the Marvel Universe and not Marvel Earth!"

[IGN]


The Wolverine

Star Hugh Jackman explains to Empire Magazine why his sixth outing as Wolverine will be definitive:

"I still don't think we've seen the definitive Wolverine. And the longer I play the character, the more the desire to get him right grows. The more I speak to fans and explore his world, the more it means to me. Look, there's no question that it's a great role. I didn't fully understand that when I went in, you know? The pressure now is way more. I feel I understand why there's the passion. I understand the character and the legacy and I don't feel, up until this movie, that we've completely lived up to that. So that's what I intend to do."

[Comic Book Movie]


Man of Steel

Star Henry Cavill promises that this film won't be going overly dark and gritty just to fit in with the tone established by Christopher Nolan's ridiculously successful Dark Knight trilogy:

"It's not a dark movie by any means. Past representations of the character have been quite light... This is a more realistic view of the character, while still maintaining the very unrealistic, or potentially unrealistic features of an alien with superpowers."

While we're comparing the two franchises, David Goyer — who was involved in the writing of all four relevant films — says there's more action in Man of Steel than either Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, or The Dark Knight Rises. [Comic Book Movie]


Jack the Giant Slayer

Here's a TV spot for X-Men director Bryan Singer's fairy tale reimagining. [Coming Soon]


Beautiful Creatures

Here's a clip from the upcoming supernatural romance, which comes out this Valentine's Day. [Coming Soon]


The Dark Knight Returns: Part 2

Here's a sneak peek for the animated adaptation of the Frank Miller classic. [Comic Book Resources]


True Blood

The third episode of season six will reportedly be called "Rock Hard Times." Here are some casting tidbits for the episode, courtesy of SpoilerTV:

The guest star part is a 50-year-old woman named Beverly Hutt who was a friend of Sookie/Jason's parents and answers their questions about them. The co-star roles are: Young Beverly Hutt, 30 year old, (seen in a flashback), 4 mischievous/silly faerie girls (who are younger versions of 4 faeries as seen in a flashback), a 30-to-50-year-old hospital nurse who attempts to calm a patient, 8-year-old Sookie (also seen in a flashback), and 2 Caddo Parish sheriff deputies who visit Sam at his home.

[SpoilerTV]


Person of Interest

Here's the description for next week's episode, "One Percent":

REESE AND FINCH STRUGGLE TO MAINTAIN THEIR ANONYMITY WHILE PROTECTING A TECH BILLIONAIRE WHOSE RESOURCES RIVAL THEIR OWN – Reese and Finch meet their match in a tech billionaire POI whose curiosity and limitless resources threaten to expose their identities and sabotage their efforts to save his life.

[SpoilerTV]

And here's the synopsis for the following week's episode, "Booked Solid":

REESE AND FINCH FIND THEMSELVES SURROUNDED BY POTENTIAL SUSPECTS WHEN THEY INFILTRATE AN UPSCALE HOTEL TO SAVE A MAID'S LIFE, ON "PERSON OF INTEREST," THURSDAY, FEB. 14 – Mia Maestro ("Alias," "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2") Guest Stars as the Hotel Maid, Mira Dobrica – Reese and Finch race to save a hotel maid's life but find themselves surrounded by more suspects than they may be able to eliminate when they realize any guest or staff member could be her potential killer. Meanwhile, Detective Carter weighs a major offer from the FBI.

[SpoilerTV]


Revolution

24 actress Annie Wersching has reportedly been cast as Emma, the first love of Miles Matheson and the object of obsession for Sebastian Monroe. Her reappearance in the present will reportedly add yet another dimension to Miles and Monroe's complicated relationship. Fellow 24 alum Leslie Hope was also recently cast as the president of the Georgia Federation. Both will debut in episode fifteen. [TV Line]


Once Upon a Time

Ty Olsson explains the relationship between Dean and his character Benny:

The writers know you guys and they are toying with you. The short answer is I don't know. My instinct is that I think the relationship between Dean and Benny is genuine. There is no subterfuge, there is no trickery going on. That's why my gut is telling me from what I know and from how I've played Benny. I think there is a genuine bond there. To me it is unquestionable that there is a brotherhood and that there is nothing to worry about. The problem is, even saying that, is that is that the people in our lives who hurt us the most are the people who are closest to us. The ones who love us are the ones who cause us the most pain unfortunately. So I'm not saying that about Benny but just the fact that their relationship by nature divides the brothers, on some level it causes pain and that's the bottom line. That doesn't necessarily mean that Benny's being malicious.

[TV Equals]


Arrow

Here's a preview for tonight's episode, entitled "Vertigo", from executive producer Marc Guggenheim.

Here's an early promo for next week's episode, "Betrayal."


Additional reporting by Amanda Yesilbas and Charlie Jane Anders.

Joss Whedon's Avengers 2 already has seven incredible moments. Plus a major X-Men: Days of Future Past hint!

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Joss Whedon's Avengers 2 already has seven incredible moments. Plus a major X-Men: Days of Future Past hint!X-Men: Days of Future Past is jumping ahead in time in more ways than one. LucasFilm head Kathleen Kennedy confirms that Star Wars: Episode VII might not come out in 2015 after all. Robert Downey, Jr. explains why his Iron Man 3 injury was a good thing. Steven Moffat offers a lightning-fast Doctor Who preview. Plus the first photos of Jodie Foster's villain in Elysium and of Amy Adams as Lois Lane in Man of Steel!

Spoilers from here on out!

Top image from Star Trek Into Darkness.

Star Wars: Episode VII

New LucasFilm president Kathleen Kennedy explains how she convinced J.J. Abrams to direct the film and seems to confirm that the 2015 release date is no longer set in stone:

"We spent a lot of time talking about how meaningful Star Wars is and the depth of the mythology that George has created and how we carry that into the next chapter. If there was any pause on J.J.'s part, it was the same pause everybody has — including myself — stepping into this. ... Which is, it's daunting. Our goal is to move as quickly as we can, and we'll see what happens," explained Kennedy. "The timetable we care about is getting the story."

[The Hollywood Reporter]


Star Trek Into Darkness

Here's a new behind-the-scenes featurette.


The Avengers 2

Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige reveals that, yeah, Joss Whedon has some pretty good ideas for the sequel:

"It's still early days, but I told [Whedon] after reading the first sketch outline he delivered - and there's a lot of work still to do, he has to sit down and turn this into a movie - but there are already seven things in there that are worth the price of admission alone."

[MTV Splash Page]


Iron Man 3

Here's a teaser for the promo that will air during the Super Bowl. [Coming Soon]

In the latest installment of his week-long interview, star Robert Downey, Jr. discusses how Ben Kingsley's turn as the villainous Mandarin might be the best part of the movie:

Sir Ben is probably going to steal the movie. There are a lot of contenders who may, but right now he's probably at the top of that list. He came in as, obviously – speaking of training – as such a technically proficient instrument. And then what proceeded to happen was the release of more vintage, old-school Favreau [improv] stuff with a Shane Black twist on it. It was kind of frightening to witness, I'll tell you that much.

He also explains how his on-set ankle injury actually helped make the film better:

I busted my ankle [in August] and we shut down for a little while, and it ended up being great for us. It was the first time [on any movie] in my personal history we got the creative luxury of being able to stop about two-thirds of the way through and really recalibrate everything and prepare for all of the hurdles ahead. And the mainstay of the Ben/Mandarin was kind of up next and straight away throughout, and then lots of Rhodey stuff and lots of fight stuff.

[EW]


X-Men: Days of Future Past

A casting notice for Bryan Singer's latest X-Men movie has surfaced in Montreal and, assuming it's genuine, it reveals a major clue about the movie's setting. The notice states that the film is set in 1973, making it more than ten years after the events of X-Men: First Class. Among other things, that likely means the John F. Kennedy assassination subplot mentioned in early discussions probably didn't make it through to the final story. It also might be used to explain away any cast changes. Check out the link for a look at the casting notice. [Comic Book Movie]


Man of Steel

Joss Whedon's Avengers 2 already has seven incredible moments. Plus a major X-Men: Days of Future Past hint!Here's the first official image — which is black and white, for reasons that probably don't make much sense — of Amy Adams as Lois Lane. [Spinoff Online]


Elysium



And here are brief descriptions for the subsequent three episodes:

Episode 3.05 - Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Mouth
Liam tries to pit Josh and Nora against Aidan; Sally gets closer with Max; Kenny suspects that Aidan may be a vampire.

Episode 3.06 - What's Blood Got to Do With It
Sally tries to make things right after she encounters someone from her past; Kenny spurs Aidan's memories.

Episode 3.07 - One is Silver and the Other Pagan
Josh reconnects with Emily; Aidan's blood supply is jeopardized; Sally gets in touch with a friend from her past.

[SpoilerTV]


Beauty and the Beast

Star Jay Ryan teases Vincent's first encounter with Cat's family:

"Heather has got herself in with a bad crowd and so Vincent has to save her life. In doing so, he mistakenly kills someone very close to one of our series regular cast members. It's going to have the whole city after this guy because they think he wrongfully killed this man."


Additional reporting by Amanda Yesilbas and Charlie Jane Anders.

Edgar Wright takes you to The World's End. Plus a metric ton of Jack the Giant Slayer details!

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Edgar Wright takes you to The World's End. Plus a metric ton of Jack the Giant Slayer details!Check out new images from Iron Man 3 and The Wolverine. The brains behind Young Justice discuss the show's de-facto endgame. Plus Once Upon a Time, Supernatural, Vampire Diaries, and more!

Spoilers from here on out!

Top image from Iron Man 3.

Iron Man 3

Edgar Wright takes you to The World's End. Plus a metric ton of Jack the Giant Slayer details!Here's the latest, rather dramatic poster. [Comic Book Resources]


The Wolverine

Edgar Wright takes you to The World's End. Plus a metric ton of Jack the Giant Slayer details!Here's a high-res version of a recently released promo photo. [Empire]


Ender's Game

Composer James Horner, whose credits range from Alien to Avatar, will reportedly be providing the score to Gavin Hood's adaptation of the Orson Scott Card classic. [First Showing]


The World's End


Supernatural

Executive producer Robert Singer explains how the newly discovered secret room will impact the Winchesters:

"[Sam and Dean will] go to great pains to keep that hidden. Also it's kind of impenetrable. We've had places before, we had Rufus's cabin. They need a place, not just so we have a set to shoot on, but that the boys need a place to decompress and have their bromance moments. The other sets we've had have been not the biggest. When you see this set you realize they have lots of room to move around and there's lots of really cool things in there. Adam came up with this idea and we latched onto it immediately. It's a very expensive set so we're going to [keep] using it."
"Up until the time that Adam came up with this notion, we hadn't really explored that side of the family; grandpa Winchester. But we thought the idea of harkening back to what Cupid said about how it was all ordained and a 'top priority' - it was just a nice closing of that circle for us and again sort of gives us this new home base that is chock full of information and will certainly lead to other stories. You'll see that open up next week, it's cool."

[BuddyTV]

Here's a promo for next week's episode, "Everybody Hates Hitler."

Here's a description for episode fifteen, "Man's Best Friend with Benefits":

DEAN REALLY DOESN'T LIKE WITCHES - A police officer named Kevin (guest star Christian Campbell), who turned to witchcraft after working a case with Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles), is plagued by nightmares in which he murders innocent people. However, when the murders actually happen, Sam and Dean are called in by Kevin's "familiar" (guest star Mishael Morgan) to help —— but the brothers aren't sure they want to save a witch.

[SpoilerTV]


Arrow

Here's a promo for next week's episode and thirteenth overall, "Betrayal."

And here are some promo photos for the following week's fourteenth episode, "The Odyssey." [SpoilerTV]

And here's the description for episode fifteen, which introduces Roy Harper:

COLTON HAYNES ("TEEN WOLF") GUEST STARS AS ROY HARPER - Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards) tells Oliver (Stephen Amell) he's all work and no play, so he asks Detective McKenna (guest star Janina Gavankar) on a date. A jewel thief named Dodger (guest star James Callis) hits Starling City and targets someone very close to Oliver. Meanwhile, while working with Laurel (Katie Cassidy), Thea (Willa Holland) gets her purse stolen by a very fast pickpocket named Roy Harper (guest star Haynes). Moira (Susanna Thompson) makes a move against Malcom (John Barrowman).

[SpoilerTV]


The Vampire Diaries

Star Ian Somerhalder gives a status update on Damon and Elena's relationship:

Well, I thought, "Hey, cool! He can do whatever he wants." Three years of trying to get the same girl, who looks like your ex who you thought was in love with you for 150 years, has to do whatever you say. Could be worse. Actually, no, I thought, "Poor guy"… Here's the thing: At the end of the day, Damon does not want to take this cure, nor would he in a million years want Elena to take it. He's thinking, "Why would I want to do this? Why would I want to become a normal, boring human being susceptible to everything?" It's just not in his wheelhouse to have that thought… It really is a tragic [thing]. You want this character - even though he does really awful things - you want him to win. You want him to be happy in life… There's something big in the cards for Damon soon.

[TV Line]

Here's the synopsis for episode fifteen, "Stand by Me":

THE TERRIBLE TRUTH - When Stefan (Paul Wesley) arrives back in Mystic Falls with Elena (Nina Dobrev) and Jeremy (Steven R. McQueen), Caroline (Candice Accola) is immediately worried about Elena's state of mind. Stefan reaches out to Dr. Fell (guest star Torrey DeVitto) and Matt (Zach Roerig) for help. Still on the island, Damon (Ian Somerhalder) relays somber news to Rebekah (Claire Holt), and is surprised at her reaction. Together, Damon and Rebekah learn an unexpected bit of recent history from Vaughn (guest star Charlie Bewley). Everyone is horrified when Bonnie (Kat Graham) reveals the rest of Shane's (guest star David Alpay) plan. Finally, after Damon does his best to help her, Elena comes up with a plan of her own.

[KSiteTV]

Here's a first look at Twilight's Charlie Bewley as Vaughn, one of the Five who takes to torturing Damon in his debut episode. [E! Online]

Here are two new posters. [TV Guide]


Being Human (UK)

Here's the description for the third episode of series five:

When Tom meets minor TV personality Larry Chrysler, he's inspired by Larry's lifestyle and goes about learning how to be successful from his new mentor - but is Larry everything that he claims to be? Meanwhile, Hal is dressed to impress and secretly off to meet an old friend called Lady Mary (Amanda Hale). Alex's curiosity gets the better of her and she sneaks off to follow Hal, but soon discovers some worrying similarities between herself and Lady Mary.

[SpoilerTV]


Young Justice

Whatever the show's future (or lack thereof) beyond this season, there are still seven episodes left to air this season, and showrunner Brandon Vietti discusses his and fellow showrunner Greg Weisman's plans for this final batch:

I think our goal for the last ten was to really shake things up. We took their headquarters away from them. The secret invasion is no longer a secret, and in fact, public sentiment is turning away from the heroes in the last ten. Our heroes are more or less on the run. They're no longer the ones starting from a place of power. They searching for a way to get their power back in a lot of ways. So I think that "on the run" feel was a vibe that we wanted to get across. It was a new way to ratchet the tension up that we hadn't used before. With every episode of the last ten of our season, things just keep getting worse. We end each episode in a place where you think it can't possibly get worse, yet we find a way to make it worse! [Laughs] I think that gives you something pretty cool to look forward to...

We've got a return to our core members from the first season. We spent some time in the first ten episodes of the second season establishing new characters, but our core members are coming back into the spotlight in the last ten. Yet at the same time, I think we've found a way to keep in all the new characters we've introduced as well. Even The Light is starting to come back. I feel they were a bit absent or you didn't feel their presence as much in the first ten. But in the last ten, you've already started to see a little more time spent with them. You'll get a sense that they're going to have a larger role in episodes to come. It's a really long answer to your question, but we definitely did always plan on breaking the season up into two parts and giving each part a unique feel.

There's more at the link. [Comic Book Resources]


Beauty and the Beast

Here's the description for episode fourteen, "Tough Love":

VINCENT MAKES A DECISION THAT ENDS IN TRAGEDY - After a dinner where Cat (Kristin Kreuk) introduces Vincent (Jay Ryan) to Heather (Nicole Gale Anderson) ends badly, Heather enlists Tess (Nina Lisandrello) to stage an intervention with Cat. Evan (Max Brown) receives an interesting proposition that could change the course of his cross species investigation and at an event to honor Joe, Heather goes missing and Vincent is forced to make a tough decision that saves her life. Austin Basis also stars.

[SpoilerTV]


Additional reporting by Amanda Yesilbas and Charlie Jane Anders.

These plants might be nobler creatures than we are

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These plants might be nobler creatures than we areIt's generally a fool's errand to try putting human labels on animal behavior, but it can be possible to define how "good" animals are in terms of their capacity to act selflessly to help others. This is referred to as altruism, and it turns out plants are capable of it as well.

Of course, since this is planets we're talking about, we're not looking at behaviors as complex as of altruistic animals, who have been known to feed, protect, and even raise animals of entirely different species — think of all those stories of primates adopting kittens, for instance. Plant altruism is a little more calculated, and plants likely reserve their self-sacrifice exclusively for members of their own species.

That, at least, is the finding of University of Colorado professor Pamela Diggle, who examined the two "offspring" found inside fertilized seeds of corn. The first offspring is the embryo, while the second is tissue known as endosperm, which is meant to serve as a source of nutrients for the growing embryo, even at the cost of its own existence. Assuming the endosperm isn't fully absorbed by the embryo during the reproductive process, it often becomes the fruit or other parts of the plant that we humans end up consuming.

Most of the time, when a seed becomes fertilized after cross-pollination with another plant, the embryo and endosperm will have the same "mother" and "father." But on certain rare occasions, the embryo and the endosperm will share a mother but have different fathers. It was these cases that Professor Diggle and her research team focused on, to see whether endosperm would be less likely to sacrifice its own existence just to provide nutrients for a relatively unrelated embryo. In a statement, Professor Diggle explains what she found:

"The results indicated embryos with the same mother and father as the endosperm in their seed weighed significantly more than embryos with the same mother but a different father. We found that endosperm that does not share the same father as the embryo does not hand over as much food — it appears to be acting less cooperatively. Our study is the first to specifically test the idea of cooperation among siblings in plants."

While that might indicate endosperm can be selfish bastards, that isn't really news — evolution tends to favor organisms that are selfish bastards, since it increases the chances of surviving to reproduction age. What's more interesting is that, according to these results, endosperm don't simply give up their chance at life just as a matter of course; instead, they actively choose to die if it means their sibling can survive, and they won't do it for just any other plant. That's pretty much the definition of altruism, as co-author and Harvard professor William "Ned" Friedman explains:

"One of the most fundamental laws of nature is that if you are going to be an altruist, give it up to your closest relatives," said Friedman. "Altruism only evolves if the benefactor is a close relative of the beneficiary. When the endosperm gives all of its food to the embryo and then dies, it doesn't get more altruistic than that."

PNAS via University of Colorado. Image by anokarina on Flickr.


And now, see what it was like to drive on the Moon

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When it comes to cool road trips and awesome driving exploits, Apollo astronauts David Scott, John Young, and Eugene Cernan pretty much have us all beat forever, seeing as how they drove on the Moon and all. At least the video up top gives some idea of what it was like to tool around the Moon.

The short version is that lunar driving is silent, barren, and utterly beyond incredible. The video up top was recored by Apollo 16 astronauts John Young and Charles Duke, the second Apollo crew to get to use the Lunar Rover, although only Young as mission commander got to actually drive the thing. The first half of the video was taken by a stationary Duke as Young drove past, providing the more familiar image of the lunar rover in action at close quarters.

But it's the second half of the video that's really spectacular, as the camera is placed right at the front of the lunar rover and shows the lunar landscape flying past — insofar as anything can fly past at a maximum speed of approximately 10 miles per hour — just as Young and Duke would have seen it 41 years ago and 238,000 miles away. For more, check out NASA's Astronomy Photo of the Day website.

The Captain America sequel finds its female lead. Plus lots more X-Men and Iron Man 3 hints!

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The Captain America sequel finds its female lead. Plus lots more X-Men and Iron Man 3 hints!Michael Bay says Transformers 4 won't be a reboot... kind of. Lost's Mr. Eko talks more about his role in the Thor sequel. Mark Millar promises a Kick-Ass 3, while Chris Pine still thinks J.J. Abrams could direct Star Trek 3.

Spoilers from here on out!

Top image from Captain America.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Emily VanCamp, the star of ABC's Sunday night vengeance-based soap opera Revenge, has reportedly been cast as the female lead in the Captain America sequel. It's not yet confirmed just who VanCamp is playing — or indeed if she's absolutely, definitely going to be in the movie, though it's looking fairly likely — but the smart money would still be on Sharon Carter, the modern-day relative of Cap's World War II love interest Peggy Carter, who was played by Hayley Atwell in the first film. A very late entrant to the casting rumors, VanCamp beat out a number of other rising TV stars who were previously connected with the role, including Downton Abbey's Jessica Brown-Findlay, Game of Thrones's Emilia Clarke, and Community's Allison Brie. [Deadline]


Thor: The Dark World

Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, best known as Lost's Mr. Eko, describes his villainous Dark Elf character Kurse:

It's an amalgamation of a bull and a lava-like creature. He has very animalistic tendencies but with this insatiable and unstoppable power. As an actor, that's one of the hardest things to embody. You have to realize you are probably the most powerful thing you could imagine. And you have to be that. You can't pretend, so that when you face Thor, it's real... The outfit weighed about 40 pounds. I'm sure there will be a certain amount of CGI but a good 80% was me in that suit. The outfit informed how I was going to move – the horns – his fighting style as well. It's almost like he's made out of stone.

[Hero Complex]

The Captain America sequel finds its female lead. Plus lots more X-Men and Iron Man 3 hints!Here's a high-resolution version of a recently spotted promo image. [Newsarama]


Iron Man 3

Star Robert Downey, Jr. has some more praise for writer-director Shane Black, who makes his big move to blockbuster superhero films after reigniting both his and Downey's careers with the 2005 noir Kiss Kiss Bang Bang:

The first six months of pre-pre-production when you get hired to a Marvel movie is like taking a four-year college course in humility. The strongest ones survive and they move into prep and then they shoot the movie and they still look like a human being. The great thing about Shane is the same thing that's great about Shane's movie is that all the moving parts within the frame of his story are so poetic and inherently entertaining and then thought out and rethought out. And then everyone all the way through really put their nose to the grindstone this time and I really felt like we were in a much safer playground [than we were with Iron Man 2] just because it was Shane's vision. And he had a lot, lot, lot of time to figure out just one thing, which was to figure what the story would be.

He also offers some idea of what being a Chinese co-production means for Iron Man 3:

Truth be told, we [did shoot in China for about a week in December] after finishing principal photography and there will be some action there in the film. My main interplay through the whole thing was that China figures in as a destination spot for Tony for a reason but I can't explain [more because it would reveal] one of the ongoing themes of the movie. It's tied-in to that theme in much the same way the 10 rings [mentioned in the first Iron Man film] are tied-in to Mandarin - and always have been tied-in to the Mandarin.

[EW]

The Captain America sequel finds its female lead. Plus lots more X-Men and Iron Man 3 hints!Here's a new promo image featuring The Town star Rebecca Hall, who plays scientist Maya Hansen in the film. [Coming Soon]


X-Men: Days of Future Past

Mark Millar, the creative consultant for all superhero movies over at 20th Century Fox, discusses the how the time traveling story of the latest X-Men movie will work:

It has actually been very well put together – Simon Kinberg and Matthew Vaughn worked on it together and they are both great at what they do. Then Bryan Singer came in, and, of course, he is Mr X-Men and he knows exactly how everything works. Just look at these first two X-Men movies: despite the huge cast of characters it all came together really well. These two movies never felt like overload and the balance was really, really good. On the other hand I though the third film felt crowded, but then Singer is excellent at working with ensemble casts. So with this one I feel it is all fine. I have read the screenplay and it doesn't feel rushed and it doesn't feel like it is too many characters.

Are some of the appearances cameos? Is there a main team we'll be following?
I think the best comparison I can give is to Star Trek – that is an ensemble but it never feels as if there is not enough time with any one character. Or maybe Lost – that is an ensemble but every character gets their own moment to shine. So as long as everyone is there for a reason there doesn't need to be a problem with so many characters. This is a beautifully structured film, and it is a time travel story so the structure has to be especially strong.

He also hints at the potential roles of characters essential to the original comics "Days of Future Past" storyline, the Sentinels and Ellen Page's Kitty Pryde:

I don't really want to give too much away but the Sentinels are a big feature of this story. They will be cool and this will deliver on all of the teasers. We've all been waiting for this ever since X-Men: The Last Stand showed us one of their heads. Now it is finally coming, and we only have to pay ten quid to see it in the cinema whereas they're having to pay $100 million to deliver it. So I'm delighted [laughs].

Kitty Pryde – is she finally going to have a decent big screen role?
Ach, I cannae get into that [laughs]. As soon as I say something it will turn into a big internet story. Let me put it this way though: Kitty Pryde fans will not be disappointed.

There's more at the link. [SFX]


The Wolverine

The Captain America sequel finds its female lead. Plus lots more X-Men and Iron Man 3 hints!Here's a high-resolution version of a recently released behind-the-scenes photo. [Coming Soon]


Star Trek 3

Star Chris Pine says J.J. Abrams can go off and work on as many other sci-fi franchises as he likes, just so long as he comes back for another Star Trek movie:

"The only way I'll be disappointed is if he doesn't direct our third movie. I think if that turns out to be the case we'll have to kidnap him and hold him hostage until he agrees to do a third. From my standpoint, J.J. is a science-fiction genius. To have him over in the Star Wars camp is going to be a great thing. I'm sure it's going to be a great film."

It's confirmed that Abrams will still produce the third Star Trek movie, though it's not been confirmed either way if he will direct it. Of course, Abrams rather famously took his sweet time before committing to direct Star Trek Into Darkness, so it's likely we would have been in for another wait even if Abrams hadn't gotten the Star Wars directing gig. [USA Today]


Transformers 4

Director Michael Bay gives his latest update on the film — which still, in an increasingly impressive show of restraint on Bay's part, isn't called Trans4mers — in which he explains how this film will be a fresh start after the first three films. As far as I can work out, that means totally new human characters and the same set of robots... except they will have new looks, for reasons that will be explained over the course of the film but fundamentally have to do with selling more toys, as that was seen as the main commercial failing of Dark of the Moon. Anyway, here's what he has to say:

We're going to start off smaller. There's a brand new cast. To freshen the franchise we've redesigned everything from top to bottom. The history of the first three movies is still there, we start four years later and there's a reason why we're meeting a new cast.

Mark is really excited about it and it's a great redesign. I said that 3 [which grossed $1.1 billion] was going to be my last one. Paramount was letting me do Pain & Gain and the Transformers ride was opening at Universal and it was bittersweet to think of passing it off. I wanted to set it up on a really sure footing and to bring someone else in on that, it would have been overwhelming.

So is 4 a reboot?
No, that's wrong. We keep the Transformers the way they were, it's just four years later. There's a reason the Transformers are redesigned. We're trying to broaden the franchise and give it more places to go.

[Forbes]


Kick-Ass 3

Assuming the as yet unreleased Kick-Ass 2 does well enough at the box office, Mark Millar plans to complete his trilogy with one final film:

Yeah absolutely. Kick-Ass 3 is going to be the last one though. I told Universal this and they asked me, ‘What does that mean?' I said, ‘It means that this is where it all ends.' They said, ‘Do they all die at the end?' I said, ‘Maybe' – because this is a realistic superhero story. And if someone doesn't have a bullet proof vest like Superman and doesn't have Batman's millions then eventually he is going turn around the wrong corner and get his head kicked in or get shot in the face [laughs]. So Kick-Ass needs to reflect that. There has to be something dramatic at the end, he cannot do this for the rest of his life.

[SFX]


Jack the Giant Slayer

Ewan McGregor describes the relationship between his character, the head knight Elmont, and Nicholas Hoult's Jack:

No, he's a bit dubious about Jack to begin with. My character's main job is to look after the princess during peacetime, that's my main lookout. It strikes me, and I've never discussed it with anyone, but the Guardians are kind of the royal soldiers, the top knights. During the peacetime, at the beginning of the film, they're in charge of the security and safety of the royal family, so myself and Eddie Marsan's character, he plays Craw, it seems that we are in charge of looking after Isabelle, the princess.

My first encounter with Jack is when she's given us the slip. At the beginning of the film, there's a pantomime going on about this fable of the giants who live in the sky. It was really nicely put together by Warwick [Davis] who has an agency of small and very big people, so he used all his actors and he directed this pantomime that we shot in this lovely, old circus tent. So we find Isabelle there, she's watching the show and at that point, when we come into the tent, everyone bows down because we represent the king except for Jack who doesn't bow down because he's taken by surprise. So my first introduction to him is that he's somebody who's not very respectful to us and I'm a bit dubious about what he's after with the princess as well. Once the beanstalk has appeared and the princess has disappeared, [Jack] comes along with us, with the Guardians, the search party for her, and slowly, he keeps proving himself over and over.

[Coming Soon]

Episode nineteen will reportedly be titled "Taxi Driver", while episode twenty will be "Pac-Man Fever." [SpoilerTV]


American Horror Story

Creator Ryan Murphy tweeted that Lily Rabe, who has appeared on both incarnations of the show so far, will be back for season three. [EW]


Being Human (US)

Here's a sneak peek at the first four minutes of tonight's episode, "I'm So Lonesome I Could Die."


Beauty and the Beast

Here's a promo and sneak peek for the next episode, "Cold Turkey." [KSiteTV]



Additional reporting by Amanda Yesilbas and Charlie Jane Anders.

Benedict Cumberbatch reveals why his Star Trek Into Darkness character is a frighteningly modern villain!

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Benedict Cumberbatch reveals why his Star Trek Into Darkness character is a frighteningly modern villain!The Transformers 4 producer discusses Michael Bay's future with the franchise... and, just for fun, Shia LeBeouf's as well. Warwick Davis drops hints about Neil Gaiman's next Doctor Who episode. Real Steel 2 might go international, while Wreck-It Ralph 2 could enlist Disney's most famous video game character. Plus the latest Walking Dead and Supernatural hints!

Spoilers from here on out!

Top image from Star Trek Into Darkness.

Star Trek Into Darkness

Sherlock star Benedict Cumberbatch says his character John Harrison is a terrorist, and so he looked to contemporary sources when crafting his character:

"[Look at] real social history and present history, everything that's going on: uprisings, people who are trying to spread democracy or fight their cause, not necessarily through political means... he is a terrorist, and sadly, that's part of the fabric of our modern world. You don't need to look far to research that one... [I looked at] certain terrorist groups in the past... It was important to me to ground him in a reality that's based more on his story than, say, a parallel in the real world. What should certainly be chilling are the parallels to the modern world."

[MTV]

The movie's release date has moved up two days from May 17 to May 15. [Cinema Blend]


Iron Man 3

Although Glen Mazzara is no longer the showrunner, he did oversee all of the rest of season three. He discusses what to expect, starting the show's major new character:

Tyrese is not necessarily a good guy who simply joins Rick's team and fights against the Governor. He's a wild card. He's an interesting character and his priority is keeping his own group safe. I think viewers will be surprised by the twists and turns in the Tyrese story.

You brought in all this iconic stuff in the first half of the season: the prison, Woodbury, Michonne, the Governor, Penny, Tyrese. Anything or anyone else from the comic that we can anticipate seeing in the back half of the season?
Our comic book fans will still be excited and delighted to see how the story unfolds and how we tell the story. We do have a lot of new surprising material. There's still a major character to appear in the back half, which is very exciting. As always we take the comic book as inspiration and tell our own story. I'm happy to say the exciting pace and the chances we take with the storytelling and the twists and turns that people enjoyed so much in the first half are all still there in the second half. It's one connected, fluid season - we just took a little break with for the holidays.

He also suggests the show will be easing up and not adding too many more characters:

We have a lot of characters. Now it's time to really push deeper into these characters and their motivations and their circumstances, and not continue to introduce a thousand new characters. Sometimes when TV shows do that it becomes difficult to track everybody and people don't get enough screen time. Here, we've got more than enough story to tell and it's a matter of really pushing in and making sure everybody has their moment, and that everybody we know and love gets to shine.

There's more at the link. [EW]


Defiance

Here's the latest trailer for Syfy's upcoming alien western. [TV Line]


Additional reporting by Amanda Yesilbas and Charlie Jane Anders.

The next big piece of Disney's Star Wars masterplan is confirmed. Plus The Amazing Spider-Man 2 starts filming!

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The next big piece of Disney's Star Wars masterplan is confirmed. Plus The Amazing Spider-Man 2 starts filming!Lost's Mr. Eko has some more Thor: The Dark World thoughts. At least one other Avenger is definitely going to be in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Brandon Cronenberg discusses his contagious satire Antiviral. Plus tons of Walking Dead hints!

Spoilers from here on out!

Top image from The Walking Dead.

Star Wars

Disney CEO Bob Iger has now confirmed that Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi writer Lawrence Kasdan and Sherlock Holmes and X-Men: Days of Future Past writer Simon Kinberg are indeed working on new Star Wars movies that will stand apart from the trilogy J.J. Abrams and Michael Arndt are kicking off with Episode VII. Here's how Iger explains Kasdan and Kinberg's brief:

[They're] working on films derived from great Star Wars characters that are not part of the overall saga, so we still plan to make Star Wars VII, VIII and IX roughtly over a six year period of time starting in 2015. But there are going to be a few other films released in that period of time, too.

So then, that more or less confirms that each standalone film will indeed focus on an established character, and that the two films will likely be released between 2015 and 2021, along with possibly at least one additional standalone film. That at least appears to be the plan, though these things are certainly known to change. Also, Iger gave absolutely zero indication that either standalone film would have anything to do with Yoda, so keep on considering that an unsubstantiated rumor. [The Hollywood Reporter]


Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Although I don't think it's been 100% confirmed yet, we've known for awhile that Scarlett Johansson is reprising her role as Black Widow for the Captain America sequel, and that fact is apparently so well established that we've now reached the "offhand mention in the first paragraph of New York Times theater articles" stage of unofficial confirmation. So yeah, it's looking like a sure thing, and from the sound of it, her appearance will be at least somewhat more substantial than just a drop-in cameo. [New York Times]


Thor: The Dark World

Lost alum Adewale Akinnouye-Agbaje discusses his dual role in the Thor sequel, in which he plays both the virtuous Algrim the Strong and, post-transformation, the villainous Kurse:

It was a huge opportunity to pull double duty. In order to prepare you obviously go through and read the comics and research the characters history. You also look at the imagery and have discussions with Marvel and the directors to see their vision for the characters. Then the rest is left for the designers who create the costumes, which really then assists in your performance. Specifically for Kurse, it was very much looking at the costume and what I thought it would embody. For instance it had a certain look, so I used that look for his interpretive actions. I found that very useful. So with the horns and everything, I just went with that flow and tried to define a way of moving and fighting that was in the rhythm and the way that he looked. With Algrim, again the aesthetic look and the outfit really factored in as does the location and the set. From the moment you step into that world, you immediately become that character. You make them real. So in a way you have to ground the character in reality that makes it normal for them to be in that world. I believe and hope that we have done that well in this and that the audiences are going to enjoy it.

[Media Mikes]


The Amazing Spider-Man 2

Director Marc Webb has sent out a couple tweets to mark the beginning of filming for the sequel. So far, we still don't know too much about what to expect, though a photo in one of his tweets suggests he's shooting the sequel on film as opposed to digital, while an #Oscorp hashtag suggests that company will again play a significant role in the film. [Hitfix]


Jack the Giant Slayer

Here's a TV spot for X-Men director Bryan Singer's fairy tale reimagining.


Dark Skies

Here's a TV spot for the alien abduction thriller, starring The Americans and Felicity's Keri Russell.


Antiviral

David Cronenberg's son Brandon Cronenberg discusses the origins of his new movie, in which X-Men: First Class actor Caleb Landry Jones plays a salesman who makes his living by harvesting and selling celebrities' diseases:

It started with an interesting disease, I guess. I started writing it in film school, which means I took eight years to write it, on and off. I was sick with the flu, and I had this fever dream. I was obsessing over the physical nature of my illness, and how I had something in my body that had come from someone else's body, and how that was a weirdly intimate thing, if you think about it that way. So afterwards, I was trying to think about a character who might see disease as an intimate thing. I thought a celebrity-obsessed fan might reasonably want Angelina Jolie's cold as a way of feeling physically connected to her in some way. And then it developed into a metaphor, which I thought was an interesting way of discussing that culture.

I wonder if that idea's reflected in the set design, because aside from one scene - I think it may have been an office - nobody has any art. There are no books. Nobody seems to own anything. Was that your intention?
Yes, absolutely. And the celebrities note that there's never any discussion of why they're famous. They're just famous. It's just this entirely insular world that is unrelated to anything besides fame.

There was a quite Lynchian moment, too, where curtain is pulled back and a character appears to address us directly. I was wondering if you could tell me what your thinking was behind that, because I thought it was quite striking.
I was trying to think of the various ways that people could make money out of celebrities. The character Levine says, "We're all rats here. We're all scavenging the bin." I think there's a fantasy over having control over celebrities - people who want some sort of dominance, some position of power over people who in reality they have no power over. Because to have power over them will elevate them somehow. So there's this character who makes money by exploiting that fantasy of power, which I think is very connected to certain forms of celebrity news - that idea of power, to see Kate's vagina, or whatever. It's voyeurism, a power that comes from being on the invasive side of the equation.

He also praises Caleb Landry Jones's performance:

He was always that character. He was complex, funny, maybe a little more wise-crack-y. He was always an antihero, though. It almost becomes a monster movie, where he's the creature, in a way.

It must have been a tough role for him to play, because he's required to be ill from the first shot, and increasingly so as the film goes on.

I never had to push him. He would always push himself - sometimes further than we were comfortable with. We'd have to reel him in, because we were worried hurt himself; we'd say, "No, you have to wear pads - you're not going to throw yourself on a concrete floor." He really is the kind of actor who likes to feel it and run with it, which made my job very easy, because I could just pick and choose what I wanted. There was no issue of having to get something out of him - by the time we'd finished, we could almost have cut three different characters [from what we had], just because he gave us so much material, and so much to work with.

There's still a bunch more at the link. [Den of Geek


The Walking Dead

Ousted showrunner Glen Mazzara is still good enough to do press for his former show, so here's more of his season three preview, starting with the show's eternal question, namely does Rick have the slightest idea what he's doing:

It's more a question of can Rick keep it together at a point when this formidable foe in the Governor is coming for him? If he can't keep it together, it puts pressure on the rest of the group as far as who is going to step up. Glenn (Steven Yeun) has an agenda of personal vengeance. Hershel (Scott Wilson) wants to protect these people. Carl (Chandler Riggs) has already been through a horrible tragedy and is really fearless. There's a lot of dissent within the group as to how to handle this, and people respect and defer to Rick, but everyone will come to realize he's not the same leader who got them through the winter.

He also discusses what's next for Andrea now that she knows the truth about the Governor:

Andrea's line becomes very complicated. She realizes that the Governor is who he is. There's also a town of innocent people now at risk, and as the Governor focuses on his plan to seek revenge on Rick and Michonne, Andrea is forced into a leadership position in Woodbury to protect those people. And there's also a compelling emotional story for Andrea with Rick's group: In one way, they left her behind; in another way, she has her differences with Michonne. If and when Andrea finally meets with this group, all of that emotional baggage comes spilling out. That's what I'm talking about when I say that we now push into very complicated character dynamics.

After spending the winter together and caring for a near-death Andrea, does Michonne have any romantic feelings for Andrea? Will that be addressed?
I don't know if there are romantic feelings. That's something we discussed. It's a complicated dynamic with how much these women do care for each other. That storyline plays out throughout the entire back half of the season. We have some pretty surprising scenes.

Finally, let's check in with our old pals Merle and Daryl:

Merle (Michael Rooker) and Daryl (Norman Reedus), if you remember, are survivalists. They can handle it out on their own. The question is: Does Daryl want to leave his new family behind? Does he want to fall back into that same pattern he had his whole life of being Merle's little brother and taking orders from him and letting him bully him? Also, if Daryl chooses not to put up with that, how does that force Merle to change? If their dynamics aren't the same as they've always been, what kind of personal growth is Merle going to see? We're playing with everyone and pushing all the characters. This isn't just a show about horror and pacing. This is about these people trying to survive under extreme pressure. We are really having fun examining everyone. Every single character changes and develops in these episodes.

There's still plenty more at the link. [Live Feed]

Here's another promo for the episode.


Arrow

Producer Marc Guggenheim previews tonight's episode, "Betrayal."

Grammy-nominated electro house musician Steve Aoki will appear as himself DJing the opening of Oliver's club in the upcoming episode "The Huntress Returns." [EW]

The eighteenth episode will reportedly introduce a character called the Savior, described as "a vigilante who dishes out death sentences on the Internet." There's no way that can be as stupid as it sounds, right? [SpoilerTV]


The Originals

Relative newcomer Daniella Pineda, whose previous roles include supporting turns in The Fitzgerald Family Christmas and a Homeland episode, has reportedly been cast in the upcoming Vampire Diaries spinoff. She will reportedly play Sophie, described as "a witch whose magic has been silenced but not snuffed... a leader and a sexy, sharp-tongued social force, she is quietly sowing the seeds of a revolution amongst her peers." [Deadline]


Being Human (US)

Here's a promo and a sneak peek for next week's episode, "Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Mouth."



Additional reporting by Amanda Yesilbas and Charlie Jane Anders.

Could Fringe's John Noble really be playing the villain of Star Wars: Episode VII?

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Could Fringe's John Noble really be playing the villain of Star Wars: Episode VII?Yes, Walter Bishop himself could be going up against the Jedi. The first official synopsis confirms some crucial details about The Amazing Spider-Man 2, while set photos and a detailed plot description take us inside Tom Cruise's All You Need Is Kill. Plus two awesomely prestigious actors could be costarring in Godzilla!

All that, plus Edgar Wright talks Ant-Man, the creative team behind Man of Steel explains what realism means to Superman, Jessica Alba promises a bigger role in Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, and a Game of Thrones episode description gives away some key details!

Spoilers from here on out!

Top image from Game of Thrones.

Star Wars: Episode VII

Pretty much all of the casting rumors so far have centered on whether existing Star Wars characters like Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Han Solo, and even Lando Calrissian and Chewbacca would return for J.J. Abrams's new entry in the franchise. However, we now have the first rumor regarding a new addition to the franchise, and it's a doozy for all you Fringe fans out there: John Noble, Walter Bishop himself, is supposedly set to play the villain, at least according to some random radio host in Melbourne who revealed she "has it on very good authority that Aussie actor John Noble will be appearing as the villain." So, admittedly, that seems like a hugely unlikely source for reliable Star Wars rumors — even if you allow for the fact that Noble is from Australia, so maybe media types down there have more of a sense of the latest Noble-related rumors — but it's the rare crazy rumor that doubles as a totally brilliant idea, so I'm all for hoping this is one bit of wild speculation that turns out to be true. Still, best to take this with a generous heaping of salt. [Comic Book Movie]


Man of Steel

Screenwriter David Goyer gives a sense of what taking a realistic approach to the Superman story actually entails:

We're approaching Superman as if it weren't a comic book movie, as if it were real. It just struck me that if Superman really existed in the world, first of all this story would be a story about contact. He's an alien. You can easily imagine a scenario in which we'd be doing a film like E.T., as opposed to him running around in tights. If the world found out he existed, it would be the biggest thing that ever happened in human history."

Deborah Snyder, a producer on the film and wife of director Zack Snyder, also offers some insight into Superman's journey:

"[Superman] is looking for his place in the world. He is a little lost when we find him, trying to figure it out. That makes him very real. You can relate to the humanity in him."

[Empire via Digital Spy]


Ant-Man

Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz director Edgar Wright explains why the movie's long development process is actually a good thing while also confirming the film will be a departure from anything Marvel has done before:

"It's a way of doing a superhero film within another genre. I wanted to tell an origin tale in a slightly different way. It's part of the Marvel cinematic universe, but it also feels like its own piece... I've been collaborating with [Marvel boss] Kevin [Feige] during the whole of that cycle. I think people have always assumed… ‘Oh why is it taking so long to make?' Part of it is because I wanted to make two other movies first. I wanted to make World's End… me and Simon were very keen to make it and it felt like it was unfinished business and we wanted to wrap up the trilogy. The script came together really fast. Well not really fast, but it came together at a certain point where it was like ‘I really want to do this next.' But to be honest, the later I do it, it feels like I could learn more, especially about special effects. It's a big effects movie, so I'm pleased to go into it having done Scott Pilgrim and The World's End because you're always learning more about that side."

[IGN]


The Amazing Spider-Man 2

Now that filming has started on Marc Webb's sequel, it's high time we get an official synopsis. The key takeaways are that the film will indeed simply be called The Amazing Spider-Man 2, that Paul Giamatti will indeed be in it — although it isn't confirmed whether he's in fact playing the Rhino — and that Colm Feore, whose credits include supporting turns in Thor and The Chronicles of Riddick, will appear in an unspecified role. Here's the full synopsis, which includes some very general hints about the plot:

Columbia Pictures announced today that filming has begun on The Amazing Spider-Man 2 in New York. The film is the first in the history of the franchise that will be filmed entirely in New York City and New York State. The sequel to last year's critical and box office hit The Amazing Spider-Man, the film stars Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Jamie Foxx, Shailene Woodley, Dane DeHaan, Colm Feore, Paul Giamatti, and Sally Field.

In The Amazing Spider-Man 2, for Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield), life is busy – between taking out the bad guys as Spider-Man and spending time with the person he loves, Gwen (Emma Stone), high school graduation can't come quickly enough. Peter hasn't forgotten about the promise he made to Gwen's father to protect her by staying away – but that's a promise he just can't keep. Things will change for Peter when a new villain, Electro (Jamie Foxx), emerges, an old friend, Harry Osborn (Dane DeHaan), returns, and Peter uncovers new clues about his past.

The film is directed by Marc Webb from a screenplay by Alex Kurtzman & Roberto Orci & Jeff Pinkner, with a previous draft by James Vanderbilt, and based on the Marvel Comic Book by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach are the producers. The film's key behind-the-scenes team includes director of photography Dan Mindel, production designer Mark Friedberg, editors Pietro Scalia and Elliot Graham, and costume designer Deborah L. Scott. The latest chapter in the Spider-Man story is set for release in 3D on May 2, 2014.

[The Amazing Spider-Man]


Godzilla

The new Godzilla movie from Monsters director Gareth Edwards is still waiting on the new draft from Frank Darabont, but the early rumors suggest one hell of a cast could be taking on Godzilla this time around. Kick-Ass star Aaron Johnson is already linked to the main role, and now Martha Marcy May Marlene star Elizabeth Olsen and none other than Breaking Bad star Bryan Cranston are also reportedly in talks to costar. [Variety]


All You Need Is Kill

Here are some set photos from the London filming of the latest Tom Cruise sci-fi epic, in which he plays a time-looped soldier caught in an eternal war against vicious aliens. These photos show Cruise alongside costar Emily Blunt, who makes her return to dark time travel movies after her supporting turn in Looper. You can also find the latest, considerably more detailed synopsis for the movie below, which gives way more of a sense of just how Cruise's character ends up reliving the last day of his life over and over:

The story unfolds in a near future in which a hive-like alien race, called Mimics, have hit the Earth in an unrelenting assault, shredding great cities to rubble and leaving millions of human casualties in their wake. No army in the world can match the speed, brutality or seeming prescience of the weaponized Mimic fighters or their telepathic commanders. But now the world's armies have joined forces for a last stand offensive against the alien horde, with no second chances.

Lt. Col. Bill Cage is an officer who has never seen a day of combat when he is unceremoniously demoted and then dropped-untrained and ill-equipped-into what amounts to little more than a suicide mission. Cage is killed within minutes, managing to take an Alpha down with him. But, impossibly, he awakens back at the beginning of the same hellish day, and is forced to fight and die again…and again. Direct physical contact with the alien has thrown him into a time loop-dooming him to live out the same brutal combat over and over.

But with each pass, Cage becomes tougher, smarter, and able to engage the Mimics with increasing skill, alongside Special Forces warrior Rita Vrataski, who has lain waste to more Mimics than anyone on Earth. As Cage and Rita take the fight to the aliens, each repeated battle becomes an opportunity to find the key to annihilating the alien invaders and saving the Earth.

[Metro via Comic Book Movie]


Snow Piercer

Could Fringe's John Noble really be playing the villain of Star Wars: Episode VII?Here's the first poster for the movie that tosses a very promising cast, a new Ice Age, a giant train, and social upheaval into one intriguing stew. [First Showing]


The World's End

Rafe Spall, who played DC Andy Cartwright in Hot Fuzz and had the bit part of Noel in Shaun of the Dead, confirmed he will appear in Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg's apocalyptic conclusion to the thematic trilogy with a cameo in The World's End, although he says he doesn't know yet what the role will entail. [Empire Online]


Sin City: A Dame to Kill For

Jessica Alba is reprising her role as Nancy Callahan in the Sin City sequel, and she confirmed that she will have a more substantial role this time around. She offered some high praise for what co-directors Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller are currently cooking up, and she also discussed who she is appearing with this time around:

In Sin City 2, that one is probably the best experience of my career so far. Working with Robert and Frank again was inspiring to watch them. They were already so seasoned before they came together for the first Sin City and just to see how they both have grown as artists. Then to see them come together again and how well they work together, its profound what they come up with and what they have done. All their dreams have become fully realized I feel like. When the process is this fun and exciting you know the product is going to be so cool... Yeah, I got to reunite with Bruce [Willis]. And in the first one I didn't get to work with Mickey [Rourke] because he shot his stuff separately and in this one I got to work with Mickey so it was a dream come true. It was amazing. It was really, really cool.

[I Am Rogue]


Game of Thrones

Here's the description for the season three premiere:

Jon is brought before Mance Rayder, the King Beyond the Wall, while the Night's Watch survivors retreat south. In King's Landing, Tyrion asks for his reward, Littlefinger offers Sansa a way out, and Cersei hosts a dinner for the royal family. Arya runs into the Brotherhood Without Banners. Dany sails into Slaver's Bay.

[SpoilerTV]


The Walking Dead

Here are some more promo photos for this Sunday's midseason premiere, "The Suicide King." [SpoilerTV]


Supernatural

Here are some set photos from the filming of episode 17. [YVR Shoots]


The Vampire Diaries

Could Fringe's John Noble really be playing the villain of Star Wars: Episode VII?Here's a poster. [TV Line]


The Originals

Charles Michael Davis, whose previous credits include recurring roles on Switched at Birth and The Game, has reportedly been cast in the central role of Marcel in the Klaus-centric Vampire Diaries spinoff. Here's a complete description of his character, courtesy of Deadline:

Wicked, wild and charismatic, Marcel is a former kicked-around street rat who now calls the shots in the supernatural playground of New Orleans. As a modern-day vampire, he's fierce and bold, able to accomplish as much with his charm as he is with his strength. Elijah (Gillies), intent on helping his self-destructive brother find redemption, must side with Marcel's enemies in order to keep Klaus in line.

[Deadline]


Additional reporting by Amanda Yesilbas and Charlie Jane Anders.

Could the latest villain rumors for Star Trek Into Darkness and Amazing Spider-Man 2 possibly be true?

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Could the latest villain rumors for Star Trek Into Darkness and Amazing Spider-Man 2 possibly be true?We debunk one of them, but we can't entirely dismiss the other. Meanwhile, Marvel's visual effects head drops hints for Guardians of the Galaxy and Thor: The Dark World. Plus one last Walking Dead teaser before this Sunday's big return!

Spoilers from here on out!

Top image from X-Men: First Class.

Star Trek Into Darkness

Yesterday brought the latest flurry of rumors that Benedict Cumberbatch had been confirmed as playing Khan, not his supposed character of John Harrison. The source for this, however, is exceedingly random — basically, the next issue of Entertainment Weekly features a detailed preview, and one magazine cover features stars Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto, while the other features Pine and Cumberbatch. If you go to EW's Back Issues Store — which presumably somebody did to discover this in the first place, for reasons that boggle the mind — the Pine and Quinto issue was labed "VOYAGE INTO STAR TREK KIRK & SPOCK", while the Pine and Cumberbatch issue was labeled "VOYAGE INTO STAR TREK KIRK & KHAN." Although that last word would seemingly give away the sequel's most closely guarded secret, both labels have since been updated to the far more grammatical "VOYAGE INTO STAR TREK WITH KIRK AND SPOCK", suggesting the previous labels weren't actual titles but instead quick ways to distinguish between the two covers, with the "Khan" caption likely put in by a random employee working from vague internet rumors, as opposed to someone privy to secret information. Because seriously, even if you wanted to reveal the movie's biggest spoiler, why on earth would you do it in the EW Back Issues Store?

The whole thing is rendered particularly moot by the actual article EW.com posted to preview its latest issue, in which it's made quite clear that no Khan-related revelations are forthcoming:

In this week's EW we give you an exclusive first look at the space age sequel that has geekdom waiting with bated breath. Star Trek Into Darkness, due May 17, has sparked feverish online speculation since the day it was announced — most of it about whether or not the film's resident baddie, John Harrison, played by Sherlock star Benedict Cumberbatch, is actually the infamous super villain Khan.

Unsurprisingly, the ever secretive Abrams wouldn't answer that question — star Chris Pine calls his director a "benevolent dictator" when it comes to spoiling plot lines — but the cast did spill some details about what we can expect from Darkness: namely, a lot more action.

So then, I think we can all stand down and return to our normal business, at least until the next time some random person on the web accidentally mislabels a photo, at which point we can resume speculating wildly. And hell, John Harrison might well be the alter ego for Khan — this just isn't remotely definitive proof of that. [EW]


The Amazing Spider-Man

Director Marc Webb recently sent out another cryptic, quite possibly meaningless production tweet:

Sorry, but elephants really want nothing to do with us

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Sorry, but elephants really want nothing to do with usElephants have apparently realized there's only one predator they really need to worry about, and that would be us humans. Despite the lack of fences marking the boundaries of Tanzania's Serengeti National Park, elephants overwhelmingly stay on the safe side.

Researchers wanted to figure out the emotional state of elephants both in and out of the park's protected areas, and that meant only one possible thing: time to go sifting through elephant poop. Dung collected from both sets of elephants revealed that those living outside the national park, where they were at much greater risk of hunting and interference from humans, were more stressed than those living inside it. The manure found outside the park had significantly higher levels of gluccorticoid, a hormone produced during times of stress.

Basic demographics also help tell the story, as elephants were found in much greater numbers inside the park than without, even though there were no visible boundaries marking off the two regions, and there are no concerted efforts made to keep the elephants inside the park. What's more, no single male elephants were observed living outside of the park, indicating that when elephants did venture into more dangerous areas, they did so as family units.

So what does all this mean? As team member Dr. Eivin Roskaft of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology explained to the BBC, it means these elephants know that it's in their best interest to stay well away from humans:

"The reason is most probably that elephants try to avoid human-elephant interactions. Elephants probably remember where they are, and that bad experiences stress them. I think elephants know where they are safe or not. However, sometimes they also are tempted by nice food outside the park which attracts them to such areas."

Unfortunately, the elephants are absolutely right to stay away from us — as the authors note in their paper on this research, "elephants may prefer to reside in the potential safer areas inside the national park, demonstrating the importance of protected areas to improve the welfare of elephants." Dr. Roskaft explains just how urgent it is to give elephants the room they need to live free from human encroachment:

"The biggest threat to African elephants and other wildlife is the human population increase outside all such parks. Humans need food, and wildlife is cheap and easy. Therefore the pressure on such animals increases. The elephant population in Africa is presently declining at an alarming rate. The world must find interest in it, if not there will be very few or no elephants in Africa in about five to six years."

African Journal of Ecology via BBC News. Image by gudi&cris on Flickr.


The hunt could soon be on for Earth's tiny, temporary moons

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The hunt could soon be on for Earth's tiny, temporary moonsFor all intents and purposes, Earth only has one natural satellite, namely the Moon. But that still leaves room for Trojan asteroids, objects stuck in the same orbital resonance, and even tiny asteroids that really do temporarily orbit our planet.

It's that last category that is currently attracting the interest of researchers. While we've only ever confirmed one such temporary satellite, simulations suggest there's at least a dozen asteroids measuring a half-meter in diameter orbiting Earth at any one time. A team of scientists, including University of Hawaii astronomer Robert Jedicke, are lobbying for the use of a recently donated Hubble-class spy telescope in order to go find these moons. Jedicke recently explained the significance of these moons to Discovery News:

"It's the Rosetta stone of the solar system. You bring back a chunk of material that's never been processed through the atmosphere, that's not been sitting on the ground. It's going to be a tremendous wealth of information about how the solar system formed — even more so if you can bring back more than one and get different types of material. The great thing is you don't have to go very far. These things are sitting there right in geocentric orbit and they're relatively easy to get to."

Of course, even with these new telescopes, finding such tiny asteroids in such a relatively large region of space would be an incredibly challenging task. In particular, if we actually want to send spacecraft to these temporary moons, we would probably need to locate them almost as soon as they enter Earth's orbit, just so we have enough time to reach them before they resume their wanderings through the solar system.

For more on the potential benefits and challenges of this idea, check out Discovery News.

Further Reading: The Long, Strange Search for Earth's Second Moon(s), Earth's first known Trojan asteroid follows our orbit like a second Earth

Artist's conception of Earth-like planet and surrounding asteroids by NASA/JPL-Caltech.

Lawrence Kasdan reveals why he's returning to Star Wars. Plus the latest X-Men hints from Bryan Singer!

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Lawrence Kasdan reveals why he's returning to Star Wars. Plus the latest X-Men hints from Bryan Singer!Another rising star joins Ryan Gosling's crazy modern fairy tale How to Catch a Monster, while Steven Moffat assures us that Matt Smith's movie role doesn't mean his Doctor Who departure. Check out new photos from All You Need Is Kill!

All that plus there's more casting news for the Wachowskis' Jupiter Ascending, Neil Gaiman teases his Cybermen Doctor Who episode, Vin Diesel unveils another Riddick photo, and you will never guess who Warner Bros. may have asked to play Batman in their (for now) scrapped Justice League movie!

Spoilers from here on out!

Top image from Doctor Who.

Star Wars: Episode VII

Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi writer Lawrence Kasdan discusses his new involvement with the franchise, which seems to involve both working on a standalone movie and consulting on J.J. Abrams's Episode VII:

I was pleased that there would be new ones, that there was a chance to capture some of the spirit of the original trilogy that I'd worked on. I thought there's an audience out there — my grandchildren, lots of original Star Wars people — and there always will be. It's only good that we try to do some more great ones.
How long ago did you know that you were going to be working on this? Was this kind of a sudden development?
No, this started last fall. It actually first started with conversation I had with (Kathleen Kennedy) and George [Lucas].
What can you tell fans about this new version that you're working on? There are so many rumors going around.
They're going to be fun. J.J. (Abrams)'s a great director for the first sequel. Perfect. We're very happy to have him. The writers I've been working with — Michael Arndt, who's going to write the sequel, and Simon Kinberg, who has, like me, been sort of consulting — they're great. I've never really collaborated a lot, and I've never been a room with a bunch of writers thinking, "Well, what should this thing be?" It's fun. It's really fun. And J.J.'s a writer. Yeah, lovely guy. I'd met him but didn't know him. But now I'm totally enamored by him. He's really funny and so enthusiastic.

[IGN]

Elsewhere, Kasdan discussed in very general terms how he's approaching the new films:

"I'm trying to start fresh. There are certain pleasures that we think the saga can bring to people that they've been missing, and we're hoping to bring them that, and at the same time, have them feel that it's all new. George sort of brought me into this part of it. and he's stepping back from the company. He's sort of given his blessing to everybody, and he'll be there if you need him. I think everyone's interested to see where this can go. It's been some very different places over 30 years …. I think with J.J., we'll get something entirely new."

[Hero Complex]

Last week, we reported on a rumor that supposedly originated with a Melbourne radio host that Fringe star John Noble was the main contender to play the villain in J.J. Abrams's Star Wars movie. It would now appear that the entire report was completely fake, and that the radio host never actually said anything even remotely like that in the first place. Our apologies for passing along such false information, particularly when it should have been fairly obvious that the film is still in the writing stage, not the casting stage. Regardless, it still seems like a pretty genius idea to us. [Moviehole]

Though there's still no reason to think those reports of a Yoda standalone movie were even remotely accurate, they do offer slightly more justification for checking in with the original actor to see if he would be interested in returning to the role. Well, Frank Oz would "absolutely" play Yoda again, though he's pretty sure he would just be working as the voice, not the puppeteer:

"He's in my heart. I know Yoda very deeply. I think it depends on the story, but I think at this point you can't go back to the puppet. The reason George [Lucas] did the CGI, which I supported, was that he wanted to tell a story that would have been hampered by the physical limitations of the puppet."

[Hero Complex]


Star Trek Into Darkness

Lawrence Kasdan reveals why he's returning to Star Wars. Plus the latest X-Men hints from Bryan Singer!And here's a character poster.


Doctor Who

In case you were wondering whether Matt Smith's casting in How to Catch a Monster meant the end of his time on the show, Steven Moffat has now confirmed that isn't the case, going so far as to say that Smith will "be back" after he films Ryan Gosling's movie. That means that it's now absolutely confirmed Smith will be back not only for the 50th Anniversary Special — which will be filmed before How to Catch a Monster — but also for the 2013 Christmas special, which will be filmed after. [Blogtor Who]

Neil Gaiman confirms his penultimate episode of the series is called "The Last Cyberman", and he drops a few other details:

"I've written [one] that broadcasts in May. It guest stars Warwick Davis, Tamzin Outhwaite and Jason Watkins. The episode is called The Last Cyberman. It's about identity, it's about responsibility and it's about porridge."

[Doctor Who Online]


The Walking Dead

Glen Mazzara offers some more thoughts on the second half of season three:

That's part of what we do in the back half of the season. Now we get to spend time with some other characters. Glenn (Steven Yeun) comes to the forefront, but has a personal agenda. He wants revenge because Maggie (Lauren Cohan) was assaulted by The Governor. Maggie has her own thoughts about the nature of that assault. Hershel (Scott Wilson) has certainly stepped into the foreground too because he realizes Rick's a good man, has been a great leader, but now is perhaps not up to the task of defending the group. Everyone right now has an agenda. And even Carl (Chandler Riggs) has a plan. Carol (Melissa McBride) has thoughts. This is not the group that was at the end of Season 2 that was huddled by the fire, pleading with Rick to save them. These people are battle-tested and any one of them could take a shot at The Governor.

What will Rick do to actively try to gain some of his sanity back?
There's an episode that's coming up that deals with Rick trying to hold on to his sanity, and I really think it's going to be a fan favorite for the entire series. It's a very special episode. It's very different, and it's the curveball. Sometimes fans like curveballs, sometimes they don't, but it's a pretty exciting episode, so that question gets dealt with head on.


Game of Thrones

Some quickie casting news: Dean-Charles Chapman is reportedly playing a young Lannister prisoner, Oddie Braddell is playing Wendel Manderly, and Kelly Long is playing Lady Frey. [SpoilerTV]


True Blood

English actor Rob Kazinsky, whose previous credits include the British soap EastEnders and the American drama Brothers & Sisters, has reportedly been cast a series regular for the upcoming sixth season. He will reportedly play Ben, described as "a highly charismatic faerie who takes a liking to Sookie (and vice-versa) and helps Sookie and Jason delve deeper into the mystery of their parents' murders." [TV Line]


Once Upon a Time


Lost Girl

Here's the synopsis for episode seven, "There's Bo Place Like Home":

Bo faces the daunting task of returning to where it all started: down home on the farm. There Bo faces her old demons - and a new one - to clear the way for the path she will soon be forced to travel.

[SpoilerTV]


Continuum

Here are some behind-the-scenes photos from the filming of season two. [YVR Shoots]


Additional reporting by Amanda Yesilbas and Charlie Jane Anders.

Doctor Who's Martian monsters return at last. Plus tons more Star Trek Into Darkness hints!

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Doctor Who's Martian monsters return at last. Plus tons more Star Trek Into Darkness hints!Bryan Singer mentions some more original mutants that might return for X-Men: Days of Future Past, and two Captain America actors discuss possible returns. The CW's three big genre shows all get renewed. Plus an update on the Twilight Zone reboot!

Spoilers from here on out!

Top image from Man of Steel.

Star Trek Into Darkness

In what has to be the most unequivocal denial yet, Alice Eve — who is playing Dr. Carol Marcus in the sequel — stated during a red carpet interview that Benedict Cumberbatch "is not playing Khan." It seems like a fairly matter-of-fact denial, but in case you want to watch the original interview and analyze for yourself whether or not Eve is telling the truth, the video is below. The key denial comes at the 0:58 mark. [Coming Soon]

Here are some more highlights from Entertainment Weekly's new cover story:

— Abrams says he was keen to have more scenes where the audience "gets out and about" in a city setting on the future Earth
— Uhura has a cooler part this time around: the Spock/Uhura romance is tested in new ways, and they struggle with the fact that they're not the same species.
— Zoe Saldana says: "I told them to make sure Uhura kicks more ass. And she does!"
— Zachary Quinto says of Spock: "There are things that happen to him — and things that he's a part of — that are incredibly personal... That was really exciting for me both physically and emotionally."


Captain America: The Winter Soldier

It's confirmed that Toby Jones will be back as the villainous Armin Zola, and while Jones hasn't seen the script yet, he says it's likely the sequel will follow a similar path to the comics in terms of his character:

I'm told I am going to be involved. But of course, I don't quite know how much I'm gonna be involved. I think the theory is that Arnim Zola is gonna come back and, I'm told by people who know much more about the myth of this stuff, that he invents the secret of eternal existence. So, it's looking good for future films as well. So that character in particular is a good one to get involved with.

Also, Hayley Atwell seems to be softening on her previous stance that Peggy Carter definitely wouldn't appear in the film. Instead, it appears Atwell was just trying to make it clear that she wasn't taking over the part of Sharon Carter and that Peggy isn't jumping unchanged to the present day:

You might see [Peggy] in some other context ... I'm not playing Sharon Carter. But [Peggy's exclusion] was inevitable because, obviously, Steve Rogers wakes up in the first one and it's modern day. Peggy would be very very old or dead. So, it wasn't really a surprise to me."

So then, an appearance in a World War II flashback still seems like a possibility, although it sounds like any past sequences won't be an integral part of this particular film. [Comic Book Movie]

Acclaimed, allegedly retiring director Steven Soderbergh reveals that he contacted Marvel Studios and vouched for Chris and Anthony Russo as the right directors for The Winter Soldier. Here's why he felt comfortable giving them his endorsement:

I just wasn't a comic book guy. When the Russos were going after the Captain America sequel, they called me and said, "Will you call Marvel and talk to them about us?" because I have a relationship with them. I said, "Tell me why you want to do this." And they go, "Because we have a $60,000 comic book collection, because we're obsessed with this shit." And I went, "Okay, I'm just checking." Because I'm not, that's why I can't do one, but I didn't know that and I just wanted to make sure that they were going after it for the right reasons as it turned out they were and they ended up getting the job and they'll do a great job because they love it, and I'm just not the guy.

[Collider]


X-Men: Days of Future Past

Director Bryan Singer says it's too early to get into which of the myriad X-Men set to appear in the film will be the protagonists, and which will be supporting players and cameos:

"I don't want to say [who the protagonists are] yet, or talk about that yet, but I will say that every character has a very important function in the story. The story is designed and catered to the combined cast. It's not just throwing in people to occupy the screen, occupy the billboards. The story 'Days of Future Past,' and our version of 'Days of Future Past' is geared very much toward the mass cast and all their relationships and all their foibles and their achievements."

He also isn't yet sure whether Halle Berry will reprise the role of Storm:

"I can't say. I don't know yet. And it's not necessarily a deal making aspect at all. I want to make sure it'll make sense. But I love working with her."

[MTV]

Elsewhere, Singer didn't exactly rule out a return appearance by Alan Cumming as Nightcrawler:

I don't know. We'll see. You know ... we'll see.

That sounded coy.
[Laughs] Yeah, I know. I don't want to ... sometimes you don't want to say "yes" or "no" to something that may not be a "yes" or a "no," or anything. I haven't decided yet, a few things. I'm still, you know — there are certain aspects of the script that I'm still toying with.

[Huffington Post]


Man of Steel

Here's the clip of Amy Adams's recent Tonight Show appearance, in which she discusses her excitement about playing Lois Lane. [Comic Book]


Godzilla

Martha Marcy May Marlene star Elizabeth Olsen is the first confirmed star — though Breaking Bad's Bryan Cranston and Kick-Ass star Aaron Taylor-Johnson are also heavily rumored — of Monsters director Gareth Edwards's new Godzilla movie. Here's what she has to say about the role:

"It's definitely not lighthearted. It's kind of going back to its roots of the original Japanese film."

Below is the actual interview with Olsen in which she gave the quote. [Shock Till You Drop]


The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

Star Martin Freeman confirms that he still hasn't finished filming scenes for Peter Jackson's Hobbit trilogy:

"It's a film we've not yet finished. People sort of say, 'How was The Hobbit?' and I'm like, 'I'm still doing it!' I've got to go back in late May for another couple of months. It's going to be part of all our lives for a long time."

[Comic Book Movie]


Jack the Giant Slayer

Here's a sneak peek clip and the latest trailer. [Coming Soon]


Director Bryan Singer explains the evolution of his upcoming fairy tale reimagining:

I try to do very different kinds of films. At the time when I decided to develop this, there were no fairy-tale movies out. There was no "Alice in Wonderland" or "Snow White" or anything, so I felt it was a chance to expand on an old myth and tell it for real, for lack of a better term. What would it be like if there was actually a beanstalk that went into the heavens? What would it be like if giants existed? Also, I was a big fan of the Ray Harryhausen pictures when I was a kid, so this was a chance to make a modern-day film like that, but with the technology now in the place where it's at - with motion capture, performance capture, I could finally enter that space and work in it, so that was something I wanted to do as well.

I know you brought in Chris [McQuarrie] to re-work the script a bit. How much did the story change?
It changed entirely, it became a completely different film. I mean, I don't want to disregard the other writers, because they did create a world and a concept, but what I found was, if a movie's gonna be called "Jack the Giant Slayer," we really can't have too much sympathy for the giants. There was a dangerous ambiguity in the original script between sympathy for the giants, what they were, and their previous relationship with humanity. I needed to redefine that, so I brought Chris in for a rewrite, a very significant rewrite during the pre-production.

[MTV]


Europa Report


Once Upon a Time

Here's a trailer for the next episode, "Manhattan." [KSiteTV]


Grimm

Here's a teaser trailer for the show's return next month. [Den of Geek]


Touch

Here's a promo for the third episode of season two, "Enemy of My Enemy."


Supernatural, Arrow, and The Vampire Diaries

Before we get to the individual news items, it should be noted that the CW has officially renewed all three shows for their ninth, second, and fifth seasons, respectively. [Deadline]


Supernatural

Episode eighteen will reportedly be called "Salvation." [SpoilerTV]


The eighteenth episode will reportedly be titled "American Gothic." [SpoilerTV]


Being Human (UK)

Here's a promo for episode three.


Beauty and the Beast

Here's a promo and a sneak peek for this week's episode and thirteenth overall, "Trust No One."


Here are some promo photos from episode fourteen, "Tough Love."

And here are some from episode fifteen, "Any Means Possible."


Additional reporting by Amanda Yesilbas and Charlie Jane Anders.

How will Marvel Studios create the weird and wonderful aliens in Guardians of the Galaxy?

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How will Marvel Studios create the weird and wonderful aliens in Guardians of the Galaxy?Creator Robert Kirkman shares tons of Walking Dead hints. One half of a two-headed giant previews Jack the Giant Slayer. Director Rich Moore previews Wreck-It Ralph 2. Arrow promotes its best supporting character. Plus G.I. Joe sequel and Oz prequel promos!

Spoilers from here on out!

Top image from Oz the Great and Powerful.

Guardians of the Galaxy

Marvel Studios visual effects producer Victoria Alonso discusses the prep work for writer-director James Gunn's big space opera, featuring at least two all-CGI characters, Rocket Raccoon and Groot:

Production has already started! Completely. It started months ago and we have an entire team in London already – we start shooting in June. Our director [James Gunn] travels next week and it's going, baby! It's a fast train to a beautiful place.

What makes me fascinated by the project is that you have five members of this team, and one of them is Rocket Raccoon, a talking raccoon, and another one is Groot, who is quite literally a walking tree. You're obviously not putting a person in a costume for those parts. Are those going to be fully CG characters? Are there plans to use motion capture again?
We're going to do a combination. You can't do any motion capture with a raccoon – they won't let you put the suit on [laughs]. But we will do rotomation, probably, for some of the behavior. Rocket will have his own personality, of course, and clearly we can't do mocap on a tree, per say, but we definitely will have performers to emulate what James Gunn will lead to be the behavior and the performance. He's very clear on where he wants to take the characters.

[Cinema Blend]


Jack the Giant Slayer

John Kassir, best known as the voice of the Crypt Keeper on Tales of the Crypt, discusses what it's like playing one half of a two-headed giant alongside the great Bill Nighy:

[I] got to work closely with Bill [Nighy] and we played a two-headed character. Bill being the larger head, we used his body, so I had to mimic Bill's body movements and then act differently with my head and right arm. It was really kind of a bizarre adventure right there. Bill being the generously wonderful actor that he is, was so open to having a great relationship with me and as a result we walked out on set everyday like we were a Vaudeville team. We just had a great time working on it. You can learn a lot from working with a guy like Bill Nighy...

Bill's head is the brawn and the brains of the character, and my head is the intuitive head. He kind of looks around and takes in information, basically feeding it to the other head. It was fun creating that. My character has no vocal chords so he talks with all these guttural sounds. I had to create a language for him. I created the dialog that only Bill would be privy to and understand. [laughs]

He also discusses the story of Bryan Singer's fairy tale reimagining:

It's based off of Jack and the Beanstalk which was a kid's fairy tale and Jack the Giant Killer which is more of a legendary dark story of a kid who unwittingly opens a portal to the land of giants. The giants didn't have access to humans for five hundred years and they had gone on and disappeared into legend... Jack in his attempt to save the princess who is kidnapped by Stanley Tucci plays a hand in opening that portal. I don't want to give too much away, but the giants have access to the planet and Jack goes in to rescue the princess that was kidnapped.

Tons more at the link. [Comic Book Movie]


Oz the Great and Powerful

Here's a pair of TV spots for Sam Raimi and James Franco's Wizard of Oz prequel.



G.I. Joe: Retaliation

Here are two TV spots for the G.I. Joe sequel, featuring new stars Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and Bruce Willis.



Wreck-It Ralph 2

Director Rich Moore says a sequel isn't yet confirmed, but he's confident it will happen sooner or later:

There's definitely a lot of interest from a lot of people: myself, the actors — Sarah [Silverman] and John [C. Reilly] especially — and all the artists and technicians at Disney. We're just kind of waiting for an official word at this point, but it definitely seems like something could happen. We're really keeping our fingers crossed. We had a great time, all of us working on the film, from top to bottom. I think it would be just awesome to work with that team again and return to that world.

He also discusses what new games and video game genres he wants to explore in the sequel:

There was definitely an old school one that I loved as a kid, and that was Dirk the Daring from Dragon's Lair. I loved that game. It was so different from other video games that had 2D animation in it. It was just very unique at that time, and it had things that I loved about both animation and video games within it. It really rekindled my love of 2D animation at just the right time, as a teenager. I really wanted that character in Wreck-It Ralph, but the legal red tape made it pretty impossible to get the rights to him. But it would be great to try and get that character freed up for a sequel, should there be one.

In Wreck-It Ralph, we saw the 8-bit classics, the '90s racers and modern shooters. Is there one particular game genre that you would want to explore next?
Definitely, as I said, that kind of social gaming aspect would be a lot of fun, but I also love mobile gaming. I don't exactly know how we could work it in, you know, things like Angry Birds and the With Friends games — only because I love playing them. It just seems like it would be great to work in a story about those types of games that are so prevalent and contemporary and part of today's culture. I would love to somehow work that into a sequel.

There's more at the link. [IGN]


Beautiful Creatures

Thomas Mann and Zoey Deutch, who play friends of the cursed lovers in the upcoming supernatural romance, discuss the appeal of the movie:

Mann:[My character] Link just seemed like a really lovable, fun character to play, who didn't take things too seriously and had this rebellious quality about him that he shared with Ethan. They both see bigger things for themselves and they both want to kind of transcend the life that's set out for them, in this small town. And the script was really smart. It's got this maturity to it. It has a lot of social commentary.

Deutch: It has bigger ideas than I think some people would expect. And it's done very classily. It's hard to please everybody, but I think, in terms of trying to, it does a really good job. It appeals to a very wide range of an audience, and it's an intelligently told, very funny story. I really don't think people are expecting to go into the movie and laugh their head off, but I'm going to tell you right now, yes I'm biased, but I laughed harder in this movie than I have in a lot of genre categorized comedies. I think it's a really funny and beautiful story, at the core of it being about true love, and about love without judgment and pining for each other.

[Collider]


The Walking Dead

Here's a promo for the next episode, "Home."

And here are two sneak peeks. [Coming Soon]


Comics creator Robert Kirkman previews what to expect from the rest of season three:

The short answer is "All kinds of awesome." We haven't seen Rick and the Governor face to face yet. That's definitely coming. We're going to see some pretty large scale confrontations between Woodbury and the prison. I mean, this is going to be a pretty explosive last half of the season and there's going to be a lot of large-scale cool stuff that you might not expect to see in this show. We're going to continue pushing the envelope and continue to do the unexpected. There's a lot of crazy stuff ahead. So buckle up.

He also confirms that Sarah Wayne Callies reprised the role of Lori for Rick's vision, and this might well provide an engine for departed actors to return:

Yes it was. And we may see her again. I'm not going to say!

Rick previously glimpsed a vision of Shane. Can we expect hallucinatory resurrections of other deceased characters?
Well, that would certainly be a fun thing to look out for. But I can neither confirm nor deny that we will be going in that route. You know, Rick's losing his mind and he's losing his mind at the exact wrong time because now we've seen that the Governor is on the march to war and is going to be coming after them. We're now going to see the Governor finally face Rick. But he's not going to be facing the strong, confident, capable Rick that we've grown to love. He's going to be facing this guy that we have now who may be incapable of withstanding that onslaught.

There's plenty more at the link. [EW]


Person of Interest

Here's the description for episode sixteen, "Relevance", which airs February 21 and features erstwhile Fairly Legal star Sarah Shahi as government operative Samantha Shaw:

REESE AND FINCH ENCOUNTER THEIR MOST FORMIDABLE POI EVER IN AN ELUSIVE AND LETHAL FEMALE GOVERNMENT OPERATIVE WHO ELIMINATES TERRORIST THREATS BEFORE THEY OCCUR – A lethal and sexy government operative who tracks and stops terrorist threats before they occur finds herself on the run – and the new focus of Reese and Finch's attention. However, their pursuit proves to be their most formidable when they discover that her remarkable skillset equals their own. Series Executive Producer Jonathan Nolan directed the episode. Sarah Shahi guest stars as government operative Samantha Shaw.

[SpoilerTV]


Revolution

Here's a promo for the show's return in March. [TV Equals]


Grimm

Assuming NBC remembers to actually bring this show back, the sixteenth episode will reportedly feature the show's take on Rumplestiltskin. The episode will also feature Lost alum Eric Lange as Dominick, described as "the owner of software company whose staff falls victim to dark circumstances and will do whatever he needs to do to help Nick and Hank resolve this case." [TV Line]


Touch

Here's the synopsis for the fifth episode, "Eye to Eye", which airs March 1:

WILL THE NUMBERS ADD UP TO AN EMOTIONAL REUNION? FIND OUT ON AN ALL-NEW "TOUCH" FRIDAY, MARCH 1 ON FOX — A race against time is triggered after Jake contacts Amelia with coordinates to a meeting location and both manage to escape their supervision. As Martin and Lucy desperately search for their gifted and determined kids, they uncover some critical details about Calvin's brain-damaged brother. Meanwhile in Mexico, Guillermo confesses his sins to a priest and faces a brutal decision

[SpoilerTV]


Arrow

Now that there will officially be a second season, time for some more good news — the show has reportedly promoted Emily Bett Rickards, who has been one of the show's consistent highlights as Felicity Smoak, to a regular cast member for season two. [TV Line]

And here's an interview with Emily Bett Rickards herself, in which she discusses the fallout of Felicity learning Oliver's secret in the next episode:

How does this affect her? Well I think when she finds out that Oliver is who he is, she's minorly shocked but everything makes sense. So everything Oliver has done or brought to her to do, all these jobs, just start to make sense. Everything becomes clearer. I think that affected her a lot. Also, she's put into ‘Survival Mode', she and Diggle have to save Oliver. So that's it. That's huge. And then she starts to understand who Oliver really is without his biggest mascot. He still has barriers up, but we can look forward to seeing them getting to know each other better now.

A lot of fans are hoping that Felicity Smoak becomes involved with Oliver's operation. If this happens, do you hope for some action scenes?
I would love some action scenes, yes. I think that would be super-fun. I don't know if Felicity would be so co-ordinated but I think it would scare her and challenge her, and put her in really hilarious situations.

[Comic Book Movie]

Here's a trailer for what's ahead in rest of the season. [EW]

How will Marvel Studios create the weird and wonderful aliens in Guardians of the Galaxy?Here's a new poster. [SpoilerTV]


The Originals

Prison Break actress Danielle Campbell has reportedly joined the Klaus-centric Vampire Diaries spinoff as Davina, described as "a young witch who has been over-sheltered by her protective caregivers." [Deadline]


Being Human (US)

Here's a promo and a sneak peek for next Monday's episode, "What's Blood Got to Do With It."



Additional reporting by Amanda Yesilbas and Charlie Jane Anders.

Who exactly is Peter Dinklage playing in X-Men: Days of Future Past?

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Who exactly is Peter Dinklage playing in X-Men: Days of Future Past?Director Bryan Singer shares some new, crucial details about his latest X-Men movie. The BBC tries to soothe your Doctor Who worries. TV's Bertie Wooster (and, fine, Gregory House) might take on George Clooney in Tomorrowland.

All that plus Chloe Moretz discusses Hit-Girl's romance in Kick-Ass 2, Stanley Tucci goes ahead and confirms a returning Captain America character, there are casting updates for Jupiter Ascending and the post-apocalyptic Young Ones, the S.H.I.E.L.D. pilot finishes filming, and The Originals adds two more cast members!

Spoilers from here on out!

Top image from The Hunger Games.

X-Men: Days of Future Past

Director Bryan Singer tweeted a surprising piece of casting news for this time-traveling mutant film: Game of Thrones star Peter Dinklage:

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