Robert Knepper Cast In Twin Peaks

But as what?

David Lynch is trying to keep as many secrets as he can about the new, Showtime-based version of Twin Peaks. But even he can’t quite keep the tightest lid on casting stories. So now we know that Robert Knepper will be joining the ensemble.

Exactly what that shape that ensemble is taking (and how Knepper will fit into it) is still largely a mystery, but we do know that Kyle MacLachlan is confirmed as returning as Agent Dale Cooper (though – spoiler alert – what form he’ll take given how he was left in the original series and follow-up prequel/sequel movie is anyone's guess), while Ray Wise, Sheryl Lee and Sherilyn Fenn are all apparently returning and Amanda Seyfried is reportedly on for a role.

Co-creator Mark Frost is once again working with Lynch, having co-written the series that the director is overseeing. Angelo Badalamenti is once again doing the music, and while the original announcement was for nine episodes, we now seem to be talking about significantly more; possibly as many as 18.

The new Twin Peaks, however it works out, should be hitting screens in 2017. One character who sadly won’t be returning is the Log Lady, played by Catherine E. Coulson, who died on Monday. 

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Marvel films and TV shows will eventually get a crossover

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John Guillermin 1925-2015

The Towering Inferno director dies aged 89

John Guillermin, the director responsible for films such as The Towering Inferno and 1976’s version of King Kong, has died at the age of 89.

Guillermin was born in London in 1925, and got his education at the University of Cambridge. After his studies, he joined the Royal Air Force, then mustered out at 22 to begin a career in filmmaking. Initially studying in France and learning the art of documentaries, he moved to Los Angeles in 1950 to learn Hollywood’s film ways, though he’d already gotten his start in movies with the likes of Torment/Paper Gallows, Melody In The Dark and High Jinks In Society.

He would go on to work on films including Town On Trial, The Blue Max, El Condor, Skyjacked, Shaft In Africa and even a couple of Tarzan instalments. But he was best known for entering the world of producer Irwin Allen with The Towering Inferno, which became one of the most famous disaster movies. He followed that up with the oft-maligned 1976 remake of King Kong, which saw Jeff Bridges, and Jessica Lange confronting the giant ape.

Guillermin also directed Agatha Christie adaptation Death On The Nile, with Peter Ustinov playing Hercule Poirot and another Kong film, King Kong Lives in 1986, which would be his last job as a director. He gained a reputation as a hard-working but sometimes challenging personality on set, with novelist James Dickey once describing him as “one of those megalomaniacal directors who have to be given the gates of Heaven before they consider doing a project.” Charlton Heston, who starred in Skyjacked, was more complimentary, calling him “an imaginative and skilful director.” The director himself clearly enjoyed his career, and was once quoted as saying, “You know, there's really nothing like an exciting film on a big screen. Hopefully, I've made a few in my career.”

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Phil Lord And Chris Miller Creating Serial TV Series

Based on the popular podcast

Apparently deciding that producing a TV comedy (Will Forte's The Last Man On Earth), directing an entry in one huge franchise, developing something for another two and overseeing their own prodigious film factory with the Jump Street and Lego Movie universe, Phil Lord and Chris Miller are taking on another task: turning popular true crime podcast Serial into a TV series. 

The writer/director/producer/workaholic duo have nabbed the rights to make a cable series based on the podcast, which won a big audience this year as host Sarah Koenig dug into a murder case. Of course, given their already busy schedules, Lord and Miller won’t be the only people involved – Fox 21 TV studios is producing with them alongside Koenig and the team that put the podcast together.

While Koenig investigated one case, the show will apparently look at various stories, whether tackling one across a season or each episode. The team’s next job is to find a writing team to work up ideas before pitching to channels. "Chris and Phil take an unexpected approach to telling stories and that is so appealing to us at Serial,” says producer Julie Snyder. “They experiment. They don’t mimic formulas. Developing a show with them is exciting because we feel like we speak the same language, only they’re smarter than us." 

And in case you forgot, Lord and Miller’s focus at the moment is still manifold – they’re developing a young Han Solo film as part of the sprawling Star Wars universe, a Spider-Man animated movie, working on DC’s film version of The Flash and helping with script and producing chores on the Lego Movie spin-offs. They will get some sleep roughly 72 years from now.  

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Jean Reno And James Cromwell Are Part Of The Promise

They're joining Christian Bale and Oscar Isaac in the film

Christian Bale, Oscar Isaac and The Walk’s Charlotte Le Bon are already all in the cast, but director Terry George isn’t finished filling roles for his new historical drama The Promise. He’s now adding Jean Reno and James Cromwell. 

The Hotel Rwanda/Reservation Road director is calling the shots on this one, based on the script he wrote with Robin Swicord. The Promise is set in the dying days of the Ottoman Empire (the 1920s) and explores the relationships between three people: Michael (Isaac), a gifted medical student; Chris (Bale), a renowned American journalist working in Paris; and the beautiful and sophisticated Ana (Le Bon).

Reno is aboard to play a French admiral who faces life-threatening danger and finds himself unable to act, while Cromwell will be an American ambassador who shows a heroic side when challenged. The cameras are rolling now in Spain and Portugal with George shooting through December. It has yet to lock down a release date, but should be in cinemas next year.

Reno has worked on Sean Penn’s latest directorial effort The Last Face and French audiences will see him in the third instalment of comedy franchise Les Visiteurs. Cromwell, last heard in Big Hero 6, is appearing in miniseries The Young Pope with Jude Law, which is in production.

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Kevin Feige Talks Spider-Man And The Future Of The MCU

''Spider-Man can serve great purpose in our universe...''

As the chief at Marvel Studios, Kevin Feige usually has a lot to say – within reason – about the future of the films he oversees. He spoke at an event to promote the release of Avengers: Age Of Ultron on home entertainment in LA on Tuesday night (attended by IGN) and expounded on several topics, including the new Spider-Man’s role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Asked about the deal to bring Spidey – now to be played by Tom Holland – into the Marvel fold (at least occasionally), Feige was predictably upbeat. "Making that agreement was great, and was really amazing, and on a personal level making these movies, it means a lot because I think we can do great things with Spider-Man," he said. "I think Spider-Man can serve great purpose in our universe and that's where he belongs. That was what was unique about him in the comics was not that he was the only superhero in the world; it's that he was a totally different kind of superhero when compared against all the other ones in the Marvel universe at the time." 

Of course, adding the web-slinger to the MCU means Captain America: Civil War is bursting at the seams with heroes and villains, but Feige seems untroubled by the idea that it’ll be crowded. "There were a lot of characters in The Winter Soldier, but it felt like a very singular and relatively simple thriller. Civil War follows in that same way," Feige explained. "I think that's something [directors] Joe and Anthony Russo pride themselves on, and our screenwriters Chris Markus and Steve McFeely are excellent at giving each character just enough. They're not full arcs for everybody; it's just enough that their presence is felt and important, but that the very clear single story that is being told is being served at all times." We’d argue that Civil War is considerably busier than the second Cap film, but the team have proved they know how to juggle these characters, so we’re willing to see how they handle it this time.

But the line-up looks set to radically change in the future, which makes sense given that actors’ contracts run out and new faces pop up in the various phases of Marvel’s movie storyline. Addressing the two-part Avengers: Infinity War, Feige confirmed that there will be changes. “I think it definitely is an end to some version of the team that we’ve come to know as The Avengers. Who knows exactly what is going to happen yet in that film, but I think this version of that team – and I think we start to hint at it at the end of Age of Ultron – will be evolving.” Of course, the Infinity War films are several years away, so the decisions are still being made. “One of the things we love from the comics is that the roster is always changing and new people are coming onto the team, and you can pick up an Avengers book 10 years later and you don’t recognize the people on the cover,” said Feige. “But the ideas and ideals and things that make the Avengers the Avengers still exist, and I think that’s part of what this culmination will be. We’re seeing this version of the team doing this thing to save the universe, the galaxy, however you want to put it, and we’ll kind of see where that goes. It’s not the end of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but I think that it is the end of part of it for sure. We’re still trying to sort out that point.”

Meanwhile, the focus is on Captain America: Civil War, which is out in the UK on April 29, but Feige did say to expect some casting news for films such as Thor: Ragnarok and Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 in the coming months.

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Geena Davis Joins Marjorie Prime

She'll star with Lois Smith and Jon Hamm in a new sci-fi pic

Already boasting the acting skills of Lois Smith and recently Emmy winner (finally!) Jon Hamm, play adaptation Marjorie Prime is adding another great performer. Geena Davis will join the pair in the sci-fi story.

Hamlet and Cymbeline director Michael Almereyda is in the director’s chair for this one, overseeing the adaptation of Jordan Harrison’s Pulitzer Prize-nominated stage work that featured Smith in the lead role. She’s back here to play Marjorie, an 85-year-old violinist with concerns that her memory is failing her. She invests in a service that allows people to see holographic recreations of deceased loved ones as we’d want them to be remembered, which means she interacts with a younger version of her late husband, Walter (Hamm), who is not exactly how she recalls him. She also spends time with her (living) daughter Tess (Davis) and son-in-law Jon. 

Almereyda will start the cameras rolling in the Hamptons next month. Davis is part of the cast for Max Landis’ film directing debut, Me Him Her, which doesn’t yet have a solid release date. She’s also been doing excellent work in raising awareness of gender in media, and you can find her site here.

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Jennifer Lawrence Debuts New Hunger Games Poster

Nothing can prepare you for the end

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 is now less than a couple of months away, so what better time to release a new poster? And instead of the usual studio channel, this comes via Facebook from Katniss Everdeen herself, who also goes by the name Jennifer Lawrence.

The new image strikes us as more like a traditional movie one-sheet than the usual high fashion imagery on display from the Hunger Games team though it does suggest an awesome action team-up between Katniss and feathery pal Flapperly Warblebreath, AKA The Mockingjay. He’s just days away from retirement and has already bought a new nest to share with his wife, so we don’t like his chances.

Following on from the first Mockingjay, the second part of the story finds Katniss and the rebels making the final push against Donald Sutherland's scheming President Snow and the Capitol, with lives on the line and sacrifices to be made. The new movie should boost the action quotient as the bigger beats are to be found lurking towards the end of Suzanne Collins’ third tome.  

With Francis Lawrence again directing and his leading lady joined on screen by Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Julianne Moore, Sam Claflin, Elizabeth Banks, Willow Shields, Stanley Tucci, Woody Harrelson, Jena Malone and more, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 arrives in our cinemas on November 19.  

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Looking back at Hellraiser - the film that threatened to "tear your soul apart"

If you frequented fear films back in the ’80s chances are you could not help but bemoan the sorry state of British horror. Once the country which spawned









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