Joss Whedon reveals what Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch will bring to The Avengers 2, while Edgar Wright explains why he’s waited so long to make Ant-Man. Aaron Eckhart really wants you to know about the hardcore stick fighting in I, Frankenstein. Plus Karl Urban previews Fox’s new robot cop show Almost Human! Spoilers alive!

Top image from Doctor Who.

Man of Steel

Here’s a behind-the-scenes video for Zack Snyder’s Superman movie. [@BurnettRM]

The Avengers 2

Writer-director Joss Whedon explains what new additions Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch – sans their Magneto-based origin story, per Marvel’s rights agreement with 20th Century Fox – will add to the sequel:

“You know, they had a rough beginning. They’re interesting to me because they sort of represent the part of the world that wouldn’t necessarily agree with The Avengers. So they’re not there to make things easier. I’m not putting any characters in the movie that will make things easier.”

Check out the link for a little more from Whedon on how Tony Stark will fit into the sequel after the events of Iron Man 3. [IGN]

Ant-Man

Edgar Wright explains why he chose to direct Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and The World’s End before tackling his long-awaited superhero film:

“I actually made the choice to make Scott Pilgrim and The World’s End before this one. And Ant-Man is such a big special-effects film, it’s almost like the further it goes on, the easier it is to do, in a way. I feel more confident now, but I can’t talk about it too much because I get superstitious. I just feel like I don’t want to jinx it… I’ve learned a lot in the last five years, and now I’m ready to do something big and crazy. Or, I should say, small.”

[EW]

Doctor Strange

Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige explains why he wants to include the Sorcerer Supreme in Phase Three:

“I would love Strange to be a part of that only because he’s a great character. He’s a great standalone character. He’s got a great origin story, for the most part. And that world of pure magic, we haven’t done yet. There’s a whole supernatural/magic alternate dimension going on in the Marvel comics that we haven’t ever touched on. So I think that’s exciting… I think there’s any number of actors who would be chomping at the bit to play this guy.”

[EW]

Runaways

Kevin Feige also explains why development stalled on an adaptation of Brian K. Vaughan’s acclaimed comic:

“It’s a matter of where it fits. The way the business is working now, you either have really inexpensive, sort of surprise movies that can come out and be hits, but don’t cost much. Or you have the big giant summer blockbusters that really swing for the fences. Right now, we’re just swinging for the fences every time. Runaways sort of falls in between those, in a way. We just haven’t found where or how to do it – right now… I’d love to do it someday.”

[EW]

The World’s End

Star and co-writer Simon Pegg discusses the music choices in his and Edgar Wright’s apocalyptic follow-up to Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz:

All music that isn’t score in World’s End was released between 1987-92. Edgar and myself had a blast delving into our music collections for the right period tracks. We put together a playlist that we would listen to whilst we were writing. We wound up with a bunch of stuff, some of which we were listening to at the time and other stuff that we might not necessarily have been into but has since become somewhat classic. Everything from Primal Scream to Kylie Minogue.

He also suggests that just about everyone you liked in the team’s first two films will be back for this one:

Edgar and I decided that everyone who had been in both Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz would be back for this film, even if only fleetingly. Our main actors we had our eye on from the start, to the point where we would write their real names in the script which would help us write dialogue specifically for them. We were very lucky getting the cast we wanted and there were no problems assembling the final Cornetto gang, there are newcomers too, one huge one that I think people are really going to dig.

[Collider]

Transformers 4

A casting call for extras appears to give away a couple casting tidbits, as it reveals Mark Wahlberg’s character is named Flynn Vincent and Glenn Morshower is back as his namesake, General Morshower. [Examiner]

I, Frankenstein

This quote from Aaron Eckhart about his post-apocalyptic, demon-fighting Frankenstein movie doesn’t really offer any new information, but I just kind of love that Eckhart’s major talking point for this film is apparently going to be that Frankenstein’s monster is a hardcore Kali stick fighter:

Talk about a tough movie! Wow, that movie was hardcore! We did Kali stick fighting in the movie. It was serious. That’s coming out in January. It’s a movie about Frankenstein, so I had the scars all over my face and back. It’s a big action movie. He’s a Kali stick fighter. I had no idea it was going to be as hardcore as it was. I trained very hard for it, but we put everything into that movie. We’ll see what happens.

[Collider]

World War Z

Iron Man 3 actor James Badge Dale discusses Brad Pitt and Marc Forster’s upcoming, much-delayed zombie movie, in which he has a supporting role:

I saw it. The movie looks brilliant. It looks beautiful. I know there's been a lot of talk about production issues, but that really got blown out of proportion. When we were working on it, we knew we were working on something very special. I'm really happy with the movie and happy with the way it came together. I saw it at 11 in the morning and people were jumping out of their seats at 11 a.m., so I think that's a good sign. I don't know much about testing and everything, but that passed my test.

Are you a zombie fan at all?
I am. I'm not a rabid fan of anything, to be honest with you, but I am a zombie fan. [George] Romero's original "Night of the Living Dead" is probably in my top 10 list. I think it's a cool genre and I really wanted to be ... To get to work on this, be part of the genre, it was really exciting for me. I jumped at the chance.

[Zap2It]

Doctor Who

Here’s what I’m fairly sure is the first ever joint interview with Matt Smith and David Tennant, the two Doctors featured in the 50th. It’s mostly just nice to observe the two chatting, although they do confirm that their Doctors share scenes in the special. They also indicate that the 10th and 11th Doctors have a friendly relationship and don’t bicker nearly as much as previous multi-Doctor pairings like the 2nd and 3rd Doctors – then again, nobody could bicker as much as the dandy and the clown.

I feel like we’ve sort of known this for months now, but the BBC has officially confirmed that season eight is indeed happening, and Matt Smith, Jenna-Louise Coleman, and Steven Moffat are all returning for it. There’s no word on how many episodes there will be in this series – I mean, 13 plus this year’s Christmas special would be customary, but it’s not confirmed – or when exactly they will air. [BBC]

Game of Thrones

Costar Maisie Williams discusses all that’s going on with Arya:

I think when she was with Tywin (Charles Dance) at Harrenhal, she had heard that Robb was going to attack. I don't think she heard about [Bran and Rickon] yet. She's only ever had little droplets here and there, so she's kind of got to make up the middle bit. I think she's just trying to get home and find out for herself what's really happened. She's kind of reluctant to believe anything because so many people are not loyal.

We know Arya hates The Hound, but how does he feel about her?
I think he kind of admires her a little bit for how determined she is. But he really is like, "Why are you making everything so hard for yourself? Why don't you just stop fighting me and let me take you home?" I think that maybe she should keep her mouth shut more because she's getting herself into more trouble when there's lots of people trying to help her. I think she cares too much about little things for that to happen.

Arya has lost two friends. First, Hot Pie (Ben Hawkey) decided to stay and bake for an inn. Then Gendry wanted to stick with The Brotherhood before they gave him away. Does Arya feel abandoned?
I think so, yeah. Ever since Gendry found out about her being highborn, I think she thought they always looked up to her. Then she realizes that they're not really very in awe of her at all. It's like, "Oh, cool. Well, I would rather stay here and bake stuff," or "I'd rather stay here and fix armor." She really does feel abandoned. She felt safer with them as well, kind of a little family away from family. Now she's really on her own. For so long, she convinced herself that she doesn't really care. Now that it comes down to it, she's kind of like, "Oh, it would have been nice to stay with these guys, and they're choosing to leave me." It's a bit of rejection, I guess.

There’s still plenty more at the link. [TV Guide]

Under the Dome

Here’s a new, extended promo. [TV Equals]

Almost Human

Star Trek actor Karl Urban discusses his starring role in J.J. Abrams’s latest TV show, which was recently picked up by Fox for the fall season:

I wasn’t particularly looking to do television but, I got a call from J.J. and he told me about this project. I read the script and thought it was really interesting. I really responded to the character and I felt that, if I turned it down, I would probably live to regret that. It’s set 46 years in the future. It’s about a human detective who has partnered up with a synthetic, a replicant, a robot, to use an anachronistic term. It really explores that point in humanity where we realize collectively that the genie is out of the bottle, with regards to technology, genetic engineering, and all that kind of stuff. I’ve found that to be fascinating fertile ground.

We posted some set photos from production. Were you surprised at the interest and response just from filming the pilot?
Yeah. I certainly think that J.J.’s involvement is gonna generate that kind of intrigue. While I wasn’t totally surprised, at the moment, we’re hoping we get to explore those characters and deliver this. I think it will be absolutely phenomenal.

The Vampire Diaries

Showrunner Julie Plec says it probably won’t take long for everyone to discover Stefan is actually Silas:

Truth be told, I don't think it'll be too long. I think that there's more fun to be played with people learning quickly, but independently of the other so there's a lot of good bait-and-switch Katherine-style stuff that could happen early in the season. And people that know Stefan well will be able to catch on pretty quickly I would hope.

Can you confirm that Elena was herself and not Silas when she said she was in love with Damon?
Well put it this way, if it wasn't Elena, then that means Stefan/Paul Wesley and Ian Somerhalder made out. I think a lot of fans would've been happy.

Will there be a time jump next season?
Definitely our intention is to pick up the beginning of the season as everyone is making their preparations to go to college or whatever it is they're going to do.

[TV Guide]

Warehouse 13

Here’s a sneak peek at tonight’s episode, “The Sky’s the Limit.”

Additional reporting by Katharine Trendacosta and Charlie Jane Anders.

In the human genome, only about 2% of our DNA are genes involved in coding the proteins essential to our existence. The other 98% is noncoding DNA, often called junk DNA because there's no clear purpose for it. That name might seem a bit pejorative, but a new study of the bladderwort genome suggests it's oddly accurate.

The bladderwort is one of the world's most successful carnivorous plants, and it does so with a genome that is 97% genes and 3% junk DNA — that's almost the exact opposite percentage of what we find in humans, not to mention other plant species like corn and tomato. An international team of researchers in Mexico and the United States recently sequenced the genome of Utricularia gibba, and they argue that these results cast major doubt on previous suggestions that noncoding DNA could be crucial in the transformation of DNA into its sibling genetic material RNA. Junk DNA might well serve that or other key functions in complex species, but this study suggests there's no requirement that junk DNA do so. As University of Buffalo biology professor Victor Albert explains:

"The big story is that only 3 percent of the bladderwort's genetic material is so-called 'junk' DNA. Somehow, this plant has purged most of what makes up plant genomes. What that says is that you can have a perfectly good multicellular plant with lots of different cells, organs, tissue types and flowers, and you can do it without the junk. Junk is not needed.

So then, why do so many species have a ridiculous amount of junk DNA while bladderwort has nearly none? In the specific case of U. gibba, it appears to have doubled the size of its genome at three distinct points in its evolutionary history, and each time this occurred it undertook purges of its nonessential DNA. It ended up with 28,500 genes, comparable to plants that have 5 to 10 times as many DNA base pairs in their genome. In a statement, the researchers lay out their arguments as to why some species keep their junk and others get rid of it:

Some species may simply have an inherent, mechanistic bias toward deleting a great deal of noncoding DNA while others have a built-in bias in the opposite direction — toward DNA insertion and duplication. These biases are not due to the fact that one way of behaving is more helpful than the other, but because there are two innate ways to behave and all organisms adhere to them to one degree or the other. The place that organisms occupy on this sliding scale of forces depends in part on the extent to which Darwin's natural selection pressure is able to counter or enhance these intrinsic biases.

The new U. gibba genome shows that having a bunch of noncoding DNA is not crucial for complex life. The bladderwort is an eccentric and complicated plant. It lives in aquatic habitats like freshwater wetlands, and has developed corresponding, highly specialized hunting methods. To capture prey, the plant pumps water from tiny chambers called bladders, turning each into a vacuum that can suck in and trap unsuspecting critters.

For more, check out the University of Buffalo website or the original paper in Nature.

Image by Alex Popovkin, Bahia, Brazil on Flickr.

These are the remnants of the last supernova known to explode in our galaxy whose light has reached Earth. It lit up the night sky in 1604 and attracted the attention of Johannes Kepler himself. But it's only in the last couple of decades that we've developed the technology to understand exactly what kind of supernova this is.

Indeed, Kepler and his contemporaries didn't even have the benefit of telescopes when studying this supernova, let alone giant orbiting space telescopes that can see across all parts of the electromagnetic spectrum. Modern astronomers have all those resources, and so they have been able to determine just what sort of stellar explosion created the last Milky Way supernova visible to human eyes, as NASA explains:

The supernova produced a bright new star in early 17th century skies within the constellation Ophiuchus. It was studied by astronomer Johannes Kepler and his contemporaries, without the benefit of a telescope, as they searched for an explanation of the heavenly apparition. Armed with a modern understanding of stellar evolution, early 21st century astronomers continue to explore the expanding debris cloud, but can now use orbiting space telescopes to survey Kepler's supernova remnant (SNR) across the spectrum.

Recent X-ray data and images of Kepler's supernova remnant taken by the orbiting Chandra X-ray Observatory has shown relative elemental abundances typical of a Type Ia supernova, and further indicated that the progenitor was a white dwarf star that exploded when it accreted too much material from a companion Red Giant star and went over Chandrasekhar's limit. About 13,000 light years away, Kepler's supernova represents the most recent stellar explosion seen to occur within our Milky Way galaxy.

For more on this and other amazing images, check out NASA's Astronomy Photo of the Day.

Image Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/NCSU/M. Burkey et al. Optical: DSS

Damon Lindelof discusses the early, early status of Star Trek 3. Check out a video update from Godzilla director Gareth Edwards. Breaking Bad's Mark Margolis discusses his role as a fallen angel in Darren Aronofsky's Noah. Brad Bird won't rule out The Incredibles 2. Plus a final preview for this week's big Doctor Who finale!

Top image from Doctor Who.

Star Trek 3

Star Trek Into Darkness has only barely been released, but since it has been released, that means it's time to turn our attentions to the next Star Trek film. Nothing is yet known about the film — although it's kind of generally accepted by everyone that J.J. Abrams won't be back to direct because of his Star Wars commitments — but co-writer Damon Lindelof does offer this useful status update:

Let me answer that question by saying, the first conversations that I've had about what it would be like to mount Trek 3 What are the logistics of it? What is J.J.’s availability? When does Paramount want the movie for? What would the story be? What are Bob and Alex up to? What is Bad Robot’s producorial function gonna be as it relates to Star Wars? All of those conversations have literally started over the last two days, as we’re junketing. It’s not a dodge, it’s just the God honest truth to say to you, “I do not know.” I think that nobody wants four years to pass before the next Star Trek comes out especially if this movie is successful. But there is a lot to figure out, in terms of who is going to be making that movie. And as you might imagine, it’s a very tricky conversation.

[Collider]

Man of Steel

Here's a new promo image. You can check out the rest right here. [Coming Soon]

The Martian

Cabin In The Woods director and co-writer Drew Goddard is reportedly in talks to direct this adaptation of Andy Weir's e-book for Fox. The film "follows an astronaut who becomes stranded on Mars and must figure out how to survive long enough to return to Earth" and is described as a cross between Apollo 13 and Cast Away; the report also plays down the apparent similarities between this project and Alfonso Cuaron's upcoming stranded astronaut film Gravity, which does make some sense — The Martian almost certainly unfolds over a much longer period of time than Gravity, which is supposed to tell its story in close to real time. [The Wrap]

Godzilla

Here's a set video from director Gareth Edwards. [Shock Till You Drop]

Noah

Erstwhile Breaking Bad costar Mark Margolis explains his character in Darren Aronofosky's epic reimagining of the Noah's Ark story:

"I play a 12-foot god, [and] most of my character will be created through CGI. All of my scenes are with [Noah actor] Russell [Crowe], who I found to be a very funny guy. They used me and my voice, but they had a pole standing up from a backpack I was wearing, so that Russell had a sightline of a person 12 feet high. I hope that some of my facial movements are used in the final thing."

The article also includes this description of Margolis' character, the fallen angel Samyaza:

Shooting in Iceland, Margolis took the mantle of leader of a posse of six-armed angels known as the 'Watchers'. They're a giant breed of angels who have been at odds with God since the Fall - 'Samyaza' is another name for Satan - and likely to be a source of trouble for the Almighty, and Russell Crowe's Noah too.

[Empire Online]

The Raven

300 star Gerard Butler is reportedly in negotiations to star in Ricardo de Montreuil's adaptation of his own short, which "focused on a young man with powers being chased around downtown Los Angeles by robotic police drones, while a giant police ship coordinates the effort from the skies above." I imagine Butler will play the giant police ship. [Heat Vision]

The Incredibles 2

Director Brad Bird says a sequel to Pixar's beloved superhero movie is at least a possibility:

I have been thinking about it. People think that I have not been, but I have. Because I love those characters and love that world. I am stroking my chin and scratching my head. I have many, many elements that I think would work really well in another [Incredibles] film, and if I can get ‘em to click all together, I would probably wanna do that. I like the idea of moving a little more quickly in films. I’m looking for ways to accelerate the pace a little bit and figure out a way to keep creative control over these movies to a level where I’m comfortable with the end result but also speed them up a bit and make more of them. I have many different films I wanna make. It’s like a big airplane hangar and I have different projects on the floor; half-assembled in my brain. I’m interested in all of them. You kind of have to move on the ones people are willing to pay for and the ones you’re most excited about.

[The Hollywood Reporter]

Doctor Who

Here's an introduction to tomorrow's episode, "The Name of the Doctor." [Blogtor Who]

And here's a field report from Strax.

Here are some episode-specific teasers, which are even more cryptic than normal:

— Someone talks about a parallel world.
— Bit of a Silence of the Lambs vibe going on there. And a Borrowers vibe.
— There is a cliffhanger very early on.
— Moffat has a dig at his own "people".
— If it ain't baroque, don't fix it.

There's more at the link. [Cultbox]

And finally, here's a promo photo. You can check out the rest right here, although be warned that some of these are more spoiler-y than usual; at least one reveals a most familiar yet unexpected coat, for instance.

Arrow

Executive producer Marc Guggenheim explains how the aftermath of the Undertaking will affect the second season:

Our whole approach to the show has always been, we like to pass the time in-between episodes in real-time. So we will feel that three-to-four month gap, but basically The Glades being destroyed, I keep referring to it as season 2’s version of ‘the notebook.’ The notebook was the main thing that created a lot of story engine for us and the consequences and the figurative after-shocks of the earthquake are going to provide the new story engine for season 2.

He also offers some intriguing hints for what's in store long-term for Paul Blackthorne's Detective Lance:

We have really exciting plans for Lance in season 2. I don’t want to spoil them, but he definitely turns a corner in the finale as far as The Hood is concerned. Our goal has always been to make him our version of Commissioner Gordon. What I will say is that the scene that he has with Lieutenant Pike, where he basically outs himself as having worked with The Hood instead of capturing him, that will have huge repercussions for him in season two.

Finally, he more or less confirms that, yeah, John Barrowman and Colin Donnell aren't coming back as Malcolm and Tommy Merlyn:

Well, it certainly looks that way. John Barrowman is amazing and we love him and the one thing I will say with respect to both Tommy’s death and Malcolm Merlyn’s death is this is a show that does flashbacks.

[EW]

Season two reportedly starts filming on July 10. [SpoilerTV]

The Originals

Elijah actor Daniel Gillies discusses how the backdoor pilot — which aired as the twentieth episode this season — helps set up the spin-off:

I thought it was one of the best episodes of the show that I’ve seen. And I’m not just saying that because it was ours. I was just so pleased with it. It does shock me a little that the ratings weren’t through the roof because it was just so pitch perfect. I thought Chris Grismer, our director, was just so good, and Julie wrote it in such a way that was just beautiful. I even loved the Katherine and Elijah stuff, which seemed like a departure. It seemed like he was saying, “Adios.” There was something so wonderful and romantic and heartbreaking about that. I just felt the execution of it was pitch perfect. Charles Michael Davis (who plays Marcel) is going to be a marvelous pillar in the temple of the thing. He’s really very commanding and extraordinarily charismatic. Apart from anything else, we need a black vampire. That, alone, was something that needed to happen, a long time ago. That sounds almost condescending, but it’s exciting. It brings a whole other texture to the concept of immortality. It brings a whole other culture texture, which to my mind is beautiful and exciting. And he’s just such a dangerous, charming and malevolent spirit. The disappointing thing to me, in the episode, was that Elijah never had a scene with Marcel. You’re like, “How are the two of them going to respond to one another?” That’s going to be really interesting.

He also says the show will mostly shoot in Atlanta, with occasional location work in its fictional setting, New Orleans. He also discusses the opportunity to delve more deeply into the Originals as characters:

Certainly, it becomes more personal. There is now a degree of history that you can explore. One of the reasons why Julie is so wise to do it with these protagonists is that it’s a large open canvas. Rather than these 200-year-old vampires that you have in Stefan (Paul Wesley) and Damon (Ian Somerhalder), you have Elijah and Klaus (Joseph Morgan), who are over 1,000 years old. It opens itself up to a whole lot more epoch and history that we haven’t explored yet, and it opens the door to a slew of other potential characters that they could have met through the centuries. It allows it to be richer and more central.

There's still more at the link. [Collider]

Falling Skies

Showrunner Remi Aubuchon is stepping down from his position after this season, and his replacement is reportedly his fellow Caprica co-creator David Eick, who will start working on the stories for season four in anticipation of an official pickup, which is more or less definitely going to happen. [Deadline]

Continuum

Here's a short description for episode six, "Second Truths":

Kiera must use her knowledge of the future to stop a serial killer while keeping Carlos in the dark about her insights.

[SpoilerTV]

Teen Wolf

Here's a trio of teasers for season three. [TV Equals]

Additional reporting by Amanda Yesilbas and Charlie Jane Anders.

Plus, Agent Coulson himself explains why S.H.I.E.L.D. represents the Marvel universe's human side. Simon Pegg says Scotty isn't comic relief in Star Trek Into Darkness. Dredd 2 might still happen. Christopher Nolan's Interstellar will soon be ready to film. Plus looks at the futures of Arrow and The Vampire Diaries! Spoilers!

Top image from Star Trek Into Darkness.

Star Trek Into Darkness

The great Simon Pegg explains how the cast prepared for the sequel and why Scotty is more than just comic relief:

We had all played the characters once so there was a familiarity there that made it more fun this time round. The pressure was more about successfully building on the foundations laid in the first film. I love playing Scotty and strongly object to the reduction that he is solely about comic relief. In a universe full of extraordinary people, it’s important to have characters whose reactions to fantastic events are more in line with our own. Scotty is less of a “open a channel to the Klingon vessel” kind of guy, he’s more of a “I’m not talking to those bumpy headed, we bastards, they put the shits up me” type of person, much like we would be. He’s also, smart, loyal and extremely capable. I love that he gets to be all those things in Into Darkness.

Talk about the way you prepared for the sequel. Did you spend as much time getting ready as the first film?
The first film was a case of turning up. I never forget the welcome I got from the rest of the crew. I felt like they were waiting for me to arrive so we could be a complete family. That sense of familial unity has only grown since my first day. With Into Darkness I decided to get into shape, having experienced running around the engine room in the first film in a less than fit state. I trained hard and met all the challenges of shooting head on. I figured Scotty would have hit the gym anyway, after spending 8 months on Delta Vega eating tribble burgers, he would have wanted to re-tune his body for the day to day job of manning a warp core.

There's a ton more at the link, including Pegg's impassioned defense of J.J. Abrams's lens flares. [Collider]

Thor: The Dark World

Rome actor Ray Stevenson explains his approach to the Warriors Three member Volstagg, and how original Thor director Kenneth Branagh helped him find the character:

I felt so hammy in the rehearsals, but Ken said, “You can’t go too large with this. He’s got a heart the size of a planet and he wears it on his sleeve.” It was hilarious. I said, “Ken, if I dip my toes in the river of ham, then I’m relying on you.” And he said, “Darling, you’re speaking to one who’s swam in that river, many times.” I’ve got two little boys – one is five and one is two – and when they get really excited, happy and over-joyed, every cell in their being shakes and quivers. As Volstagg, I got to wield my axe with gay abandon. I had this huge fat suit on, from the ankles to the wrist to the neck, and I had to have this special vest with small pipes that wrapped around my torso, and I could plug it in to a machine that pumped ice water onto my torso to bring my body temperature down. Even sitting still, your body temperature just went up and up. And I had this big red wig. But still, I got to be Volstagg! He’s a Viking in space! All these problems are such high class problems. It was such a delight to work on it, and I’ve done it twice now. Bring it on!

[Collider]

Interstellar

Christopher Nolan's sci-fi epic — which is set to include Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Michael Caine, and Jessica Chastain — will reportedly shoot in Montreal this summer. [@prodweek]

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

Jocko Sims, who is probably best known for a supporting role on the Starz series Crash, has reportedly joined the cast as "military operative Werner." [Variety]

Divergent

Ray Stevenson explains why he took on the role of Abnegation leader Marcus Eaton in the adaptation of Veronica Roth's YA dystopian novel:

As an actor, I relish and delight in doing things that I’m not necessarily the demographic for. This is a demographic that is touching the psyche of a certain age group, facing the real internal questions of people who are going through rites of passage into adulthood. It’s earth-shaking stuff. So, I like bringing little subtle complexities to a character. It’s all about the subtext. No one can really describe or fully know another human being, even if they get a hook on them. It’s more about instinctively knowing whether you like somebody or not. You don’t have to then go and analyze and break it all down. We’re the sum of many, many, many disparate parts that all weave and change course. Also, I got to be involved with Lionsgate and Summit, and Neil Burger is directing. I read the script and I said, “Yeah, let’s dive into this!”

[Collider]

And here's a couple of images from the film.

Dredd 2

Star Karl Urban says a sequel isn't impossible, despite the first movie's underwhelming box office performance:

"Interestingly enough, I did have breakfast with [screenwriter] Alex Garland this morning. It's not off the agenda. Clearly everyone has woken up to the fact that an audience has found this movie and loves it. It's entirely possible, and if people want to see another installment then they should be vocal about that, because, it can happen. The power of fandom can resurrect projects. In fact, that's what happened with Star Trek. They weren't going to do a third season until fans did a letter writing campaign and they continued that series."

[Collider]

Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Stars Clark Gregg and Chloe Bennet explain how the show explores the human side of the Marvel universe:

Gregg: Agent Coulson represents the people who don’t have superpowers, the guys who actually can be killed — or at least seem to be and yet come back sometimes … Marvel has such a lock on how to do really incredibly visual affects and stunts that we’ve got stuff on our show that I just don’t think we’ve seen on TV before.

Bennet: If you love The Avengers, if you love any of Joss Whedon’s work, you’re going to absolutely love the show. It’s about these people living in a super world dealing with being human. You see these superhero movies and you see the superheroes struggle but you don’t see how humans do in a world like that. That’s what will draw people in. It’s so human. And it’s so super and awesome still.

[EW]

Executive producer and co-showrunner Jeffrey Bell confirms that Angel alum J. August Richards is not playing Luke Cage on the show:

I'm going to say that's an interesting Marvel character, but no. But he came in and killed it. Honestly, we were looking for this part, and we just said, look, all our parts are open to all diversity. So the fact that we have a black dude who is awesome and it's J, was just because he was the best actor. It wasn't like, "You know who…!"

Should we assume it's someone familiar if you read Marvel comics?
You know, not necessarily. I mean, we're going to draw from it, but Marvel has its thing, and we're also going to be expanding forward, and this world is different since The Avengers. So I think there will be people showing up, some from the Marvel Universe and some not. But to commit to anything more would be telling.

Bell also offers this intriguing answer when asked whether superheroes will show up a lot on the series:

J's a guest star in it, and we talk about it like this: If you take all the Marvel movies, really only Captain America and the Hulk are the only real "superheroes" in all those movies. You've got an alien god, but in all those movies, there's been, like, three [superheroes]. So if we trot out a superhero every week, it would be weird. But we're saying the world is different and things are changing, so we will be finding other people — so whether it's science or whether it's a result of [what happened in] New York or whether they're from somewhere else, we're open to everything. Whatever makes cool stories.

[IGN]

Person of Interest

Sarah Shahi, who plays Samantha Shaw on the show, has been promoted to a series regular for season three. [SpoilerTV]

Revolution

Here's a short description for episode twenty, "The Dark Tower":

The rebels infiltrate the tower; Miles faces a situation that tests his character and leadership ability; Aaron's knowledge comes in handy.

[SpoilerTV]

Arrow

Showrunner Andrew Kreisberg reveals what's ahead for season two, starting with whether the Hood will become Green Arrow:

Well actually Season Two finds Oliver not wanting to be called a vigilante anymore. He feels like it has a negative connotation. So the search for a new nickname will make up part of Season Two. I'm not sure we'll be calling him Green Arrow in Season Two but we'll definitely be leaning in that direction as the series moves forward.

Are there going to be changes to the costume moving forward?

We're obviously heavily influenced by the Chris Nolan Batman films and we feel like in those films, as Bruce Wayne had more and more experiences, he wanted his Batsuit to reflect those experiences and we'll be doing the same thing with Oliver. You obviously saw his bow get smashed in episode 22 so he's going to have a new bow for Season Two which we're excited about.

He also discusses that most all-important of issues, the boxing glove arrow:

I actually have a way to do that [laughs]. To me, it's the only way it could possibly work on the show. So you know, if we get to it. We'd love to because there's some of the iconic moments from the comic books that you want to do for the show but it's going to take the right set of circumstances to pull to off. But don't worry, it's definitely in my mind and if I can make it happen I will.

[Comic Book Movie]

The Vampire Diaries

Showrunner Julie Plec previews tonight's season finale:

"Definitely at the end of the season we're right back to where we started, which is what does Elena really feel and who does she feel it for? One of those three [will also make] very clear steps to move on and start a new life and then the complications that come out of that will be a big part of Season 5... I've always said that, for me, the true love story of the show is the love between those [Salvatore] brothers. Every time they come together, something tears them apart and usually it's their own actions. Inevitably, there's the love for the same girl and history repeating itself that drives a wedge between them all the time, but it's baby steps. This season there were a lot of hiccups and ... with luck, the brothers will be able to survive them."

[TV Guide]

Additional reporting by Amanda Yesilbas and Charlie Jane Anders.

Meanwhile, Paul Giamatti loses his pants in the latest Amazing Spider-Man 2 set videos. Bad Robot producer Bryan Burk discusses shout-outs to Star Trek past in Into Darkness. Samuel L. Jackson isn't totally sure he will be in Avengers 2, even though he obviously will be. It's spoiler time!

Top image from World War Z.

Star Trek Into Darkness

Producer Bryan Burk explains why it was crucial this film didn't feel like a sequel:

Well consciously what we were doing when making the film was, we really wanted to make sure it was a film about – in our mind it was never really a sequel, it was its own movie going forward and it’s why the movie doesn’t have a number by it. It was a film that you should be able to jump in, if you’ve never seen it before you’d be able to jump right in, and obviously if you have seen it then you’ll be bringing your own emotion to it. We wanted to appeal to both. It was really important to try to reach a whole new audience so we had a lot of people in who not only had not seen the last film but were not Star Trek fans, or thought of themselves as not being Star Trek fans, or they had seen bits and pieces of Star Trek in the past and it was just not for them. So that was an important part of the process and strangely, early on, we started to realize, in that respect, we were successful in what we were trying to do, which is make a film that everybody would be able come out and not be scratching their head at all. And more importantly what we found with those people is that a lot of them said, “Hey it’s not what I thought it was going to be.” Which is a great reaction, particularly if they liked it.

He also discusses possible reference to Star Trek lore in the film:

We definitely had conversations about it early on and, you know, you can’t put everything in. The “red shirt” moment is obviously the moment when Chekov gets his red shirt, which isn’t as big as the “red shirt” moment from the last film. As you talk about it – and I’m the worst one to be talking about it because I do not know Star Trek [canon] as well as I know other [canon], but I’ll hear my fellow producers, who do know that world much more, talk about a whole bunch of things. When we start talking about these films there’s a whole bunch of things on the table that, time permitting, they would be all over the film. it’s just you can’t do everything in [every] film. Even in the last film we introduced Klingons, but you never saw it because in the final cut it didn’t work for us to bring them in. Fortunately they made it in this film. But there’s just a lot of possibilities, particularly in a world that’s been around for 45 years, of things you can put in. If they’ll continue to let us make these films well continue to keep populating it with things that impress.

I’m curious if there are any Easter eggs that are in the background that fans should be looking out for on their second viewing?
That’s a very good question…I’m trying to think right now off the top of my head and I think there is, but I can’t remember because we had conversations early on. There’s one I can’t really address comfortably yet, I don’t want to say yes and have people looking for things that ended up not being in it, but there might be.

There's plenty more at the link, including discussion of some other J.J. Abrams-affiliated projects. Speaking of which... [Collider]

Star Wars: Episode VII

Bryan Burk also offers another general update on the status of Bad Robot's other big project:

We’re progressing on a schedule to hopefully begin next year, or the beginning of next year, and the location is still kind of floating around in the air all depending on script and a whole bunch of other issues. As I just said, everything is kind of a free-flowing thing, and when we feel like the story level on this script and everything is really coming together and schedules are all working and pieces line up, we prowl ahead, and Star Wars will be no different.

Are you a little bit surprised, even for you, about the level of interest or did you sort of know there would be a level of interest you’ve never had before on anything?
I mean, it’s Star Wars. It’s something that obviously has successfully been handed down from generation to generation in the last 40 years. If I weren’t working on the project, I’d have the same interest as everyone else because it’s something that I, too, am looking forward to seeing where the franchise goes next.

[Collider]

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Stars Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, and Anthony Mackie were spotted on set in Washington, D.C. Here are some set videos and a news report from the filming, which took place near the National Mall.

You can check out some more footage and photos here.

The Avengers 2

Samuel L. Jackson says he doesn't actually know whether he will be back as Nick Fury in The Avengers 2, though this sounds more like he just hasn't asked Marvel yet as opposed to not being sure he wants to return:

I don't know. They don't tell me that kind of stuff. All I know is that I am doing Captain America 2. It's been cool. The Marvel universe continues to grow and get better. I think I have four or five pictures left on my nine-picture deal, so I will just keep showing up.

[Metro]

The Amazing Spider-Man 2

Here are two set videos showing a fight scene between Andrew Garfield's Spider-Man and Paul Giamatti's Rhino. Spoiler alert: Paul Giamatti's pants do not survive this clip, at least not in their initial position.

There are also additional set photos here.

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

Star Trek composer Michael Giacchino, who worked on the music for director Matt Reeves's previous films Let Me In and Cloverfield, has announced via Twitter that he will provide the score for the Rise of the Planet of the Apes sequel. [@m_giacchino]

Divergent

EW has posted this set photo of Descendants star Shailene Woodley from the filming of the adaptation of Veronica Roth's YA dystopian novel. Director Neil Burger explains the scene:

"In this photo she's already jumped off the train and onto a seven story building as part of the initiation rite for the Dauntless. The next thing they have to do is jump from the building and down through a courtyard that has a deep, black hole. It's terrifying. We'd been nervously planning it because it is dangerous and there's a lot of people on that roof. We had to pull it off safely and also pull it off cinematically, so you have this knot in your stomach as you watch this young woman decide to do this crazy thing. We had great weather that day and I think this scene really is emblematic of the movie: It shows the energy and the rawness of the way we're telling the story."

[EW]

World War Z

This movie is apparently still happening, and here's the first video in a tie-in viral campaign to prove it. [First Showing]

I, Frankenstein

The Dark Knight star Aaron Eckhart discusses his post-apocalyptic, demon-fighting taken on the Frankenstein story, which, again, is exactly the story Mary Shelley would have written if she had known what she was doing:

The film is about the figure of the monster Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein is in it, so it's loosely, loosely based on Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. But then it's brought into contemporary times in this fantastical world. So it's a movie about good and evil, about gargoyles and demons, and it's about a monster trying to find his soul; his place in this world. And he happens to be an expert at the Filipino art of Kali stick fighting at the same time. Which [for those who are unfamiliar] is done with two and a half foot ratan sticks, or any stick you pick up off the street, and it's being able to dispatch souless people with these sticks.

So he's a limber monster.
Yep, no bolts in the head. Sans bolts.

What about any scarring, things like that?
Yeah, there's scarring on the face and the body and there's an old and new look because some of it does take place in old times and some of it's in contemporary times so you get that flavor.

The basic sentence "[Frankenstein's monster] happens to be an expert at the Filipino art of Kali stick fighting" is maybe my favorite thing ever uttered in the English language, if only because the "happens" suggests he's just sort of randomly an expert at it, because Frankenstein's monster has to be an expert in some East Asian martial art. Anyway, lest you think this is all about the monster's coincidental Kali stick fighting prowess, Eckhart also promises there's a real arc to the character:

It's a guy who's sort of cursed. Because the monster Frankenstein, when he was born his father called him an abortion, an aberration. He's got no love in his life, he's unworthy, children run and scream at the sight of him. So what worse punishment than to roam the earth for eternity with this sort of sickness, and not finding love ,and not finding your soul? And that's what the movie's about.

Well, that actually sounds more or less valid, but I'm still pretty sure this is going to be the most gloriously silly movie of 2014. [IGN]

This Is The End

Here's a behind-the-scenes featurette for Seth Rogen and James Franco's upcoming film, in which they and a whole bunch of their celebrity friends portray versions of themselves facing the apocalypse. [Moviefone]

Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

ABC president Paul Lee offers some strong praise for the Avengers spin-off series, which will air Tuesdays at 8 P.M. this fall:

"We don't normally talk about testing, but [Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.] tested so well in all four quadrants. Joss Whedon knows how to create great television with great relationships at the heart of it. It has relationships and humor but also the promise of the Marvel franchise… We think it's driven by character and will bring a wider audience to us... Every single hour on the schedule is up against competition. We think it's going to recruit a whole new audience coming in [and] we think it has a built-in audience… We don't think it has the same audience as NCIS and we have high hopes for it on Tuesdays at 8 p.m."

[The Daily Beast]

The Walking Dead

Filming on season four began last week, and AMC has released this first official photo from the set. [Wet Paint]

Intelligence

Meghan Ory, who plays Ruby on Once Upon a Time, explains how she became a series regular on CBS's new sci-fi drama, in which Lost star Josh Holloway plays a man with a microchip in his head:

My agents spoke with the [Once] producers, who said, 'If she wants to go look for something, that's fine.' My team told me about this pilot that was shooting in Vancouver, but I was at my grandmother's funeral so I couldn't go test for it. I couldn't leave my family, so I said no. They ended up testing me at the cast table read with Josh [Holloway] and everyone. Afterwards, I waited outside and they said, 'So you want to do the show?' We started shooting three days later. I ended up calling Eddy [Kitsis] and Adam [Horowitz] to tell them how thankful I was for the huge opportunity they gave me, and they were thrilled for me. Eddy said, 'You've gone from protecting Snow White to protecting Josh.'

Describe your new Intelligence character.
Her name is Riley Neal. She's super smart and was a Secret Service Agent, the youngest to ever be on the President's detail. Marg Helgenberger's character recruits her to come work with her unit and protect Josh's character, who is the most expensive weapon ever made [an agent implanted with a microchip]. Josh's character and I like each other, but butt heads. His character is married, but there could be some sexual tension. And sort of like it was on Once, there are no damsels in distress. The damsels rescue themselves! It's going to be very fun to go back and forth between these two different shows.

[TV Guide]

The Vampire Diaries

Here's another sneak peek at tomorrow's season finale, "Graduation."

Teen Wolf

Here's a teaser for season three.

Additional reporting by Amanda Yesilbas and Charlie Jane Anders.

Mark Ruffalo addresses the latest rumors of tense Avengers contract negotiations. Zoe Saldana talks Guardians of the Galaxy while John Cho previews Sulu's role in Star Trek Into Darkness. Jenna-Louise Coleman and Steven Moffat drop cryptic Doctor Who hints. Plus Robocop set videos and a new After Earth clip. Spoilers!

Top image from Man of Steel.

Star Trek Into Darkness

John Cho discusses in general terms what's ahead for Sulu in the sequel:

I'll say that he's there, he's growing and he's challenged. I hope that people enjoy watching him as much as I enjoyed myself on the bridge again. I guess I can talk about the opening sequence, since it was part of the nine minutes that a lot of people saw. That was me, Zach (Quinto) and Zoe (Saldana). That was fun. It was some high-flying antics for Sulu. It was a chance to be in another ship; that's what I took away from it. It was so cool. I can't tell you how nifty it is to be in one of those vehicles and to pretend that you're piloting it, because nobody gets to see what we see, which is that every detail of the design is so perfect. It makes our job, one, easy, because you don't have to pretend to be doing things. You can feel like you're really just doing them. And, two, it's just a beautiful design. It doesn't make it on to the screen, a lot of it. Let's just say I took a lot of video.

What's your gut instinct on the film?
The parts I've seen are so thrilling. I'm assuming that everyone has seen the nine-minute trailer, and I've probably seen another 20 minutes. I was completely thrilled with what I've seen so far. What I got from it is, as always, the characterizations are en pointe. The adventure sequences are unbelievable. Something the last movie did that this movie does too is that it's grand fun. I love the action sequences. I love seeing the different locations. From what I can tell, the humor is intact. I was just really happy with what I saw.

[Star Trek]

Man of Steel

Here are three new behind-the-scenes videos focusing on Superman's various powers, namely strength, speed, and flight.

The Avengers 2

Bruce Banner actor Mark Ruffalo responds to the recent rumors of tense negotiations between the Avengers stars and Marvel Studios:

I haven't caught wind of any of that. I was surprised to hear it, because I don't even think anyone's really started negotiating yet.

So there's no reason to panic?
No. [Laughs] Maybe people should panic, but I don't see a reason to panic.

As far as you know, everyone is back?
Yeah, as far as I know. But sometimes actors are the last people to know what's going on.

[Moviefone]

Meanwhile, here's an intriguing casting rumor from Superhero Hype regarding the Scarlet Witch, who is more or less confirmed to be making her debut in The Avengers 2 alongside her twin brother Quicksilver:

Although Joss [Whedon] is still writing and probably not ready to send anything out to actors, for the two roles, they're generally looking for actors in their 20s and we've heard word that the "prototype" for their Scarlet Witch is none other than Irish actress Saoirse Ronan. Except something to note is that they're going "British" for the role rather than trying to have actors playing Eastern Europeans.

Leaving aside the rather culturally crucial point that British and Irish still aren't the same thing, this all seems plausible enough, especially since Ronan is the sort of rising European star who would fit well in a big ensemble blockbuster like this. Still, it's best to take this with a grain of salt, as it's still a rumor from an inside source at a very, very early stage in development. And even then, even if we grant that the rumor is true, it's explicitly pointed out that Ronan is just a "prototype" for the role, meaning there's zero guarantee that she would actually be offered the part, let alone take it. So, it's all pretty insubstantial, really... which is actually why I find this rather more plausible than the usual inside source rumor. [Superhero Hype]

Guardians of the Galaxy

Star Trek and Avatar star Zoe Saldana discusses her newest big space opera franchise, in which she plays the green-skinned superhero Gamora:

It makes me excited that I'm going to be a part of something, a world that's going to challenge me – I mean, I'm going to get to play green, I've been a blue one, so might as well be green. I really like the director, James Gunn, I responded very, very well to the script. I loved the casting decisions they've been making so far. I can only hope we kick ass and we have a great time while we're putting the film together. And that the result of that, the audience will respond very positively to it and hopefully we'll be able to make just as much as Iron Man is making right now.

When you get involved with Marvel, or even Star Trek or Avatar, they make you sign these multi-picture deals. What is it like for you to be involved with now what might be three franchises?
I haven't thought about it that way, up until this tour actually, when it was brought to my attention. I read scripts and if I respond well to the story and especially to the character that they want me to consider or that I'm going after, that's what I do. And then, all of a sudden I stop, and I go back and go, "Oh my God! These three things have so much in common," and then I just keep going. It's not something that I'm strategically looking after or that I'm finding because I'm avoiding other things. It just so happens that I'm in a frenzy, I've been in the last couple of years in action frenzy and I guess I gravitate a lot towards these kinds of characters that are very physically active.

[Collider]

X-Men: Days of Future Past

Director Bryan Singer tweeted this photo of Hugh Jackman's Wolverine and Nicholas Hoult's Beast, both rocking some '70s garb. [@BryanSinger]

Robocop

Here are some set videos from the recent reshoots in Vancouver for Jose Padilha's Robocop reboot.

You can check out some accompanying set photos right here.

After Earth

Here's a sneak peek clip from M. Night Shymalan and Will and Jaden Smith's latest. [Collider]

Doctor Who

Star Jenna-Louise Coleman offers these cryptic hints for this Saturday's series seven finale, "The Name of the Doctor":

In the beginning we see a Clara in the 60s, 70s and the 80s so there are a lot of costume changes, which I love. Always one for a bit of dressing up, me. Love a red carpet. Richard E. Grant is back with his evil Great Intelligence, the Doctor's greatest secret is revealed, all of his friends rally round to protect him and we finally understand why the Doctor has met Clara so many different times.

And here's the Radio Times synopsis for the episode:

Clara receives a letter summoning her to a mysterious meeting, where she is given a message for the Doctor. The meaning is uncertain, but when an enemy strikes the Time Lord is left with no choice but to travel to the one place in time and space he should never go - into a deadly trap that threatens to unravel his past, present and future. Matt Smith and Jenna-Louise Coleman star in what promises to be a thrilling climax, with Alex Kingston returning as River Song. Sadly, fans will have to wait a full six months for their next Who fix, until the much talked-about 50th anniversary special which is due to be shown in November. Last in the series.

[Doctor Who News]

And here's another trailer for the episode. [Blogtor Who]

Here's an interview with Steven Moffat in which he discusses the 50th anniversary special, and he basically says that he has still yet to say anything official about what's actually happening in it, notwithstanding all the set photos from exterior filming, and so he suggests most of the rumors about the special really have little to do with what's actually in it. [Blogtor Who]

Meanwhile, looking further ahead, Moffat does offer some concrete confirmation that series eight is indeed happening, in case there were any remaining doubt:

Series eight is absolutely, definitely confirmed. It is real and it's happening - it's [taking up] most of my time at the moment.

[Den of Geek]

Game of Thrones

Here's a trailer for this Sunday's episode, "Second Sons." [Coming Soon]

Revolution

Here's the description for next Monday's episode, "Clue":

NORA IS LEFT FOR DEAD AND MONROE IS STALKED BY RACHEL AS MILES SEEKS A MURDERER AMONG HIS CORE GROUP- A captive Nora (Daniella Alonso) is tortured and left for dead. Monroe (David Lyons) learns of Rachael's (Elizabeth Mitchell) attempt to reach the Tower but is unaware of her deadly plan for him. Meanwhile, Miles (Billy Burke) is desperate to find out how so many of his close associates are being brutally murdered. Later, Miles, Charlie (Tracy Spiridakos), Neville (Giancarlo Esposito), Jason, (JD Pardo) Hudson (Malik Yoba) and Sanborn (Leland Orser) struggle to make it out of the Plains Nation to join Rachel and save her from what they believe to be certain death. Also starring Zak Orth, Colm Feore, Russ Blackwell, Patrick St. Esprit, and Tarek F. Alame.

Under the Dome

Here are descriptions for episodes four through seven of CBS's upcoming summer adaptation of the Stephen King novel:

Episode 1.04 – "Outbreak"
An epidemic breaks out in Chester's Mill, and the clinic is running out of medicine to treat people.

Episode 1.05 – "Blue On Blue"
A soldier outside the dome tells Barbie that the military is getting ready to leave, and that the government is afraid that the dome is starting to affect magnetic fields.

Episode 1.06 – "The Endless Thirst"
Store looting becomes a problem when the townspeople worry that water and food are running out.

Episode 1.07 – "Broadcast Signal Intrusion"
Joe and Norrie head for the center of the dome to try to find what's causing it. Harriet goes into labor.

[SpoilerTV]

Dracula

Here's a first look poster for NBC's newly ordered series.

Orphan Black

Here's the promo for this Saturday's episode, "Entangled Bank."

The Vampire Diaries

Here's a sneak peek at this Thursday's season finale, "Graduation."

American Horror Story: Coven

Creator Ryan Murphy announced via Twitter that Angela Bassett — who I'm guessing would really prefer I didn't refer to her as Green Lantern's Angela Bassett, so I won't — and Tony-winning singer and stage actress Patti Lupone have joined the cast of American Horror Story's witch-centric third season. [EW]

Additional reporting by Amanda Yesilbas and Charlie Jane Anders.

Check out the latest Thor and Star Trek sequel hints. A Captain America actor confirms his return in The Winter Soldier... probably. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles might have found its Shredder. Steven Moffat promises this week's Doctor Who will resolve one big mystery and lead into the next adventure. It's all spoilers right now!

Top image from Thor: The Dark World.

Star Trek Into Darkness

An article focusing on Zoe Saldana's Uhura and Alice Eve's Dr. Carol Marcus includes this plot description, which includes at least one intriguing hint about what lies ahead:

[Uhura] fires phasers as good as the guys and romances Spock (Zachary Quinto). Then there’s Eve as science officer Dr. Carol Marcus, whose connection to Kirk (Chris Pine) will result in a crucial future plot twist. They and the rest of the Enterprise crew head to 21st-century San Francisco to stop a terrorist (Benedict Cumberbatch) waging a one-man war against Star Fleet.

Also, co-writer Damon Lindelof explains how the team ensured the female characters were just as strong and vibrant as their male counterparts:

“Uhura can never be the damsel in distress, never needs to be saved. She is ballsy and just as front and center as any of the guys. And when we were talking about Carol Marcus, that applied as well. She really had to have a reason to be in the movie. She’s not just a love interest. She’s not just eye candy.”

[New York Daily News]

Star Wars: Episode VII

Lucasfilm has now confirmed that production of Episode VII will indeed take place in the United Kingdom. The official website includes this quote from producer and Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy:

"We've devoted serious time and attention to revisiting the origins of Star Wars as inspiration for our process on the new movie, and I'm thrilled that returning to the UK for production and utilizing the incredible talent there can be a part of that. Speaking from my own longstanding connection to the UK with films like Raiders of the Lost Ark, Empire of the Sun and recently War Horse, it's very exciting to be heading back."

[Star Wars]

Thor: The Dark World

Executive producer Craig Kyle discusses the Thor sequel's story and feel:

"It's The Empire Strikes Back. We're travelling further out into the other worlds of the Thor saga – the further out we go the further in we have to go with the character. We spent a lot of time in the first film in the palace. This time, we are going to see where the people live and where the pubs are!... [The movie will show] Valhalla drinking dens and training centers, Vanaheim, Svartalfheim... [The universe is] tilting into mayhem thanks to a busted bifrost bridge which allows new baddies, the marauders, to get a toehold in Thor's kingdom. The nice thing that Avengers did for us – besides make a lot of money – was [that it] dropped this bomb in the Marvel cinema universe and affected all of our characters in a huge way. The big event takes place and draws everybody out of their own BS, and then they have to go back to their own problems again."

[Total Film via Comic Book Movie]

Jaime Alexander talks some more about what to expect from Sif:

"I think we can all tell from the trailer that there's definitely a love triangle [between Thor, Jane Foster, and Sif]. We get to explore the Thor/Sif relationship, and that means in every aspect. She's grown up with him. He's almost like a brother, but at the same time she respects him so much now that there's deeper love there. And we also get to see a much more vulnerable side of Sif, which is really nice... There are scenes with Natalie [Portman] and I, even when other characters aren't around, and she's a blast to work with."

She also discusses the film in general, echoing some of Kyle's points:

We do get to see a lot more of the Asgardian lifestyle, and the daily lives of the warriors and that sort of thing... It's really as gorgeous as it was in the first movie. You get to see what it's like when they celebrate after a victory and how much they all love each other so much, and how they've known each other their entire lives – all the Warriors Three, Thor, the king, the queen, everybody. So it's really fun to see how they are with each other, and how actually, how similar it is to Earth: the way they treat each other, where they go to celebrate, what they do... Marvel's really great at tying the all the movies in together. [Thor: The Dark World] definitely brings up what happens in The Avengers. We can't just be up in Asgard and pretend like nothing happened. It wouldn't make any sense."

[Fandango]

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Dominic Cooper more or less confirms that he will be back as Howard Stark, albeit in the most circuitous manner possible:

"Well... It's hard to say. We're shooting something for it. I've worn the costume again. But whether they just had me put it on as a joke, I don't know! [laughs] It was good fun getting back into it and he's got some very cool shades now. But who knows…"

[Total Film via Comic Book Movie]

The Amazing Spider-Man 2

Here's a set photo via WENN.com that shows a bald, grizzled, tattooed Paul Giamatti as Aleksei Sytsevich, alias Rhino. The photos show him driving a truck when Andrew Garfield — who is actually in the Spider-Man costume for these shots, because he takes his mask off between takes — shows up as Spider-Man and attacks. Check out the rest of the set here.

X-Men: Days of Future Past

Director Bryan Singer tweeted this picture of James McAvoy as Professor Xavier, hinting that perhaps Professor X will be exploring the counter-culture a bit in the 1970s sections of the film. [Slashfilm]

Man of Steel

Here's a TV spot. [Coming Soon]

Avatar 2 and 3

Star Zoe Saldana offers a general update on where writer-director James Cameron is up to with the sequels:

We've emailed, but I know that he's sort of been removing himself from things that might distract him so that he can focus on doing the final tweaks on the scripts. He did share that he's in a very interesting and fragile place, because the story is dictating itself. You walk a fine line when you're the creator of the story you're going to tell, of the manipulation that you may have unconsciously of the story and the characters versus allowing the story to unfold it, because you did create such a monumental and solid platform that they're just living and breathing organisms and they're the ones that need to make their own decisions. I'm geek talking right now, but that's how intense it affects me and how I feel about amazing storytellers like James Cameron and J.J. Abrams. They create things that are real out of unimaginable scenarios, and that is beautiful to me."

[MTV Movies Blog]

Ender's Game

Although Avatar and Titanic composer James Horner was originally reported to be providing the score for the film, it's now been confirmed that Steve Jablonsky, whose highest profile work has been on the Transformers films, will in fact be handling composing duties. [Ender News]

ID Forever

Independence Day director Roland Emmerich says he's planning nothing so mundane as a two-part, alternate history follow-up to the 1996 alien invasion movie; instead, he's hoping to build an entire ongoing franchise, with ID Forever Part I and Part II representing only the new beginning:

That's actually what we talked a lot about. The mythology of why did the aliens come in the first place, what is the bigger story of this whole thing? And we talked a lot about swarm intelligence. And [the humans] are individual intelligence. Even though we kill each other and have wars against each other, we have something special. We have this domino human spirit to believe in good and over coming enemies. And it's a little bit about that and when you get a bigger mythology going, I think then you have the chance to do not only one or two or three but you can create a series and that's what we want to do.

[/Film]

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

William Fichtner, who has been absolutely terrifying in everything from The Dark Knight to Drive Angry to Date Night, has reportedly joined the cast as "a lead with iconic stature in the Turtles' mythology," which everyone is just sort of logically assuming means Shredder, because why would anyone bother casting William Fichtner in a Ninja Turtles movie and then not make him Shredder? [Deadline]

There are some new set photos that show star Megan Fox wearing April O'Neil's yellow jacket; you can check them out right here. There are also some set photos elsewhere that show former Saturday Night Live cast member Abby Elliott arriving on the set, and the current fan speculation is that she's playing April's friend and colleague Irma Langinstein. Finally, check out a set video below that shows the motion capture turtles in action. [Coming Soon]

Doctor Who

Here's a pair of trailers for this Saturday's season finale, "The Name of the Doctor."

Steven Moffat promises that the mystery of Clara will be resolved:

"We’ll sort [the Clara mystery] out in that [episode]. The next time you see Clara [after the finale] you’ll know it all. It’s again one that he gets quite emotional about. It’s got quite a dark tone to it."

He also suggests this episode will lead into the 50th Anniversary special, although the link won't be too strong:

"It’d be fair to say ‘the 50th starts here’. It begins. It’s quite a dark episode; it’s quite a serious episode. You’ll start to see the Doctor enter a phase of his life that’s going to change things. I assure you I haven’t made the 50th the second part of a story, that would be insane. We start to move the Doctor into a place, and you’ll start to see we’ve been moving him into a place for a while."

[CultBox]

Revolution

Here's a synopsis for episode 19, "Children of Men," which airs May 27:

RACHEL ENRAGES MONROE WHILE THE REBELS INFILTRATE THE TOWER AND MILES AND MONROE MEET AGAIN - Rachel (Elizabeth Mitchell) and Monroe (David Lyons) battle with more than wits. Meanwhile, Miles (Billy Burke), Charlie (Tracy Spiridakos), Nora (Daniella Alonso) and Aaron (Zak Orth) get inside the Tower but Tom Neville (Giancarlo Esposito) and son Jason (JD Pardo) get shut out. Miles and Monroe once again face-off, this time even more lethally. Also starring Tim Guinee, Colm Feore, Maria Howell, Ramon Fernandez

[SpoilerTV]

The Vampire Diaries

Here's a promo for this Thursday's season finale, "Graduation."

Warehouse 13

Here's a sneak peek at tonight's episode, "The Big Snag."

Additional reporting by Katharine Trendacosta and Charlie Jane Anders.

One of the most violent and wondrous cosmic events is starburst, in which hundreds of millions of stars are born all at once. These are far rarer nowadays than they were in the early universe, but they do still happen... and the massive energy released during these periods can alter the future histories of entire galaxies.

That's the finding of new research from Hubble astronomers. Using the space telescope to study 20 nearby galaxies undergoing starburst activity, they discovered that the cosmic winds generated by starburst had effects that extended far beyond just the immediate vicinity of the newborn stars. The Hubble site explains:

They found that the winds accompanying these star formation processes were capable of ionizing gas up to 650,000 light-years from the galactic center — around twenty times further out than the visible size of the galaxy. This is the first direct observational evidence of local starbursts impacting the bulk of the gas around their host galaxy, and has important consequences for how that galaxy continues to evolve and form stars.

The starburst galaxies within the sample were seen to have large amounts of highly ionized gas in their halos — but the galaxies that were not undergoing a starburst did not. The team found that this ionization was caused by the energetic winds created alongside newly forming stars. This has consequences for the future of the galaxies hosting the starbursts. Galaxies grow by accreting gas from the space surrounding them, and converting this gas into stars. As these winds ionise the future fuel reservoir of gas in the galaxy’s envelope, the availability of cool gas falls — regulating any future star formation.

For more, check out their original research paper in the Astrophysical Journal — it's also available as a PDF from the Hubble site right here.

Image by ESA, NASA, L. Calçada.

The Mangarahara cichlid is a fish native to the rivers of Madagascar — or, at least, it was. It's thought that the fish has gone extinct in the wild, and the only three survivors are in a pair of European zoos. But these three fish are all male, old, ugly... and liable to kill any fish that tries to breed with them.

At least, that's what happened to the last known female member of the species, as a breeding program with the male at the Berlin Zoo ended with it killing its would-be partner, which has to rank as one of the most spectacularly grim ways to doom one's own species to extinction. As London Zoo aquarium curator Brian Zimmerman explains to the BBC, that is a distressingly common result for species like this, and it now means they have to appeal to private owners worldwide in a last-ditch effort to find one more female:

"It's a fairly common thing with cichlids. They are unusual fish compared to many in that they practice pair bonding and parental care of the eggs and the fry, so there's a lot of tussling that goes on between them... They are not a particularly beautiful fish - they are gorgeously ugly, they are unusual. They are more a connoisseur's type of fish. They need quite a bit of space; the males are bigger than your hand, and they need a decent tank."

Both of the specimens at the London Zoo are about 12 years old, which places them towards the end of their normal lifespan. The Zoological Society of London has already reached out to zoos and aquariums in search of a female, which means the only chance now is for a private collector to come forward. But Zimmerman says the odds of finding a female in time aren't good, and even then it may well just be delaying the inevitable; even if new cichlids were indeed produced, Zimmerman says the growing global shortage of available freshwater means this species might no longer have an environment to return to.

Still, if you, by some miracle, do actually know of a female Mangarahara cichlid — and judging by the above description, they're rather unmistakable — then the people to contact are at fishappeal@zsl.org.

Via BBC News. Image by Bjoertvedt on Wikimedia.

Director Gavin Hood and star Asa Butterfield open up about Ender's Game. Check out new videos from Star Trek Into Darkness and Man of Steel. Will Arnett's Ninja Turtles role is revealed. Zoe Saldana talks up Guardians of the Galaxy. What lies ahead for Person of Interest and The Vampire Diaries? It's spoilers all the way down!

Top image from Ender's Game.

Star Trek Into Darkness

Here's a sneak peek clip.

And here's a character profile on Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy.

Star Wars: Episode VII

Episode VII director J.J. Abrams says that film's success (or lack thereof, I guess, but let's not kid ourselves) will determine what happens with the planned spinoff movies:

"We're focusing right now on this because this movie feels like this is the one that has to work for anything else to work. There are discussions about what would happen later and how to make this thing and to tell story, you can't look at it in a binary way. It's obviously part of something much greater. To talk about those off-shoot films, that's something have to talk about with Kathleen Kennedy."

[MTV Movies Blog]

Man of Steel

Here's a pair of behind-the-scenes videos, featuring some new footage and commentary from director Zack Snyder and stars Henry Cavill and Kevin Costner.

Guardians of the Galaxy

Star Trek and Avatar star Zoe Saldana explains why she signed on to play Gamora, one of the three main humanoid Guardians:

"It feels unique, but it doesn't feel like it hasn't been done before. I loved the levity in the script and I liked the casting of [Parks and Recreation star] Chris Pratt [as Star-Lord]. I've been a fan [of his] and I think his gifted natural comedic timing might come in handy to play someone like Star-Lord. I was just excited to be asked to join by James Gunn and to also play someone green. I've been blue before. I'm in the process right now of the evolution of conceiving Gamora's look. It's exciting! We're trying to work out comfort also, because you know that I definitely want to be involved in the stunt-doing of my character."

[MTV Splash Page via Comic Book Movie]

Ender's Game

Director Gavin Hood, star Asa Butterfield, and producer Roberto Orci recently participated in a Google+ Hangout to promote the film, and EnderWiggin.net has sent us over some highlights. First up, here's Gavin Hood revealing which was the most important aspect of Orson Scott Card's book to preserve in the adaptation and explaining how he created the Battle Room.

Asa Butterfield explains why he wanted to play Ender Wiggin and discusses his big battle scene with Ben Kingsley's Mazer Rackham.

Check out all the rest of the videos right here.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

A new set photo shows Arrested Development star Will Arnett filming scenes, and the nametag he's wearing reveals his character to be snide cameraman Vernon Fenwick. This may just be because snide cameraman Vernon Fenwick is literally the only human male I can remember from the old cartoon, but I always kind of just assumed that was who Arnett was playing — I mean, it's hard to imagine a more perfectly Arnett-y character for him to play. Anyway, we can now consider this confirmed. Check out the link for the set photos. [Superhero Hype]

Divergent

Author Veronica Roth explains what makes The Descendants and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 actress Shailene Woodley right for the main role in her dystopian story:

Shailene brings reality to Tris. Tris is kind of an impetuous 16-year-old. She has a harsh personality with some vulnerability. All of the shades of what Tris is, Shailene is able to do, just in very small moments. She's pretty subtle, too. That's been great. Even though she's not a tiny blonde girl, she just is this character. She seems like a real person who's actually having those struggles. I wasn't that surprised because I know she's a great actress. I saw her in The Descendants. I just didn't think anyone would be able to do it. Tris is so dear to me, even though I want to punch her sometimes.

She also praises Limitless director Neil Burger's vision for the film:

I was worried that the overall visual sense of the movie would be a little too futuristic sexy, like really sleek and shiny, and that's not really the world of Divergent. Everything is kind of falling apart. And I think he definitely did that, which I was really happy about. The visuals I've seen have been in that vein, and that's been really exciting. He's got a really detail-oriented mind, so everything, down to all the little details that I saw, has been so well thought-out, in keeping with the philosophy of the world. He and I talked for hours, and he asked me so many questions about things I had never thought of. He was like, "How does commerce work in this particular faction?," and I was like, "I don't know! Where were you when I was writing this?!" Those conversations were really reassuring because he's just so interested in every little thing, and I think that definitely comes across.

There's more at the link. [Collider]

Doctor Who

You remember that crazy, unsourced rumor that John Hurt was playing some secret incarnation of the Doctor in the 50th Anniversary special? Well, we can now upgraded that rumor from "crazy and unsourced" to "a thing John Hurt apparently actually said." Here's how the Eastern Telegraph quotes Hurt's description of his character:

Mr Hurt, who lives near Cromer, earlier told the EDP he had just finished shooting a Dr Who 3D special in which he plays “part of the Doctor” in a “kind of trinity” which includes David Tennant.

Now, this isn't confirmation of that specific original rumor, which held that Hurt was playing the forgotten, actual Ninth Doctor who was erased from memory because of his participation in the Time War. Indeed, Hurt's use of the word "trinity" perhaps suggests something a little more complicated than that, with one possibility being David Tennant as the "past" Doctor, Matt Smith as the "present" Doctor, and John Hurt as some sort of "future" Doctor. Anyway, whatever's exactly going on, this ought to be plenty intriguing. [Eastern Telegraph]

Here's one more sneak peek clip from tomorrow's episode, Neil Gaiman's "Nightmare In Silver." [Blogtor Who]

Person of Interest

Co-creator Jonathan Nolan talks in broad terms about what to expect from season three:

You know, we certainly have a great budget on the show, but the expansions to world of the show really arise because, and this is kind of the idea of the premise of the show, where is each week you're kind of meeting . . . It's random access. Each week the machine is spitting out a number for a new person or a new world within New York that you get to know. And the idea from the beginning was that some of the characters would stick around and become part of the lives of the show, and the world of the show itself will continue to grow. So whether it's a Paige Turco's character, Ken Leung's character, we always build that universe out. And then you have these characters who come along and who bring a whole new dimension to the show and we use them as a sort of lens into the other's universes of the show, so that's the case here with Sarah Shahi's character Shaw and her entry into the world of our show. So we're very much hoping to see more of her next season.

[Collider]

Once Upon a Time

Here are three sneak peeks for this Sunday's second season finale, "And Straight On 'Til Morning."

Arrow

Here's a promo for next Wednesday's season finale, "Sacrifice."

The Vampire Diaries

Showrunner Julie Plec says Klaus's impending fatherhood is a story that won't be dealt with during his return to Mystic Falls at the end of this season, but instead will be left for some combination of his spin-off The Originals or season five:

We had always talked about, at some point in the series, dealing with a vampire pregnancy, but we couldn’t really ever figure out the science behind that and also didn’t want to break any rules. And when we started talking about giving Klaus a really powerful journey for season 4 — regardless of whether there’d be a spin-off or not — we thought, well, where’s his character coming from and where does it need to go? What could we do to really, really blow his mind? And we realized, this is a guy who everything he’s ever done — all his ego, all his paranoia, all his anger — is a result of feeling like this family has completely failed him. So what better way to rock his world than to introduce a new element of family?

We came up with the idea that because of him being the Original Hybrid there could be a loophole, and him realizing he got a werewolf girl pregnant. [The writers] were in two rooms: One room was working on episode 2, and one room was working on episode 3. And in the episode 2 room, where I was, I don’t know how it came up, but I leapt out of my chair and ran down the hall and pitched it to the other room. I didn’t even give them a chance to disagree. Who knows if they loved it or hated it? They were so bombasted by my enthusiasm. Everybody was like, ‘Whoa! Whoa!’ So that was a story line we were intending to play, even if there was no spinoff that came to fruition... We don’t bring that back around because really, what Klaus and Caroline’s unfinished business is, of course, is his refusal to allow Tyler back into her life. We’ll resolve that before the season’s out.

She also says there's a big twist coming with Silas' character:

“As we’ll see, he’s not exactly all that he claims to be. And he’s been leaving out some pretty important details. So by the end of the season, those are gonna be revealed, and we’ll see that he’s definitely up to somethin’ that will lasting impact. The Silas story takes a little bit of a left turn, and once the audience sees what happens there, they’ll start to understand where we might be going with it [in season 5].”

[EW]

Falling Skies

Season three picks up seven months after the previous finale. [TV Line]

Additional reporting by Katharine Trendacosta and Charlie Jane Anders.

Plus, Russell Crowe seemingly contradicts a major rumor about Zack Snyder's Superman movie. Damon Lindelof explains what debt Star Trek Into Darkness owes to The Wrath of Khan. How does a familiar face fit into The Wolverine? Plus the official description and cast list for Dawn of the Planet of the Apes! Spoilers now!

Top image from The Wolverine.

Star Trek Into Darkness

Stars Zachary Quinto, Chris Pine, and Benedict Cumberbatch offer some hints about their characters:

Quinto: There's a deep connection between Kirk and Spock. I think, historically, it is the engine of this franchise. It's the heart of the story, and this movie highlights that in a lot of ways.

Pine: [Kirk realizes] humility is a necessary part in leading people into battle. If you go in with absolute hubris, you're gonna get knocked to your knees.

Cumberbatch: You know he's a homegrown terrorist, he comes within Star Fleet and your levels of empathy should be toyed with at some points with this guy.

[E! Online]

Co-writer Damon Lindelof explains how The Wrath of Khan influenced this sequel, even if he's not yet ready to discuss any concrete connections between the two films:

Certainly in the sense of all the ideas that it represented and I feel like one of the reasons that Star Trek doesn't have a lot of iconic villains is because of just the fundamental design of the franchise. It's not like when there's a new Iron Man movie you're asking ‘who's the bad guy?' I think there's the Klingons and then there's Khan. Those are the greats. And then in the Next Generation there's the Borg. But the Klingons and the Borg are both races of people, there's only really one individual. And I think that for me coming out of that movie, firstly naming a movie ‘the Wrath of Khan' and not really knowing who that was and he had a Wrath! So it was obviously going to be a bad thing! And that just sort of infused it with a power.

There's some more at the link. [Click Online]

Man of Steel

Jor-El actor Russell Crowe sent out this tweet, seemingly contradicting recent rumors that this movie's version of Krypton survived its destruction:

Ahem... as I was saying... my name is Jor-El, of Krypton, as my planet dies I send to you my son, Kal. So he may live. He will arrive June 14

[Digital Spy]

Star Henry Cavill explains why his Superman doesn't need Kryptonite to be vulnerable:

"Again, it comes back to the human element; because he's alone and there's no one like him. That must be incredibly scary and lonely, not to know who you are or what you are, and trying to find out what makes sense. Where's your baseline? What do you draw from? Where do you draw a limit with the power you have? In itself, that's an incredible weakness."

He also discusses producer Christopher Nolan's input into the film, or lack thereof:

Chris Nolan wasn't there during the production itself, although I'm not sure how much work was done behind the scenes. I'm sure Zack [Snyder] had a phone call or two with him, but this is definitely Zack's baby. He was the man in charge, and we created the character together, as opposed to having too many outside influences.

[F*** Magazine via Comic Book Movie]

Mackenzie Gray, who appears in the film in an undisclosed role, discusses the Superman suit:

"Oh yeah, amount of detail on Superman is unbelievable. Superman's costume, is a three-layer costume; there's a body-skin layer and then there's a muscle layer that was molded to Henry's muscles – it's a silver, metallic rubber – and then over that is a mesh skin so whenever he turns into light it looks like he's made of steel....It's just incredible, the design of the film is fantastic. All the concepts and the designs is just remarkable and they didn't have to build fake muscles for Henry because he's really built."

[Coming Soon]

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Anthony Mackie says his character the Falcon, alias Sam Wilson, is a major part of the film, even though he was omitted from a recent synopsis:

"He's very involved. I'm in about 60 percent of the movie. Captain America, the Black Widow and The Falcon take down the Winter Solider together, and they solve the crime at hand and take down the Winter Soldier. So this movie, if you look at the cast, with everybody in (the fictional crime-fighting group) S.H.I.E.L.D. and (co-stars Robert) Redford and Sam Jackson and everybody who's in the movie, it's kind of turning into 'The Avengers Part 2' because the cast is so big."

[The Times Picayune]

Guardians of the Galaxy

British actor Enzo Cilenti, whose credits range from In the Loop to Kick-Ass 2, more or less confirmed via Twitter that he has a role in James Gunn's Marvel space opera. It's not yet known what role he will play — while he could theoretically be the voice of Rocket Raccoon or Groot, it's probably more likely that it's some other supporting role. [@EnzoCilenti]

The Wolverine

Famke Janssen confirms she is reprising her role as Jean Grey, though this doesn't mean the character is being resurrected after her death in X-Men: The Last Stand:

"I couldn't tell you [how much I'm in it]. It's a flashback sequence, but that's all I can say. You'll just have to wait until July!"

[What Culture]

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

20th Century Fox has put out a press release to confirm the start of filming for the Rise of the Planet of the Apes sequel from Cloverfield director Matt Reeves. It offers a brief plot synopsis that pretty much confirms the previously rumored plot summary, plus a complete cast list:

A growing nation of genetically evolved apes led by Caesar is threatened by a band of human survivors of the devastating virus unleashed a decade earlier. They reach a fragile peace, but it proves short-lived, as both sides are brought to the brink of a war that will determine who will emerge as Earth's dominant species.

Andy Serkis, celebrated for his performance in the last film, reprises his role as Caesar. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes also stars Jason Clarke (Zero Dark Thirty, Public Enemies, The Great Gatsby), Gary Oldman (The Dark Knight Rises, The Harry Potter film series), Keri Russell (The Americans, Mission Impossible III), Toby Kebbell (The Prince of Persia, Wrath of the Titans, Rock N Rolla), Kodi Smit-McPhee (Let Me In, ParaNorman), Enrique Murciano (Traffic, Black Hawk Down), Kirk Acevedo (The Thin Red Line) and Judy Greer (The Descendants, Three Kings, 13 Going on 30).

[Comic Book Movie]

The Crow

Immortals star Luke Evans talks some more about his newly confirmed appearance in the Crow remake:

"It's going to be great, it's a brilliant film and it was poignant for my generation. Brandon Lee's performance was solid and emotionally connected. The whole storyline is incredibly powerful. It was 20 years ago, a long time ago. This one deserves a reboot, there are many things that are rebooted, but this one is a fantastic story, which is why there is a cult attachment to it. It deserves to have a fresh pair of eyes on it. [Director F.] Javier [Gutierrez] has powerful work, he's really special. We've been talking quite a while about the choices we're going to make. It's going to be cool to have a new generation check out The Crow."

[Shock Till You Drop]

Dracula

Luke Evans also discusses his starring role in one of several Dracula projects currently in development:

"It has been a while since a Dracula movie has been made. It's the origin story, not the old Dracula story we're used to seeing, which is great and incredible. But this is about the origin, Vlad the Impaler who lived in the 1400s - this man whose family and people are under threat, the decision that he makes and the outcome of the decision that he makes which changes his life and the life of his family and people he's king over. It's an interesting tug of war because he's turning himself into this dark, dark creature, essentially, that will never be able to turn around and go back."

[Shock Till You Drop]

Monsters University

Here's a Mother's Day-themed promo for the Monsters, Inc. prequel.

Doctor Who

Here's a promo clip from this Saturday's episode, the Neil Gaiman-penned "Nightmare In Silver."

The Vampire Diaries

Here's a sneak peek at tomorrow's episode, "The Walking Dead."

Haven

Erstwhile Eureka star Colin Ferguson has reportedly joined another Syfy show, as he will have a season-long arc on Haven as William, described as "a mysterious stranger whose secret agenda leads him to FBI agent-turned-cop Audrey Parker (Emily Rose) in the small town of Haven, Maine." [Deadline]

Additional reporting by Katharine Trendacosta and Charlie Jane Anders.

Will J.J. Abrams return to direct Star Trek 3? A Doctor Who star could be a Guardian of the Galaxy. David S. Goyer explains why the title of Superman's new movie doesn't feature "Superman." Chris Evans talks Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Snow Piercer. Plus Neil Gaiman previews his Doctor Who episodes. Spoilers ahoy!

Top image from Doctor Who.

Star Trek Into Darkness

Here are character featurettes on Carol Marcus and Sulu. [Coming Soon]

And here's seven minutes of behind-the-scenes footage.

Co-writer Damon Lindelof discusses how the structure of this film is meant to both be self-contained and leave the door open for the next film... although he's pretty sure J.J. Abrams won't be back to direct it:

"I was thrilled, obviously, as a 'Star Wars' fanatic, that it was going to be in great hands and a little bit sad that he was going to be leaving 'Star Trek,' but he's still going to produce the next one. We will make the very best of it, I'm sure... We wanted it to have a beginning, middle and end, and a self-containedness, but at the same time, start setting up where it could possibly go," Lindelof said. "Hopefully, if you see this movie, you get a sense not just in terms of the relationships and characters, but some unsettled business that needs to be resolved in the future."

[MTV Movies Blog]

Elsewhere, J.J. Abrams himself reportedly said that Bad Robot will definitely produce the sequel, but since Paramount is unlikely to wait four years between films again, he probably won't be able to direct it given his Star Wars commitments. [New York Times]

Man of Steel

Screenwriter David S. Goyer explains why the movie doesn't feature "Superman" in its title:

I would say that the marketing began early on in that we decided not to call it Superman, that was very deliberate. That was Chris [Nolan] and I, Man Of Steel, and Warner Bros. said, ‘Why?" And we started talking about it, and we said, ‘We want a line of demarcation in the sand between the old and the new.' We always knew we would be using the Superman glyph or the shield as we call it. But Man Of Steel was also supposed to represent our take, which was he's a man, but he's not made of flesh and blood, metaphorically he's a man of steel. So that was sort of like the whole thing wrapped up in a nutshell."

[Empire via Comic Book Movie]

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Star Chris Evans discusses Steve Rogers' journey in the sequel:

That is his story. It is him trying to on a personal level adjust to the fact that everyone he knows is gone and the whole Peggy Carter of it all. There is a lot of things that he kind of has to come to terms with. So I don’t know. I am excited to kind of see flashes of the first Captain, if you know what I mean, and to see his memory of what we now know as an audience of who he was.

There's a ton more at the link, including Evans discussing his willingness to cameo in Thor: The Dark World, even if it's unlikely to happen. [Collider]

Guardians of the Galaxy

Take this with a big old grain of salt, but there's a rumor floating around that erstwhile Doctor Who star David Tennant will voice Rocket Raccoon. This makes a certain degree of sense, inasmuch as Tennant has done a ton of voice-over work for radio, audio dramas, and audiobooks, plus he's got a decent amount of star power without being too expensive for Marvel. So, this is plausible, as crazy rumors go, but that doesn't even remotely mean that it's true. As such, we once again advise skepticism until we get more official confirmation. [Marvel Cinematic Universe]

Doctor Strange

Kevin Feige confirms that a Doctor Strange movie is a priority for Marvel Studios:

"Dr. Strange is something that I talk about often and it's sort of next up for us to dig into and explore. Our executive producer of Iron Man 3, having done Captain America: The First Avenger and as that was finishing he started working on the bones that would become Iron Man 3, and now that he's finished with Iron Man 3, he's working on the bones that would become Doctor Strange. Now that Iron Man 3 is finished, some of our quote-unquote spare time is going to be devoted to trying to crack Strange."

Snow Piercer

Captain America star Chris Evans offers this helpful overview of his upcoming post-apocalyptic train movie:

It takes place in the future. The whole world was frozen over and all of society lives on a train. It is kind of like an allegory for social classes and class warfare. The poorest people are in the back of the train and as you move forward in the train the classes rise. And there is a revolt, a revolution from the people in the back to the front of the train. We have such a good cast: Tilda Swinton, Ed Harris, Octavia Spencer, and John Hurt. It was just a great experience.

He also has some serious praise for the director Bong Joon-ho:

Director, Bong [Joon-ho], is just so good. He is so good. The way we shot the movie is so unique. Most times when you are doing a movie…like if you and I were doing a scene, we would start out doing the wide shot, do the whole scene, then we would do your coverage, the whole scene, then my coverage, and then the whole scene. And then the editor would find the cut and would spoon feed the rhythm and the pace to the audience. Director Bong has storyboards laid out so that…he has already edited it in his brain. For example, we will shoot the first line on you. We will shoot the second line on me. We will shoot the third line over here and you say, "Wait a minute. Don't you want the whole scene here?" and he is like. "No. Don't need it." He has already committed to an edit. It is brilliant. It is borderline genius. It's like building a house and instead of needing a bag of nails, it is like saying, "I need 53 nails." It is literally committing to a vision ahead of time. The trust that you feel is like, "God, this guy is operating on another plane." And I completely surrendered to it. You just completely commit to his vision and trust that he knows exactly what he is doing because he does.

[Collider]

Gravity

Here's the first footage from Children of Men director Alfonso Cuarón's stranded astronaut epic starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney. The first full trailer should be released soon.

After Earth

Here are a pair of promo photos from M. Night Shymalan and Will Smith's new film. These two spotlight costars Sophie Okonedo and Zoe Kravitz. [Coming Soon]

The Crow

Immortals star Luke Evans confirms that he will play the title character in the long-simmering remake, taking on a role that had previously been linked to Bradley Cooper, James McAvoy, and Alexander Skarsgaard, among many others. Here's what Evans has to say:

"[The Crow] was a very poignant film from my childhood, which I remember vividly. The soundtrack, also. It was such a solid performance that Brandon Lee gave. It was a very tragic end for somebody that probably would have had a very promising career... I'm Eric Draven. I'm the same character. Obviously, he's been refreshed and brought up to date. We're reimagining it to a certain extent, but the story and the plot is mostly the same."

[Coming Soon]

Doctor Who

Neil Gaiman offers this helpful setup for his episode, "Nightmare in Silver," which airs this Saturday:

The Doctor has been talked by Clara into taking the two kids she looks after, Artie and Angie, for an excursion, a day out, and he decides to take them to Hedgewick's World, the biggest, best and most wonderful amusement park in the galaxy, a quarter of a million years in the future, because he has a golden ticket and it gets four people in for free, gets you free ice creams and it gets you to the front of any line, which is great because the lines for the Spacey Zoomer can go on for weeks. And that's where it starts. Unfortunately, it also starts with them discovering that Hedgewick's World has been closed for several years and there's almost nobody on it now except for a small army troop on manoeuvres and a mad old showman named Mr Webley who landed his spaceship there after it closed and is now there with a Cyberman that plays chess. That's where it begins. This is also 1,000 years after the end of the big human/Cyberman war – where we won.

He also offers descriptions of three of the main guest characters:

Jason Watkins plays Mr Webley, this wonderful, slightly alcoholic old showman touring the universe with a waxworks and a chess-playing Cyberman. Warwick Davis is his henchman, who is called Porridge. He's affable, sweet and helps Webley and cannot wait to get off this planet. Tamzin Outhwaite is a captain named Alice Ferren who's in charge of the platoon doing troop exercises on an abandoned amusement park planet and as we discover, as the story goes on, it's actually a punishment platoon. They're all people who've got into trouble. She was sent there for disobeying orders. They're not the kind of crack troop you'd want if it so happened that a Cyberman moves in – a new model Cyberman that we haven't seen, who is absolutely lethal and hyper-intelligent.

[Radio Times]

The Walking Dead

The fourth season will reportedly feature a time jump of somewhere between three months and a year. [TV Line]

Person of Interest

Here's a promo for this Thursday's season finale, "God Mode."

Revolution

Here's a promo for the next episode and seventeenth overall, "The Longest Day."

Episode nineteen will reportedly be called "Children of Men." [SpoilerTV]

Supernatural

Showrunner Jeremy Carver offers this hint at what's ahead as the season winds down:

"You're definitely going to see much more of Naomi. I think what we have now is a slightly incomplete picture of who this angel is and what she wants. I think that is something that will continue to be refined."

[Zap2It]

The Vampire Diaries

Here's a teaser for the finale from costar Candice Accola:

"We're going to have a very dramatic season finale as the show always does. We will be closing a chapter, we might be saying goodbye to someone, but we're going to say hello to a new beginning."

[E! Online]

Defiance

Here's a promo and a sneak peek for next Monday's episode, "The Serpent's Egg."

Warehouse 13

Here's a promo for the next episode, "The Big Snag."

Additional reporting by Amanda Yesilbas and Charlie Jane Anders.

Damon Lindelof reveals the biggest story challenge of Star Trek Into Darkness, and the potential villains of Star Trek 3. Zoe Saldana gives an Avatar sequel update. A Doctor Who love interest joins Transformers 4. Plus Game of Thrones, Under the Dome, and Arrow! Spoilers ahoy!

Top image from The Walking Dead.

Star Trek Into Darkness

Co-writer Damon Lindelof explains why a major event in the first Star Trek meant the sequel could never unfold like the original series did, even on one of the most basic of levels:

The first question we were facing, just on a plot level, is can there be a five-year mission when Vulcan blew up? How did that attack — which is essentially a 9/11-like incident in Federation lore — change history? That should be the catalyst for everything that happens in the second movie, so that was the conversation that happened when we initially made the decision to destroy Vulcan, because it's a huge deal. The two key planets in the Federation are Vulcan and Earth, and now one of them is just gone, and it eradicated billions of lives, so we need to talk about that and understand what the ramifications are moving forward. Secondly, I think in the first series of meetings for the second movie, we knew what the first movie was, emotionally, and it was about these people getting to meet each other. It was a philosophical study of logic versus emotion, and ultimately landing on this idea that the two can't be separate. They need each other, and those ideas are represented by Kirk and Spock.

[MTV Movies Blog]

Here's a clip.

Star Trek 3

And looking further ahead, Damon Lindelof suggests the Klingons could well be the main enemy of the next Star Trek movie. Here's what he said, in response to a question about whether the team already has plans for the third film:

"I think that is a reasonable conclusion. You should always know where you've been, you should always know where you are, but most importantly, and I learned this from Lost, you should know where you're going... You can never see enough Klingons, and I think in this film we've given the audience a little taste, but there's also a promise that there's a larger conflict on the horizon, and that would be fun to see."

He also suggests that this new incarnation of the franchise could one day incorporate elements from The Next Generation:

You can't talk about Trek and not talk about the Borg, and certainly about Q. Very iconic adversaries from The Next Generation which is, outside of the original cast films, was my entry way into Star Trek, so I wouldn't mind getting – towards the end of our run on Star Trek, maybe baby Picard could be born. There has to be some sort of crossover we're not thinking of.

[Hey U Guys]

Star Wars: Episode VII

Bad Robot producer Bryan Burk says the movie will likely start filming in 2014:

We're progressing on a schedule to hopefully begin next year, or the beginning of next year, and the location is still kind of floating around in the air all depending on script and a whole bunch of other issues. As I just said, everything is kind of a free-flowing thing, and when we feel like the story level on this script and everything is really coming together and schedules are all working and pieces line up, we prowl ahead, and Star Wars will be no different.

[Collider]

So that's when the movie might start shooting, but what about where? Well, if you believe The Sun — which you probably shouldn't, but let's just roll with it — one filming location could be Scotland. The report quotes this supposed inside source, which might be bullshit, but what the hey:

“Location bosses feel Scotland possesses stunning scenery perfect for movie backdrops. They will look great on the big screen and the rock formations will replicate the perception of mountainous planets. It will be the first time Star Wars has ever been shot north of the border.”

Early location scouting is certainly conceivable, but it should be pointed out that Michael Arndt's screenplay probably still isn't finished yet, so the story could still change to the extent that Scottish exteriors would no longer make sense... again, assuming the original report is credible in the first place. Still, the thought of filming a Star Wars film in an actual location is an appealing one indeed. [The Sun]

Mark Hamill once again effortlessly proved that Mark Hamill is the best with a recent appearance at the CapeTown Film Festival, in which he discussed his own hopes for the next trilogy:

"I've only had one creative meeting about the new films, but I do remember saying, ‘We've got to find a proper balance between CGI and old school [FX]. That's what the challenge is, is to try and meet expectations of what you guys want. I think there's nothing wrong with CGI, but I think you have to have a balance, because the camera perceives the width and the depth and the weight – even if it's a miniature model, the camera just realizes that. So when you have too much CGI and the clouds are CGI and the trees are CGI and the buildings are CGI, you're getting to a point where the figure in the shot is like a hybrid of an animated film and live-action. And I want it to have an organic look so that we don't get into Roger Rabbit territory." He then added, with a laugh, "But I don't imagine that the priority is what I want!"

There's more general Mark Hamill awesomeness at the link, including a spirited defense of the prequels that might not be right, exactly, but is still eminently respectable. [IGN]

And screenwriter Simon Kinberg, whose previous credits include Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows and X-Men: Days of Future Past and who is currently working on a standalone Star Wars script, discusses his approach to the material:

We're really at the early phases of figuring out the details, but the spirit of the original movie is the thing I fell in love with, so it's the spirit of that that I think will guide us.

Larry Kasdan said that what sets the original movies apart is that they're more about people than the films that followed. Do you plan to take this new film back in that direction?
Completely. I think what worked so well in all of the "Star Wars" movies is the characters. I think the reason that they're different than other science fiction or other genre movies is because George [Lucas] created a universe of people that you wanted to go back and see over and over again, and that's why it's spanned and spawned so many different mediums, so many different generations, every different language. You want to go back and see those characters, like I did when I was a kid. "Empire Strikes Back" was the first movie I saw in a movie theater more than once. And I went back 10, 15 times in the theater, and I've seen it probably over a 100 times since. But I saw it that many times in the theater because I loved those characters. I loved Han, I loved Leia, I loved Luke, I was right at the age when I was old enough to start to understand the nuance of that movie. I think I was too young for "New Hope" when it came out in the theater, although I loved it and it was my favorite film until "Empire." And then really, that changed my life, that movie.

[Hero Complex]

Man of Steel

Here's a TV spot.

Also, for a bit of speculation that Krypton is destroyed after all, go here.

And here are some pictures from a children's book called Man of Steel: The Early Years, which show off more of Clark Kent's childhood, including the science fair he enters and the bullying he endures as a kid. Tons more here. [Comic Book Movie via Comic Book Resources]

Avatar 2 and 3

Star Zoe Saldana suggests 2014 is a likely filming date for the two sequels:

"I think that they're doing a part two and a part three and they're probably going to shoot it at the same time...If we just do two and then wait, I'll probably be 45 or 50 by the time we get to part three. It takes a long time, it's a very hard process."

[Digital Spy]

Transformers 4

Sophia Myles, who played Erika in the Underworld movies and Madame de Pompadour in the Doctor Who episode "The Girl In The Fireplace, has reportedly been cast in a major supporting role, possibly a scientist. She joins a cast that already includes Mark Wahlberg, Stanley Tucci, Kelsey Grammer, Nicola Peltz, and Jack Reynor. [The Wrap]

The latest reports indicate that at least two cast members from the original trilogy will appear in this new incarnation of the franchise, as both Tyrese Gibson and Josh Duhamel are reportedly in line to make cameo appearances in the film. [TFW 2005]

Game of Thrones

Here's a promo for the next episode, "The Bear and the Maiden Fair."

The Walking Dead

Here's a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the fourth season, focused on the "Zombie School."

Under the Dome

Comics genius Brian K. Vaughan, who is the showrunner of CBS's summer adaptation of the Stephen King novel, explains the structure of the season and how the series might depart from the book:

"The first section is fate. The second section is fear. And the third section is fascism. I won't say who is the fascist or what exactly that means, but I think you get the sense that things are going to go wrong very quickly under the dome, and we're going to need an iron fist keeping order... There's sort of a perhaps slightly different explanation for the dome. I nervously pitched Stephen King what a different version of the ending might be. He was very supportive of it, and very complimentary. He said, ‘I wish I'd thought of that.' Which I suspect is just Stephen being kind, but he's been great."

[SFX]

Revolution

Creator Eric Kripke discusses what's ahead on the show, starting with another battle between Miles and Monroe:

"They have another confrontation and sure enough they come to blows, but we were also interested in: Can we basically lock them up in a situation where they're equally armed and equally matched — and not only are they trying to beat the crap out of each other - but forced into a situation where they have to talk to each other? And so we play that out... Anything's possible on this show. We are a show that takes place in a very dangerous world and there are high body counts. We've always said from the beginning — and to their credit, Bad Robot and the network have always been supportive of it — is we have to prove over and over again that this is a dangerous world, which means no one in our principal cast can be truly safe. We keep that tension alive."

[EW]

Once Upon a Time

Here's the description for the season finale, "And Straight On 'Til Morning," which airs May 12:

THE INHABITANTS OF STORYBROOKE BRACE FOR THE END WHEN THE ANNIHILATION OF THE TOWN BECOMES IMMINENT, MR. GOLD MOURNS THE LOSS OF HIS SON, AND HOOK DISCOVERS A CONNECTION TO A YOUNG BAE IN NEVERLAND, ON THE SEASON FINALE OF ABC'S "ONCE UPON A TIME" — The inhabitants of Storybrooke brace themselves for the end when Greg and Tamara detonate the trigger Regina had placed within the curse, with the annihilation of the town and its residents imminent; and Mr. Gold mourns the loss of his son, Bae/Neal. Meanwhile, back in Neverland of the past, Hook discovers his connection to a young Bae after he rescues him from the sea and soon realizes that the Lost Boys are in hot pursuit of the boy.

[SpoilerTV]

And here's a promo and a sneak peek.

Arrow

Executive producer Andrew Kreisberg explains why this week's episode is just as much a season finale as next week's actual finale:

"For us, episode 22, in a way, is the season finale and episode 23 is the feature film that gets released over the summer. [Episode] 22 would be the finale on any other series and 23 would take it to a whole different level. It's bigger, we spent more time on it, we had additional shooting days, we shot on old Watchmen sets, we spent a lot more money on it, so it feels bigger and epic and it almost feels like a big summer movie. In the comic books, Merlyn is his greatest nemesis. He's the Joker to Green Arrow's Batman. So it felt natural and right that it should come down to the two of them. But it's not just a fisticuffs. There are a lot of emotions tied up in their relationship."

[EW]

Additional reporting by Amanda Yesilbas and Charlie Jane Anders.

Kevin Feige reveals why Captain America can't necessarily trust his own allies in The Winter Soldier and whether new superheroes will show up in S.H.I.E.L.D. Michael Caine joins Christopher Nolan's Interstellar, because obviously. A familiar mutant is seen on the X-Men: Days of Future Past set. Spoilers right now!

Top image from Star Trek Into Darkness.

Star Trek Into Darkness

Benedict Cumberbatch discusses the complexities of his villainous character:

Well I describe him as a ‘home-grown terrorist.’ He’s somebody who has the most extraordinary proficient ability as a warrior with close hand combat and weaponry. But also with psychological warfare – like a master chessman he can… or I should say chess player, chessman could be a piece I guess! He’s a tactician with the most extraordinary kind of mind and ability to manipulate a situation and get people to trust him and do his bidding almost actually, a Hannibal Lecterish quality I guess. There’s no tricks involved, it is purely about knowing the person and the dynamic that they’re part of. And that means that within the range of acting I got to do I had the great boy/man thrill running around and doing a lot of live action stunts, with wire work and carefully choreographed and rehearsed fight scenes and chases. And that’s the great thing about the film – there’s lots of live action and stuff that is not CG. It’s very much real and gravitationally bound in some parts as well, and earthbound. And then on top of that, the icing of the cake and the real treat and meat of it as well was to have really juicy acting scenes as well.

He expands on just why his character has his sympathetic aspects:

But there will be a reveal in the… piece – I was about to say play! But it’s interesting that I was going to say play because there is an aspect of it where it is much more of a morality play, the kind of depth of story is much more in tune with the original series I think than had previously been the case in this type of genre film. But anyway that’s detracting from what I was saying which was… what I said about being a terrorist. I think I definitely touched on this in front of you guys this morning [a press conference]... Well basically I believe like modern terrorism, and there sadly a lot of parallels that make this very relevant. It’s not that the means may be disgusting, the level of violence and death and destruction and distress caused. But often the intentions are noble – and I mean that in the broadest sense. It’s an underdog fighting a superpower. It’s a minority. And elements of that superpower can get corrupted; in this case it’s Starfleet. And he believes in what he is doing and hopefully at the point where that’s explained it might garner some sympathy.

Be sure to check out the rest of the interview, as Cumberbatch comes out swinging throughout the entire piece. [Click Online]

Here's an interview with Bones actor Karl Urban.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Marvel Studios head honcho Kevin Feige offers some hints about the sequel's character dynamics in the print edition of Entertainment Weekly:

"With the Greatest Generation and World War II, there's a tendency to reflect on that period and say, 'Things were black and white back then, and now it's hard to know who the bad guys are. We wanted to play on that a little with Cap being uncomfortable with the way SHIELD, and in particular Nick Fury, operates."

Also, Feige offers some general praise for the sequel, particularly its directors Chris and Anthony Russo:

We always like to break and up until people started seeing the new “Iron Man” movie, people were accusing us of going “All Dark Knight” with it and I kept saying, “That’s not what we’re doing.” It’s sort of how we were advertising it, but in the same way, we really believe that humor is necessary and to have a whole range of emotions over the course of a movie. You can get frightened, you can get deeply emotionally attached, but all those things happen more if you’re laughing and engaged throughout the journey.

That being said, the Russos are incredibly talented filmmakers and have that full range. You don’t get Robert Redford if you don’t have a vision that can explain to him before he signs up to your movie. This is on top of Scarlett Johansson and Sam Jackson and Chris Evans. Everyone now as we’re in the middle of our fifth week of production and it’s going extremely well, they’re bringing a lot to the table. I like that our unconventional choices, they’re only unconventional until the movie comes out and then every studio in town hires our filmmakers and they go onto bigger tentpoles from there. I’m very happy when that happens. Kenneth Branagh is starting his second post-“Thor” franchise at Disney now with “Cinderella” and he finished “Jack Ryan” for Paramount and when we were hiring him, people were wondering what was going on. The Russos I think will surprise a lot of people but they’re just incredibly hard-working, incredibly talented and keeping their heads down five weeks into making a great movie.

There's plenty more at the link. [Superhero Hype]

Ant-Man

From the same interview, Kevin Feige delves into the genesis of Edgar Wright's planned Ant-Man movie, hinting it could be a real departure from anything else Marvel Studios has done:

Well, it’s for a couple of reasons. The primary reason is because I met a very talented filmmaker who was about my age almost ten years ago, we got along very well. He had a movie called “Shaun of the Dead” which hadn’t come out yet and he said he really wanted to meet to talk about “Ant-Man”… and this was even before we were on the studio. This was just at the dawn of us even discussing becoming our own studio. But we met with him, he had a cool idea and when we became our own studio, we hired him and Joe Cornish, who as you know, went on to do “Attack the Block” and become a very talented filmmaker in his own right. At the time he hadn’t done much at all but we really believed in him and we believed in Edgar and they delivered a draft that was sort of unlike anything we’d done before that was sort of wholly Edgar and wholly Marvel and a very fun spin on the Ant-Man mythology. And if you’ve seen the in-progress test we showed at Comic-Con last year and there’s been some clips of it we’ve released. People go like, “Ant-Man, is that a joke? What happens? He talks to ants?” And Edgar and his team put together this test of basically just Ant-Man going down the hallway and it is so kick-ass and so bad-ass, people instantly go, “Oh, I get it! Now we see what it can be.” And that of course is only 1% of what the movie is, but it’s certainly enough to get people to realize, “Oh, that’s why you’ve been thinking about this for so long.”

Check out the link for more. [Superhero Hype]

Guardians of the Galaxy

Here's a video interview with Star Trek actress Zoe Saldana, in which she confirms she will physically portray her Guardians role of Gamora with green makeup, rather than with motion capture. [Total Film]

The Avengers 2

Kevin Feige offers this hint about the franchise's future in the latest print edition of Entertainment Weekly:

"All of the Avengers from the first movie will be back and they will be the core team, but what's fun is that the roster shifts. It was always the intention to have a story line that brought in, obviously, new bad guys and potentially new heroes."

X-Men: Days of Future Past

Director Bryan Singer tweeted a photo of Ellen Page back on set as Kitty Pryde. Check it out here.

Interstellar

In what has to be just about the least surprising news imaginable, Michael Caine will reportedly appear in Christopher Nolan's upcoming science fiction epic. This will be the sixth straight Nolan film in which Caine appears, following on from the Dark Knight trilogy, The Prestige, and Inception. Caine will appear alongside Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, and the recently reported Jessica Chastain. [Deadline]

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige says the show could potentially be used to introduce previously unseen superheroes, but it doesn't sound like a major priority:

“If that works the way everyone expects it to work I think that would open up another avenue, another outlet for some of those characters. Maybe they guest star, I don’t know. I think they’re avoiding the cameo of the week on that show, which is very smart.”

[EW]

Game of Thrones

Here are synopses for the last two episodes of the season, which air June 2 and June 9. [SpoilerTV]

Episode 3.09 - The Rains of Castamere
Robb presents himself to Walder Frey, and Edmure meets his bride. Jon faces his harshest test yet. Bran discovers a new gift. Daario and Jorah debate how to take Yunkai. House Frey joins with House Tully.

Episode 3.10 - Mhysa
Joffrey challenges Tywin. Bran tells a ghost story. In Dragonstone, mercy comes from strange quarters. Dany waits to see if she is a conqueror or a liberator.

True Blood

Here's a trailer for the sixth season.

Here are brief synopses for the first three episodes, which will air June 16, June 23, and June 30 respectively:

Episode 6.01 - “Who Are You, Really?”
Bill’s bloody reincarnation ushers in a new era for vampires, faeries and humans alike.

Episode 6.02 - The Sun
Sookie meets a handsome stranger; Eric takes on the governor; Bill contemplates his new powers.

Episode 6.03 - You’re No Good
Bill looks for a solution to an impending catastrophe; Eric takes a hostage, while Sam tries to recover one.

Revolution

Here's a sneak peek at the next episode, "Love Boat."

Once Upon a Time

Michael Raymond-James discusses whether Neal will learn the truth about Tamara before season's end:

Emma continues down the road of trying to wake Neal up. She has suspicions that are clearly founded — but she doesn't have hard facts yet — and she'll continue to try to convince Neal. Neal's going to struggle with being able to accept that.

What's the likelihood of Neal and Emma getting back together?
My take is that nothing is off the table. What I mean by that is that it's all on the table, anything can happen. These are two people who care deeply about each other and they have a complex history but they also share a child and they have those unresolved feelings and issues that they haven't been begun to address. Anything can happen. They could end up together or they could end up friends who co-parent together or not. It could go any number of directions. I would get in a lot of trouble if I narrowed it down.

[Live Feed]

Elsewhere, Raymond-James discusses whether Neal still feels guilty about what he did to Emma all those years ago:

Yes. I think he does, but Neal feels that he really didn’t have a choice in the mater. It was a matter of her fulfilling her destiny and for the greater good. I mean, we’re talking about her saving a town full of people that I grew up with, people from Fairytale Land, so these aren’t total strangers where I can be like, “Screw them. This is about me and my love.” So, in Neal’s mind he was sort of jumping on the grenade for the greater good. But of course there’s guilt. Of course there’s pain for having inflicted pain on someone you care about. I don’t know how you get beyond that.

[TV Line]

Orphan Black

Creator Graeme Manson discusses what's ahead on the show, starting with Paul and Sarah's relationship:

Paul’s got some surprises up his sleeve, for sure, and Sarah’s been playing pretty fast and loose with Paul. But she’s probably denying a certain amount of attraction with Paul. And certainly, Paul has been knocked off kilter as he was falling back for Beth only to discover that it was Sarah. So he’s got a whole pack of worms on his hands with her and his emotions with her, as well as they’re under the eye, apparently, of a larger conspiracy.

We’ve met so many clones already. Are there more that you hope to introduce?
There’s always the chance of another clone, but we’re very [cautious about] overdosing. It’s not a clone-of-the-week show. It’s a character drama. It’s a sci-fi character drama that happens to be populated by clones. They’re not cannon fodder. We don’t have a lot of red shirts — but maybe a few.

You brought up the idea of monitors watching them. How’s that going to influence the other clones’ storylines? We’ve seen Sarah’s monitor, Paul, but obviously there’s others…
We’ll see who all has a monitor. The first thing they have to do is find that out, so I don’t want to go too far into that. But it’s an onion, and there’s layers to peel back. So whether or not they all have one, that’s certainly a first step into our mystery.

There's more at the link. [TV Line]

Falling Skies

Here are a couple teasers from stars Noah Wyle and Moon Bloodgood:

Wyle: I wanted to make sure there was a bit of a learning curve to his ability to lead and to be an orator. He’s gonna get stronger as the season goes on. He’s gonna get more comfortable in the role. [At the beginning of the season] he’s sort of acting presidential, rather than being presidential, but he gets better.

Bloodgood: Something’s very wrong [with the baby]. Anne doesn’t know what it is. She starts to investigate. People start to think it’s postpartum depression on my part. Everyone thinks I’m kind of nuts. But the baby is only acting peculiar around me. So what I do in my own mind is think, ‘Is something wrong with me or is something wrong with the child?’

[EW]

Defiance

Stars Jaime Murray and Tony Curran discuss how the relationship between their characters, Stahma and Datak, develops:

Murray: I feel like it’s a period piece even though it’s 35 years in the future. It’s a very patriarchal society. Stahma is repressed. It’s a society in which “her role is as a breeder and a bleeder.” It’s complicated by coming from a strict caste system. Datak would almost have been an untouchable and Stahma is almost royalty. They would never have been together on their home world. It’s a bit of a power struggle. She is more highly educated and she sees the longer game. He’s shrewd and sharp. He’s had to live on his wits. She has to suggest ways of dealing with things. He’s sometimes more at the whim of his emotions. She has to avoid hurting his pride.

Curran: As the season progresses, you see interesting dynamics develop. Stahma and Datak are coming from a different planet and very different ends of a cultural spectrum. They’re trying to re-invent themselves. Stahma wouldn’t have had as much power in their home world. She keeps his temper in check. Datak begins to wisen up to Stahma’s cunning. She’s a refined tool while he’s a blunt instrument.

Murray: We all wear masks, but Stahma wears the mask all of the time. She loves him but she never takes it off. It just “slips” slightly at times.

There's a bunch more at the link. [SpoilerTV]

Warehouse 13

Here's a sneak peek at tonight's episode, "Parks and Rehabilitation."

Beauty and the Beast

Here's a preview for the next episode, "Date Night." [KSiteTV]

Additional reporting by Katharine Trendacosta and Charlie Jane Anders.

Located roughly 5,000 light-years from our solar system, NGC 6559 isn't one of the galaxy's bigger stellar nurseries, only measuring a few light-years across. But it packs a whole lot of cosmic chaos into that relatively small patch of space, as stars keep popping up inside the cloud.

You can see into NGC 6559 with this new image from the La Silla Observatory in Chile. As with just about everything else in the universe, the cloud is primarily composed of hydrogen atoms, but it's some of the other elements found inside the cloud that gives it all its amazing colors. The European Southern Observatory explains:

These brilliant hot young stars born out of the cloud energize the hydrogen gas still present around them in the nebula. The gas then re-emits this energy, producing the glowing threadlike red cloud seen near the center of the image. This object is known as an emission nebula.

But NGC 6559 is not just made out of hydrogen gas. It also contains solid particles of dust, made of heavier elements, such as carbon, iron or silicon. The bluish patch next to the red emission nebula shows the light from the recently formed stars being scattered — reflected in many different directions — by the microscopic particles in the nebula. Known to astronomers as a reflection nebula, this type of object usually appears blue because the scattering is more efficient for these shorter wavelengths of light.

For more, including a complete, hi-res look at the entire cosmic vista, check out the ESO website.

No, we're not quite at the point where baboons can tackle calculus or trigonometry, but they do show an ability to count that's at least as good as that of a human child, as this video from the University of Rochester reveals.

Assistant professor Jessica Cantlon and her team worked with eight olive baboons to see how well they could guess the number of peanuts in a cup. Between one and eight peanuts were placed in a pair of cups, and then the baboons were encouraged to pick the larger of the two quantities. When the difference between the two cups was small — say only one more peanut in one cup compared to the other — then the monkeys only guessed right 55 percent of the time, but that jumped up to 75 percent when the difference in peanuts became more noticeable. That shows a rudimentary ability to count on par with that of a small child. Here's what Cantlon has to say about the experiment:

"The human capacity for complex symbolic math is clearly unique to our species. But where did this numeric prowess come from? In this study we've shown that non-human primates also possess basic quantitative abilities. In fact, non-human primates can be as accurate at discriminating between different quantities as a human child. This tells us that non-human primates have in common with humans a fundamental ability to make approximate quantity judgments. Humans build on this talent by learning number words and developing a linguistic system of numbers, but in the absence of language and counting, complex math abilities do still exist."

For more on this experiment, check out the University of Rochester.

Plus, crucial new details are revealed for the upcoming season finale. Two more stars for Guardians of the Galaxy are confirmed. Christopher Nolan chooses a Best Actress nominee to be the third star of Interstellar. Plus new videos for Star Trek Into Darkness and Man of Steel! Spoilers... right now!

Top image from Iron Man 3.

Star Trek Into Darkness

Here's a 3D trailer.

Man of Steel

Here's a TV spot. [IGN]

Iron Man 3

For a final thought on the film, let's go to composer Brian Tyler Ushers, who explains how the music for this film is a departure from previous Marvel movies:

This was the first Iron Man movie that comes in a post-Avengers world so the tone has changed in terms of the stakes are higher now and so they wanted a new voice for the series. And the thing that Marvel had talked about really wanting to go for was they wanted a very thematic, melodic score that was somewhat of a throwback to earlier scores. The vibe was to be more like Raiders of the Lost Ark and things like that where you have a really hum-able theme and there was a change in Tony Stark in the sense that now there's so much more at stake in this post-Avengers world. Like we're under threat from not only domestic terror and that kind of thing, but there's aliens involved because of the Avengers and we have other worldly threats. Everything has become kind of larger than life so when they were looking for someone they, Shane [Black] the director and Kevin [Feige] at Marvel and Stephen Broussard [Executive Producer] and many of the people that were really heavily involved, Dave Jordan [Music Supervisor], all these people are really heavily involved in the music for the film and the thing that they gravitated towards was how I write themes. So I was brought in under that understanding that we would try to really create the theme for Iron Man that now related to him and the Avengers – a theme that could kind of tie it all together.

[Film School Rejects]

Thor: The Dark World

Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige discusses Thor's continuing journey and director Alan Taylor's approach to the material:

"Tony Stark wasn't perfect at the end of Iron Man 1, and I don't think Thor is perfect at the end of Thor 1 — particularly in his relationship with his brother, considering what he went through in Avengers... Alan [Taylor] is bringing a grittier, more visceral, more textured patina to the designs of the worlds, and to Asgard in particular. It's less to chase either Game of Thrones or Lord of the Rings — because you're not going to catch up. But part of the fun of Thor over the other characters is he doesn't have to stay on Earth. We visit a few of the other realms in this new movie."

[EW]

Guardians of the Galaxy

Kevin Feige confirms two casting rumors — Star Trek's Zoe Saldana will indeed play Gamora and WWE wrestler-turned-actor Dave Bautista will play Drax the Destroyer. Here are Feige's general thoughts on the film:

"Guardians takes place within the continuity of the [other movies] but it's on the other side of the universe. We've always wanted to do a space movie. I'm obsessed with Star Wars, I'm obsessed with Star Trek. It's a huge story on a massive canvas. We can take it to all those crazy places as long as all the characters respond in an emotionally truthful way. That's why I believe people are going to respond to Chris Pratt and to an alien Zoë Saldana-because they did respond to that one time before [with Avatar]. And to a tree and a raccoon who, it is certainly our intention, will steal the whole movie."

He also explains why Parks and Recreation actor Chris Pratt was somewhat unexpectedly cast as Star Lord:

"He's a hilariously frumpy, doofy guy in Parks and Rec, and he's an incredibly kickass ripped guy in Zero Dark Thirty and that's pretty awesome. He's going to need that in Guardians. That's a big range right there. We did a lot of auditions, a lot of screen tests, just as we did for Thor, just as we did for Cap. [Pratt] was hilarious, he was moving, he was... you bought him in the early versions of the outfit. One of the reasons Bautista got the part was because his banter, and ad libs, and screen tests with Pratt were awesome."

[EW]

Meanwhile, Zoe Saldana discusses her casting as team member Gamora:

"I'm gonna be green! [Laughs] I'm really looking forward to it. I just met James Gunn in person this week and I think that he's the best director to be making this film. I wasn't [aware of the comic] either and my sister was the one who told me about it! I think it's always worked for me to learn as I go. The moment I get the job, that's when I start doing the research and I end up falling completely in love with the franchise. I do know that I loved the script. I got along with James Gunn from talking to him on the phone and I love the cast selection that they have. Chris Pratt is gonna be an amazing Star-Lord, I can feel it."

[Comic Book Movie]

Ant-Man

Kevin Feige offers this update on where Edgar Wright's long-simmering Ant-Man movie currently stands:

"Frankly, now we have to re-write it to put it a little bit more into the [Marvel Cinematic Universe] because it was written before it existed. We've talked about various names [to play the lead] over the past eight years but as you can imagine they keep changing as time goes by. But towards the end of this year, we'll buckle down and start casting and start refining the script, which is great and which is very Edgar. He has done a great job being incredibly true to the comics but is putting his own spin on it, so we'll be drawing on multiple mythologies for this one."

[EW]

Interstellar

Christopher Nolan has reportedly found the third lead for his space and maybe time travel adventure, which already stars Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway. Joining that cast is reportedly Zero Dark Thirty star Jessica Chastain, although there's no additional information about the nature of her role or even really what the film's about. [Deadline]

Doctor Who

Here's a sneak peek clip for tomorrow's episode, "The Crimson Horror."

The latest issue of Doctor Who Magazine reveals the returning guest stars for the season finale, "The Name of the Doctor," will include Madame Vastra, Strax, Jenny, Richard E. Grant's Dr. Simeon in a "posthumous" capacity, and River Song, who will apparently come from a time after the Library in her timeline, so all bets are off. Here's the magazine's description of the episode:

"Every journey taken by a time-traveller tears a wound in the fabric of reality, and the Doctor has time-travelled more than anyone. But the trail runs cold in Trenzalore, the one place in all of time and space that he should never go. The most dangerous place in the universe... Who is kidnapping the Doctor's friends, leading him to Trenzalore? Could the Fall of the Eleventh be nigh? Or does an impossible girl hold the key? The Doctor's past, present, and future lives are in grave danger... and his greatest secret is about to be revealed."

And here's a quote from the episode that you really have to assume comes from the Doctor:

"The path I carved through time and space, from Gallifrey to Trenzalore. My own personal time tunnel, leading back to every moment I ever lived. Every step, every tear, every kiss. Even the days I haven't lived yet. Which is why I shouldn't be here. The paradoxes... very bad..."

[Blogtor Who]

Moving onto the currently filming 50th Anniversary special, here's a set video that reveals a very familiar, very awesome sign: 76 Totter's Lane, the home of I.M. Foreman, Scrap Merchant, which is where the series began way back in 1963. Indeed, the police officer walking past the sign appears to be a visual shout-out to the constable who appeared in the very first shot of "An Unearthly Child." So, for those worried about the lack of past Doctors — and yeah, it's pretty much confirmed now that only Matt Smith and David Tennant will appear — this is still one hell of a beautiful nod to the show's past.

Supernatural

Here's a promo and a sneak peek for the next episode, "Clip Show."

Arrow

Here's a promo for next week's penultimate episode of the season, "Darkness on the Edge of Town."

The Vampire Diaries

Showrunner Julie Plec discusses what to expect from the fourth season finale:

"It's difficult to throw an event in Mystic Falls without it going catastrophically awry, but one of the things that was really important to us is that we do give this event itself its due," says executive producer Julie Plec, who cowrote the episode with Caroline Dries. "We approached this episode, in its own way, like a series finale because our character's graduating from high school is a shift in the show to open up a lot of new storytelling opportunities and new environments. So we really wanted to be able to get all the emotion out of this episode that we could before we move on to a different life. We made sure that in spite of everything that's going on in the midst of it, we still get those great friendship moments and nostalgia moments that I, as a fan of TV over the decades, loved so much on high school shows as you reached that milestone. There will definitely be an altercation resulting in some blood loss, but that's about all I can say."

[EW]

Defiance

Here's a sneak peek at the next episode, "A Well-Respected Man."

Futurama

Game of Thrones star Emilia Clarke will appear in the second-to-last episode as a flower stand owner who falls in love with Dr. Zoidberg in part because she has no sense of smell. Here's co-creator David X. Cohen's breakdown of the character:

"She falls in love with Dr. Zoidberg - the smelliest character on Earth in the future - but she can't smell him, so it's a match made in heaven. However, being a doctor, he has the opportunity to perform a nose transplant and give her a sense of smell, which would destroy their romance, so it's a big dilemma."

[EW]

Additional reporting by Amanda Yesilbas and Charlie Jane Anders.

Zack Snyder explains why Superman and his fellow D.C. characters are special among superheroes. An Avengers 2 rumor is confirmed... maybe. Check out the latest Star Trek Into Darkness videos. Steven Moffat offers new hints about the Doctor Who finale. Spoilers from here on out!

Top image from Doctor Who.

Star Trek Into Darkness

Here are two more TV spots. [Coming Soon]

And here's a behind-the-scenes video focused on the Klingons. [MTV Movies Blog]

Man of Steel

Director Zack Snyder discusses the appeal of the D.C. Comics characters in general and Superman in particular:

They truly are purer archetypes. They're literally Biblical. If you get the DC characters right, they can be important, they can be about us. It's not just a romp. That's the fun, for me, of working on this movie. We got that it was important. We weren't apologizing for Superman, which I feel happened in the past. It's Superman, for God's sake. He's a thing to be celebrated.

And his wife and producer Deborah Snyder discusses the thinking behind Superman's costume:

What was important for Zack was that the costume did not come out of nowhere. It had to have a reason. We go to Krypton and see this world where everything had its place. If they're in space he wanted it to feel like a space suit, and he wanted it to feel like the underlayer that they would maybe put armor over. It's also a caped society, so when you go to Krypton he wanted to see variations of this costume. Finally, when Clark finds the costume and puts it on, you've established where it comes from.

[Comic Book Movie]

The Avengers 2

A recent Entertainment Weekly cover story on Iron Man 3 mentions that they have confirmed with a source that, just as Joss Whedon recently hinted, Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver will indeed join the team for The Avengers 2. For his part, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige would only say this:

“I’m not confirming or denying. The draft could change six months from now.”

Although that seems like a pretty standard denial, it's actually a good reminder that we're still at such an early stage that entire characters could indeed be added to or removed from the film, so it's still probably too early to say the pair will definitively appear in the sequel. [EW]

Black Panther

This is coming from a somewhat shaky source, so I would take this rumor with the usual grain of salt, but a new name has emerged as a contender to play T'Challa, and it's actually fairly plausible. Chadwick Boseman, who just got decent reviews for playing Jackie Robinson in 42, is reportedly a candidate for the role, and he makes more sense than a lot of other possibilities inasmuch as he's a relatively young, up-and-coming actor who has already been the star of a decently successful film. That doesn't mean anything, especially when Black Panther doesn't seem to be a priority for Marvel even as much as, say, Doctor Strange is, but Boseman at least seems like the sort of actor Marvel would choose for the role. [Latino Review]

Transformers 4

Kelsey Grammer, best known for playing Frasier Crane and Sideshow Bob and more recently known for emphatically not winning an Emmy for Boss, has reportedly joined the cast of Michael Bay's fourth Transformers movie as the primary human villain. He will reportedly play "Harold Attinger, a counter intelligence guy." This sets up the big confrontation between Mark Wahlberg and Kelsey Grammer that I never realized I wanted to see, but I now know will be the greatest scene in cinema history, even if it does happen within the context of Transformers 4. Seriously, Dirk Diggler vs. Frasier Crane should be one hell of a fight. [Deadline]

R.I.P.D.

Screenwriters Matt Manfredi and discuss how the film about two undead cops evolved from their original script to the finished cut:

Manfredi: A lot of the core scenes from our early drafts are still there. They’ve remained through every version of the script. I think where it changed a little bit from the first draft to the last draft is that it just got bigger and bigger in scope. And so, the finale was a smaller set piece in our first draft and it developed. We were in a meeting recently, and we were like, “do you remember when this ended on a farm, like Witness?” (laughs) It also evolved in terms of screenplay structure and in terms of the desire for more spectacle. Things had to build and build, and it got bigger.

Hay: But in this case it’s like the core scenes that are the soul of the movie. Interestingly, so much around it changed as we pursued different avenues, and got more interested in certain characters and others fell by the way side. But there were these anchor scenes that are all about the relationship between Nick and Roy – the characters that are played by Ryan [Reynolds] and Jeff [Bridges] – that relationship has always been the guiding light of this movie. Because, really, what we realized, is that in the trailer, you see a lot of great spectacle in there. But in the movie, it’s a lot of two guys driving around in a car together and driving each other insane. That’s what this movie is and what’s it’s always been. I think that Jeff and Ryan do incredibly well together.

There's a bunch more at the link. [Collider]

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

For what has to be the fifth or sixth time, this cursed project has crawled its way back out of the grave with a new director and potentially a new star. Yes, after losing David O. Russell, Mike White, Craig Gillepsie, Natalie Portman, and maybe even Bradley Cooper, the adaptation of Seth Grahame-Smith's adaptation of the Jane Austen novel is reportedly moving ahead, although the movie's directorial pedigree has now slid all the way from "The guy who made The Fighter and Silver Linings Playbook" to "The guy who made Charlie St. Cloud... you know, that movie where Zac Efron has a brother and a sailboat, or something." Yes, Burr Steers — who, to his credit, also wrote and directed the rather better received Igby Goes Down — is reportedly the movie's new director, and Mirror Mirror star Lily Collins is reportedly in line to play Elizabeth Bennet. So, that all sounds great, at least until the thing inevitably collapses again in a month or two. [Variety]

Doctor Who

Here's a preview clip for this Saturday's episode, "The Crimson Horror."

Steven Moffat offers this preview of his season finale, "The Name of the Doctor":

We've only just finished shooting the actual completed ending – it's ridiculously secret – but it's quite a thing, hopefully. There's often an element of throwing in some lovely names, and then figuring it out later, but I've always had a sort of plan for the Doctor and Trenzalore. Things will be resolved. Things I've left hanging in plain sight – and sometimes not in plain sight – will be tied up...

[Doctor Who News]

Once Upon a Time

Here's a sneak peak at this Sunday's episode, "Second Star to the Right." There's also a synopsis included below. [TV Line and SpoilerTV]

"Second Star to the Right" - Emma, Mary Margaret and David go in search of Regina when they discover that she - along with some magic beans - have gone missing. But against Neal's protests, Emma still believes that Tamara had something to do with Regina's disappearance; and Mr. Gold contemplates telling Lacey the truth about his ability to conjure magic. Meanwhile, after Rumplestiltskin abandons his son and lets him travel alone through a portal, young Bae finds himself back in 19th century London and is taken in by the Darling family — befriending their daughter Wendy.

Arrow

Showrunner Andrew Kriesberg discusses one set of characters they hope to use, as well as what to expect from the rest of the season:

The Suicide Squad is definitely something we've discussed with DC Comics. There's no definitive plans right now to introduce Amanda Waller, but certainly we carefully chose A.R.G.U.S. and did not make Lyla Michaels work for the FBI or CIA. A.R.G.U.S. is the S.H.I.E.L.D. of the DC Universe, and it felt like a fun thing to introduce into our world. And we hope it'll play a bigger role in Season 2.

Even as Ollie lost touch with Dig in this episode, it seemed like you guys were setting the stage for Thea and Roy to join up with him. Can you talk about how much their hunt for the vigilante is going to be a focus in these episodes?
Everything that we've set up in the last couple episodes is going to play out in the final three. Everyone is sort of on a collision course. Oliver with his mother and Malcolm, and Thea and Roy closing in on Oliver. There's big, emotional stakes coming up and a lot of conflicts and relationships coming these characters' way in the last couple of episodes.

He also discusses what's ahead with the flashbacks:

The final two episodes are the culmination of the first year of Oliver's adventures on the island. When last we left them, Yao Fei had seemingly betrayed them. Oliver, Shado and Slade are now back in Fyer's grip, as it were. We'll find out what Fyers' ultimate plan is. We get a brief glimpse of who he's working for. And it's really Oliver's first step towards becoming the hero he is today.

So in terms of the flashbacks, is the plan for every season to generally explore one year of Ollie's life on the island.
Yeah, that's the current plan. We always thought that the flashbacks would run throughout the entire series, and that the very last flashback in the last episode of the series would be Oliver seeing the boat that rescued him in the pilot, so that it was one, long, continuous loop. It's really two long series going on simultaneously.

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

Falling Skies

TNT has released descriptions for every episode of season three, which is sure nice of them. Here's the complete, lengthy rundown:

Season Premiere Part 1: "On Thin Ice" – Sunday, June 9, at 9 p.m. (ET/PT) – TV-14-LSV
Season three of Falling Skies opens seven months after the 2nd Mass arrived in Charleston. In the interim, Tom has been elected to political office, but he has his hands full as the resistance continues to battle the alien invaders. Tom's decision to have the rebel skitters fight alongside humans creates tension and raises suspicions that someone may be feeding secrets to the enemy. Meanwhile, Hal struggles with nightmares that seem so real, he has difficulty knowing if he's awake or dreaming. And Tom and Anne prepare to welcome their baby. Terry O'Quinn and Gloria Reuben guest star.

Season Premiere Part 2: "Collateral Damage" – Sunday, June 9, at 10 p.m. (ET/PT) – TV-14-LV
With hostilities escalating between the resistance and the alien invaders, Tom calls on a nuclear specialist (guest star Robert Sean Leonard) known as "The Rat King" to come up with a plan that will strip the aliens of their power. As suspicion continues to mount about a mole within the resistance, Tom and his leaders make a drastic decision that jeopardizes trust among the group. Anne, meanwhile, has a feeling that all is not right with her newborn. Gloria Reuben also guest stars.

"Badlands" – Sunday, June 16, at 10 p.m. (ET/PT) – TV-14-LV
The two-year anniversary of the alien invasion is fast approaching as the people of Charleston prepare for another potentially devastating offensive. A sniper attack by an unlikely gunman creates questions and doubts within the new government. Hal believes he knows the identity of the mole. And Anne's concern for her baby continues to grow. Gloria Reuben guest stars.

"At All Costs" – Sunday, June 23, at 10 p.m. (ET/PT) – TV-14-LSV
After the people of Charleston defeat another alien attack with the help of new advanced weaponry, Tom is invited to meet with a powerful leader (guest star Stephen Collins). While Hal wrestles with an invasive evil, Ben struggles with his identity and the notion of being human again. And Anne uncovers startling new information that puts everyone in jeopardy. Robert Sean Leonard guest stars.

"Search and Recover" – Sunday, June 30, at 10 p.m. (ET/PT) – TV-14-LV
When a mission goes terribly awry, Tom and Pope must rely on each other to survive. Meanwhile, Weaver and company search desperately for two members of the 2nd Mass who have gone missing. And Marina (guest star Gloria Reuben) takes matters into her own hands in Charleston, disregarding Tom's authority. Robert Sean Leonard guest stars.

"Be Silent And Come Out" – Sunday, July 7, at 10 p.m. (ET/PT)
Hal finally reveals his internal struggle to everyone, and it doesn't bode well for the Masons. Lourdes experiments with a risky new medical procedure. And Charleston's government sees a massive shift in leadership when a group breaks away on a search and rescue mission. Gloria Reuben guest stars.

"The Pickett Line" – Sunday, July 14, at 10 p.m. (ET/PT)
The Masons run into trouble on the road when a family of outlaws intercepts their search-and-rescue mission. Meanwhile, looming doubts over the construction of a massive alien weapon ignite a conflict of interests. And an investigation to apprehend a killer on the loose hits a road block. Gloria Reuben guest stars.

"Strange Brew" – Sunday, July 21, at 10 p.m. (ET/PT)
Things seem much too calm for Tom, making him suspicious of his surroundings. On his way back to Charleston, he makes a number of discoveries, some incredibly surprising and others utterly horrifying. Meanwhile, Weaver and Pope butt heads over how to handle the suspected mole. Gloria Reuben guest stars.

"Journey to Xilbalba" – Sunday, July 28, at 10 p.m. (ET/PT)
Tom uncovers confidential intelligence about the heart of the alien operation. Meanwhile, Charleston prepares to mount an offensive against the Espheni, but a massive explosion brings the operation to a halt. And the identity of the mole is finally uncovered, but not before more blood has been shed. Robert Sean Leonard and Gloria Reuben guest star.

Season Finale: "Brazil" – Sunday, August 4, at 10 p.m. (ET/PT)
When the 2nd Mass destroys a crucial Espheni base, a relentless enemy is taken down and the Mason family is reunited with those who had been lost. But the arrival of more interstellar players puts the fate of the Earth's remaining survivors in doubt. Robert Sean Leonard guest stars.

[SpoilerTV]

Additional reporting by Katharine Trendacosta and Charlie Jane Anders.

An HBO star might be up for a role in the Fantastic Four reboot from Chronicle director Josh Trank. How much longer will Robert Downey, Jr. play Tony Stark? What do the new Star Trek Into Darkness reviews say about the sequel? Doctor Who finds a new executive producer. Plus previews for the endgames on Grimm and Arrow! Spoilers!

Top image from Star Trek Into Darkness.

Star Trek Into Darkness

Here's the latest clip.

There's another batch of reviews, including some here, here, and here. The emerging consensus seems to be that Benedict Cumberbatch's villain is easily the best part of the movie, the film is fun and moves at a breathless pace, and, reading between the lines just a bit, it's good in much the same way the original Star Trek was. So, if you liked J.J. Abrams's first Star Trek movie, you're in good shape, but this film doesn't sound likely to change your mind if you're not a fan.

Man of Steel

Michael Shannon explains how he approached the role of General Zod, previously played by Terence Stamp in Superman: The Movie and Superman II:

Well, I have a very different voice than Terence Stamp. When I sat down and talked with Zack [Snyder] about how he wanted me to approach the part, he just said that what was really important to him is that Zod wasn’t just some villain who was full of an arbitrary need to destroy everything. He’s not really actually the villain at all on Krypton. He’s a general. Not general of a country. He’s general of an entire planet. Just an awesome amount of responsibility and pressure. He’s responsible for taking care of that civilization, and for a long time, he was pretty good at it. And then he hit some bumps in the road, and now he’s just desperate to try and fix things up.

[EW]

Iron Man 3

Ben Kinglsey discusses the big twist about his character the Mandarin, which is big enough that we don't explicitly reveal here, although it's already on the movie's Wikipedia page:

“Totally. Because the way that [screenplay writer] Drew [Pearce] and Shane constructed those political broadcasts, they’re very well thought through. The attack on Western iconography, cultural values, historical context of imperialism — all that weaponry at his command to manipulate and terrify his viewers with these broadcasts with which he interrupts the airwaves were very compelling indeed. I forgot all about the twist until I got to it in the script. I just read it page by page. And I totally would have accepted The Mandarin as The Mandarin, actually... And reading the script, I didn’t know when the reveal would occur. And I was delighted when it did, it’s timed beautifully. So it’s just a great role. And the team are wonderful: They’re very competent, they’re very well disciplined, and they welcome new members to the team so graciously. It was a pleasure to join them and to work with them."

[Huffington Post]

Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige discusses Robert Downey, Jr.'s long-term future as Tony Stark:

Well, look, I don't think Robert will be playing this character for another 30 years, and I certainly hope the character stays in movies for the next 30 years — just like James Bond. I would say before George Lazenby and Roger Moore, Sean Connery was James Bond. It will take a while to fill any shoes, whether it's filmmaker shoes or writer shoes or certainly actor shoes. I think Tony Stark is an interesting enough and rich enough character that he can persevere. That being said, I hope that doesn't happen any time soon. It certainly is our plan to continue to have Robert Downey in the persona of Tony Stark for many, many years to come.

He also explains why he hopes this third installment avoids the problems that beset the likes of X-Men: The Last Stand and Spider-Man 3:

This is the first part three that I've produced that is a Marvel Studios proper part three. For every "Toy Story 3," which is to say every great part three, there are many, many, many less-than-great part threes. Threequels as some people call them. I was hyper-focused on not falling into the trap of the threequel, which is to say getting comfortable having it be more of the same and sticking with a formula that works. We wanted to mix it up; I wanted this film to be as unique and surprising as the first "Iron Man" film. In a way, there had already been another voice: Jon's voice, obviously, in "Iron Man 1" and "Iron Man 2," which helped set the tone for all of the Marvel cinematic universe films, but Joss Whedon on "The Avengers," he brought his own unique voice to it. Because "The Avengers" came between "Iron Man 2" and "Iron Man 3," it allowed us the liberty to take "Iron Man 3" to another level; to dig deep into Tony's story line. To worry less about universe building and surprise you by focusing on Tony's journey.

There's more at the link. [Huffington Post]

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

From the same interview, Kevin Feige offers this update on Robert Redford, who plays a senior S.H.I.E.L.D. agent in the sequel:

Mr. Redford has already shot his first day for us on "Captain America: The Winter Soldier." We're very lucky that caliber of actor is so trusting of us.

Was the Redford casting a situation where you just thought, "We've got this role, let's call up Redford"?
You talk with agents every day and they keep you abreast of who's doing what, who's available and who's interested in what. We got an incoming call about Robert Redford, which is not a call you get every day and it's a call you don't want to screw up. It was very exciting.

[Huffington Post]

Fantastic Four

20th Century Fox's new, Josh Trank-directed Fantastic Four movie could shoot as early as this summer — possibly to ensure the character rights don't revert to Marvel Studios — but there's been no word on just who will play the main characters this time around. Now, there's at least a tangential rumor of one actress that is reportedly on the short list for a starring role — presumably the Invisible Woman — and it's Girls star Allison Williams. There's no sense of how many other actors might be in contention for roles — Williams herself is only mentioned in relation to her recently announced starring role in the Shakespeare adaptation Rosaline — but this might indicate the sort of actors Fox is looking for: largely unknown but on the rise, and somewhat cheaper than Jessica Alba. [Deadline]

Pacific Rim

Here's a new banner. [First Showing]

Hellboy 3

Star Ron Perlman says he's doing everything in his power to get Guillermo del Toro back for another Hellboy Movie:

"I've been giving Guillermo body shots for two years. We both walked away from Hellboy 2 agreeing that there would never be another one. But, with the passage of time, it became clear to me that he really always designed it as a trilogy. He has a very well-articulated idea of what the resolve would look like and it's amazingly theatrical and is epic in scope and would make for amazing cinema, with or without the first two movies. But there are so many questions posed in the first two films that absolutely need to be answered. I said, 'You owe it to the world to finish this trilogy.' I've been giving him Jewish guilt. He's just so busy, but I'm going to keep working away at the body. I'm pushing seventy so he better fucking do this soon."

For the record, I'm not 100% sure 63 years old counts as "pushing 70," but Perlman's points are well taken. [IGN]

Doctor Who

Brian Minchin will succeed Caroline Skinner as the show's new executive producer, working alongside showrunner and fellow executive producer Steven Moffat. Minchin previously worked as a script editor on Doctor Who and Torchwood and as a producer on The Sarah Jane Adventures and the British sections of Torchwood: Miracle Day. [Life, Doctor Who, and Combom]

Revolution

Here's a short synopsis for episode eighteen, "Clue":

Nora's captors torture her and leave her for dead; Monroe hears about Rachel's mission to reach the tower; Miles tries to find out how close associates of his are being targeted; Miles, Charlie, Neville, Jason, Hudson and Sanborn try to save Rachel.

[SpoilerTV]

Grimm

Star David Giuntoli previews various upcoming stories:

"Nick and Juliette start patching things up and it’s looking very hopeful for us come the end of the season. In ‘Grimm’ fashion, they love tearing people apart and bringing them back together so who knows how hard they’re going to make that for (them). We deal with the ‘undead’ in a way that’s never been approached before... zombies will be coming to Portland. (This particular Wesen) will be pulling the strings and controlling a lot of other types of Wesen... and he has an army of people under his control that wreak havoc."

[CTV]

Episode twenty-two is reportedly called "Good Night, Sweet Grimm," and here's a description:

Nick investigates a series of rage-fueled assaults; Nick learns Captain Renard's brother is in town; Stefania and Frau Pech battle each other using their alliances with Adalind.

[SpoilerTV]

Supernatural

Here's a promo for the next episode, "The Great Escapist."

Showrunner Jeremy Carver discusses why the Winchesters have started to repair their relationship:

"Given how the boys reunited at the beginning of this season, not on the best terms, the one thing that did unite them was this sense of revenge against Crowley and the demons. Now, we're going to see things start moving pretty quickly and pretty wildly. A lot of balls in the air. The boys are really going to be constantly confronted with the idea of, 'Okay, we want revenge, but how far are we willing to go? How much are we willing to sacrifice?'"

[Zap2It]

Arrow

Here's a sneak peek at tonight's episode, "The Undertaking."

Star Stephen Amell confirms that Oliver is indeed captured, chained up, and unmasked by John Barrowman's Malcolm Merlyn in the finale, which for reasons I don't entirely understand is called "Darkness on the Edge of Town":

"I start the season finale chained up and left for dead. I'm chained up to the ceiling ... I'm chained up by Mr. Barrowman. Now, in the photos, he is not wearing a mask, and neither am I. Everything is out in the open between us. The neat thing about the finale is that so much of this season ... has just been [about] people with facades. The one that Oliver puts up for his family, the one that Moira puts up for her family, the one that [Malcolm] puts up for Tommy. All of those, toward the last two episodes, just melt away, because danger is so perilously close. We get to see characters interacting in a way that they haven't all season. By the time we get to the finale we get to see [Diggle, Felicity, and Oliver] as a fully-functioning, no hierarchy, all in it for each other team."

Check out the link for more from Amell, including his thoughts on Laurel's journey towards becoming Black Canary. [Zap2It]

The Vampire Diaries

Showrunner Julie Plec discusses what's ahead for Elena in the season finale:

"We have a lot of questions on the table about Elena. Is she stuck this way forever? Is she ever going to turn her humanity back on? If she does, will the sire bond be back in effect or gone? If it's gone, what are her feelings for Damon vs. her feelings for Stefan? The whole season has been trying to get Elena back to who she was, so everything will be answered in the finale."

[TV Guide]

Defiance

Here's a promo for next Monday's episode, "A Well Respected Man."

Beauty and the Beast

Here's a preview from executive producers Sheri Cooper and Jennifer Levin for tonight's episode, "Anniversary."

Additional reporting by Amanda Yesilbas and Charlie Jane Anders.

Carrie Fisher once again confirms that she will be in Star Wars: Episode VII. Michael Shannon reveals why he's so excited about General Zod in Man of Steel. Andrew Garfield and Jamie Foxx are spotted in an Amazing Spider-Man 2 set video. An Oscar nominee joins the latest incarnation of American Horror Story. It's all spoilers!

Top image from Game of Thrones.

Star Wars: Episode VII

Because Carrie Fisher is well past the point in her career where she gives a shit about things like official casting announcements, she once again decided to confirm that, yes, she will be back as Princess Leia in the new Star Wars movie. Here's a quote from a recent appearance at the Calgary Comic Expo:

“I like being bought by Disney, because they never wanted to buy me before. I’m glad they are doing a new movie because they are sending a trainer to my house so I can get in really good shape. So I’m really eating a lot of sugar in advance, as you can see. By the time I really get down to it I will have eaten everything.”

So then, let's start the countdown for her publicist's latest halfhearted denial. I'm guessing we'll be cycling through this story a couple dozen more times before Disney makes her return official. [Calgary Herald]

The Avengers 2

Writer-director Joss Whedon hints at how he will use Thanos, who was unveiled in a mid-credits scene in The Avengers:

Well, Thanos is more powerful. He is so powerful he is not someone you can just try out and punch him. Like he did in the comics, you want him to threading through the universe and to save the big finale for ‘the big finally’. He is definitely a part of what I have got going on. The thing about the Avengers is that they are very powerful but not very stable. So, there will definitely be some people that will shake them up in the next installment.

There's been quite a lot of speculation based on that quote — which really doesn't sound like it was transcribed entirely accurately, but that's neither here not there — that Whedon is holding back Thanos until The Avengers 3, because that's somehow the big finale of the Marvel cinematic universe.

Honestly, that doesn't seem like even remotely the most plausible interpretation; more likely, Whedon is suggesting that the Avengers won't take on Thanos directly until the final act of The Avengers 2, and in the rest of the movie they will fight his underlings, because Thanos is just too powerful for them to fight throughout the movie. So, unless we get some major clarification on this quote, I'd say this is just minor plot information about how Thanos and the supporting bad guys will fit into The Avengers 2, rather than news about The Avengers 3, which I'm not even entirely sure Whedon is signed on to work on at this point. [Desde Hollywood]

Meanwhile, if you're looking for an even wilder brand of speculation, here's an article that posits we're headed towards a West Coast Avengers spin-off of some sort.

Iron Man 3

Here's a TV spot.

Man of Steel

General Zod actor Michael Shannon shares his excitement for the new Superman movie:

It's going to blow everybody's socks off. And I know they're probably pissed off, like I'm jinxing it or something and I shouldn't say that. I'll knock on wood just out of deference to the gods, but the movie is solid. It's gonna get the job done.

This is your first big superhero movie. Was it weird going from being in that odd-looking CGI suit to seeing the final product?
It's exhilarating. It's what Zack [Snyder] promised would happen, you know? Because I remember the first couple of days I was on set, I thought This is ridiculous. I look like an idiot. I don't look anything like General Zod. I'm a total failure. I went over to the screen for playback and it was ridiculous. All of us were wearing pajamas, basically. And there was this neon green set of stairs that was supposed to be our spaceship. So you see us all marching down these neon green stairs in our pajamas and I'm like, "This looks like a Monty Python skit." And he's like, "I know right now it looks pretty silly, but, two years from now, it's going to look like the most badass thing you've ever seen in your life." And he's right.

[Huffington Post]

The Amazing Spider-Man 2

Here's a set video featuring stars Andrew Garfield and Jamie Foxx, the latter of whom joins the franchise as Max Dillon, alias Electro. [Coming Soon]

Monsters University

Director Dan Scanlon discusses the apparent continuity error at the heart of the premise for this Monsters, Inc. prequel, as the original movie suggested Mike and Sulley had known each other since fourth grade, when in this film they meet for the first time at college. Here's his explanation:

Well in the first film, uh, they actually say you’ve been jealous of my good looks since fourth grade. And in the teaser they go on and on about fifth grade. So that was something we talked about early on. We chose college because we wanted to see their relationship develop when they were adults and not just still be more or less similar to the characters we remember from the first film. And we also felt like college is so much about self-discovery and figuring out who you are. It just felt like the perfect place to do this, but we had that line, you know, that line was out there. So we tried versions where they met young and then we kind of skipped ahead to college. And we knew we didn’t want to make Monsters Elementary. We had no interest in that. Honestly it became a thing where you sort of felt like you were missing the relationship grow, because you jumped ahead any way we sliced it.

Check out the link for more, as he explains precisely how Monsters University coyly acknowledges the line about fourth grade. [/Film]

Game of Thrones

Here's a promo for the next episode, "The Climb." A synopsis for the episode is included below. [Coming Soon]

Robb considers a compromise to mend his alliance with House Frey; Melisandre visits the Riverlands; Tywin plans strategic unions for the Lannisters; Jaime's fate is in Roose Bolton's hands; Jon prepares for a dangerous climb with the Wildings.

True Blood

Here's a promo for the upcoming sixth season. [EW]

Here's a teaser for episode nine, courtesy of SpoilerTV:

True Blood episode 6.09 will be called "Life Matters" and a few co-star roles are being cast, including a crazy vampire, a sickly vampire, and a male vampire who is the sickly vampire's progeny.

Grimm

Star David Giuntoli previews the next episode, "Endangered," which airs tonight as the show shifts to its new Tuesday time slot:

"The Captain will be giving me a stern Captain-esque lecture about my history and the Royals, and why they want me and me in particular. We’re going to be seeing something very paranormal — I want to say almost X-Files-y — that is not a standard Grimms fairy tale, almost like we’re dealing with what people on Earth think are aliens, but we tell you what they really are, the real explanation for them."

Check out the link for a clip from the episode. [EW]

Once Upon a Time

Here's a sneak peek at the eight opening minutes of the next episode, "Second Star to the Right."

And here's a promo for the episode. [KSiteTV]

Orphan Black

Here's the synopsis for this Saturday's episode, "Variations Under Domestication":

Sarah’s hunt for answers is interrupted by a trip to the suburbs. Alison’s paranoia has boiled over, putting all the Orphans at risk. But when Sarah, Alison and Beth’s worlds dangerously collide, Sarah must decide who to trust with her secret.

[SpoilerTV]

American Horror Story: Coven

Precious star Gabourey Sidibe is joining the third, witch-focused season of the FX series in an unspecified role. [@MrRPMurphy]

Warehouse 13

Showrunner Jack Kenny discusses the overall story of the upcoming season 4.5 as well as the show's longer-term future:

We start the arc in Episode 1, and it’s an arc that goes through the whole season. It is not as heavy as last season because last season’s arc was all Artie (Saul Rubinek). So, it’s hard for that not to land in a major way, both on him and on everybody else. This season is an external character arc, so it’s a little easier to just tap on it, once in a while, like we do with HG. We tap on it, now and again. But, it is a solidly followed arc, and it does land very squarely in everybody’s lap at the end. We had Anthony Head come to join us, and our arc culminates in his discovery, in Episodes 8, 9 and 10. It lands very heavily in the characters’ laps. Myka (Joanne Kelly) goes through a very big life-changing event in Episode 7, and she and Pete (Eddie McClintock) have to deal with that. It’s very emotional. They keep it to themselves. That also explodes into the finale, and it drives things a lot. We are playing arcs, but we’re also doing the bag-and-tag of the week. We like to keep that engine going because that’s where a lot of the fun lives.

How are you going to be splitting the season up?
We have 10 episodes that are ready to air now, and then we’re waiting for our Season 5 pick-up. The writers have already started thinking of great new stories for Season 5. We’re looking at hopefully another 13. A lot of it will depend on the viewership numbers this season, how Defiance does, how do we do, how the other shows do, and what they have in development. But, I’m hoping that we can be around. This show could last forever because there’s an endless number of artifacts and stories to tell.

[Collider]

Elsewhere, Kenny and star Joanne Kelly discuss the ever-evolving relationship between Myka and H.G. Wells:

Joanne Kelly: Well obviously when we see H. G. you know kind of give her life for the warehouse it was a huge moment. I think there's a lot of confusion and I think that we see these women trying to connect and try to redefine themselves after the huge events that kind of have befallen them both. And I think that their relationship is kind of a constant journey. And I think H. G. will always kind of have a positive - I think there's something really nice about having two women as Jack mentioned earlier that aren't you know bitchy to each other, that two women yes women actually do like each other and sometimes can love, you know, and I don't think H. G. is ever a negative thing in Myka's world.

Jack Kenny: It's nice to see that each - it seems like each character makes the other one ask themselves really good questions about where they are in their life and what's going on. I know that in Episode 15 some issues come up between H. G. and Myka where Myka asks the way you would of a close friend that you really care about, she asks some tough questions. She raises some really tough issues with her about where she is and what she's doing and only someone who loves you can ask you those kind of questions without getting thrown out of the room.

Joanne Kelly: Yes definitely. I think it's any relationship between two people of the same sex, roughly the same age sometimes it's like looking in the mirror a little bit especially with your best friends, you know? You ask the questions maybe you can't ask yourself of the other person, you know? So I think it's a really interesting dynamic and I'm excited for the fans who are fan of that relationship to see that episode because I think they'll be very happy.

There's a bunch more at the link. [Media Boulevard]

Additional reporting by Amanda Yesilbas and Charlie Jane Anders.

The flying sequences in Man of Steel will be grittier and realer than anything you've seen. How does Natalie Portman's Jane Foster fit into Thor: The Dark World? Steven Moffat reveals why some new monsters are perfect for the Doctor Who season finale. Michael Bay opens up about Transformers 4 and Ninja Turtles. Spoilers ahead!

Top image from Thor: The Dark World.

Star Wars: Episode VII

New LucasFilm president Kathleen Kennedy says she really isn't that worried about keeping things secret for the latest Star Wars film:

We talk about that all the time. I think the whole issue of confidentiality is gonna be fascinating as we move into making the movie. If we're shooting anything outside, it's almost impossible to not have things end up on the Internet. So my feeling is, you need to embrace that, especially with the fans around something like Star Wars. You need to recognize they're important to the process and acknowledge there are things you're gonna want to make sure they get to know. So I think that's something we're going to monitor, pay attention to and think differently about.

Of course, given director J.J. Abrams's well-documented penchant for secrecy, I wouldn't expect to be inundated with Episode VII spoilers anytime soon. [/Film]

Man of Steel

Director Zack Snyder describes how he approached the flying sequences and the design of Krypton:

"It's a more violent experience. It's raw. It takes effort to do it, and that's what we were really going for. It's almost like there's this kind of Right Stuff quality to it. He's constantly booming around, accelerating. You think he's going as fast as he can and then it's like ‘Yeeaahh!' He's always got an extra gear he can use... I really wanted my Krypton to be this kind of special place that's immersive and totally different from Earth, but not unbelievable. And ancient. I really wanted to give this ancient feeling to Krypton. I love technology that's rusty because it's so old. It's so advanced, but it's so old. That was the kind of world that I tried to create. A dying world that's ancient and torn apart."

[SFX]

Iron Man 3

Here's one more TV spot. [Coming Soon]

Thor: The Dark World

Here are some spoilery hints from Sif actress Jaime Alexander:

"Well, I think that everyone can tell from the trailer that Jane comes to Asgard, which could pose a threat. You know, we're bringing someone from another realm into our realm who technically shouldn't be able to survive there. So I think she's really — more than seeing Jane as a threat to somebody that she loves in a love triangle way — it's more that Jane could be a threat to her people. And Sif is very protective of her fellow Asgardians and the throne and that sort of thing, so she's quite wary of Jane. But also, she really, really loves Thor — as a comrade, as a warrior and as the future king of Asgard — but also as a man. So I think it's very hard for her to see that he still has feelings for this other person. But you really get to see how much she loves him because she does end up sacrificing a lot. It's a great part this time around. It was a lot of fun, and you get to see a more vulnerable side of Sif. You also get to see more of Asgard, the daily life in Asgard and the Warriors [Three] and where they come from, things like that. It's going to be a lot of fun."

[IGN]

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

The Hurt Locker and Pain & Gain's Anthony Mackie, who plays The Falcon in the sequel, suggests the new Captain America film will almost feel like another Avengers movie:

First, I'll say that being a part of it is great. I think that Marvel has it down to a science and they've been very deliberate about what they want and what they don't want out in the world. And they're very focused on timelines as far as releases and stuff. This movie, "Captain America," has kind of become "Avengers 1.5"; if you look at the cast they've put together, if you look at the number of characters that are in this movie. I mean, it's a huge number of superheroes and characters. The basic idea is that you have Captain America, Black Widow, and Falcon that get together to take down the Winter Soldier.

[Moviefone]

Transformers 4

Michael Bay says the returning Transformers will be redesigned for the fourth movie, which may have a little to do with in-universe creative reasons — but probably has a lot more to do with the fact that the tie-in toy sales Dark of the Moon were kind of terrible:

You know there are a couple of historians of Transformers. I would do my designs of the robots and they're like, "What if you just add a little bit more ears to Optimus?" But they're really hands off. We've redesigned them in "Transformers 4," and there's some really cool sh*t in it. I'm literally redesigning every character, top to bottom. There's a reason why they're redesigned, but it's also to keep it new and fresh to me. I think the fans will appreciate some of this new stuff we have in the movie and some of the new characters.

So then, big-eared Optimus Prime will be on toy shelves soon, I guess. [Moviefone]

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

From the same interview, Michael Bay, who is executive producing Jonathan Liebesman's new Ninja Turtles movie, would like to make it clear that these turtles were never going to be aliens, because Michael Bay respects the source material too much for that:

There was that quote saying that we're making [the Ninja Turtles as] aliens. We're not. It's the ooze! It's from the original source material. These are from the original writers, and I never went out to correct myself in the press. I do listen to the fans and I do want this to be authentic. I think they're going to be really happy with this movie. When I see the digital stuff, the turtles look great.

[Moviefone]

Doctor Who

Here's a trailer for next week's episode, "The Crimson Horror." You can check out a second promo here. [Life, Doctor Who, and Combom]

Here are the official descriptions for the final three episodes, which notably includes some new information on the finale, "The Name of the Doctor":

Episode 11 - The Crimson Horror
There's something very odd about Mrs Gillyflower's Sweetville mill, with its perfectly clean streets and beautiful people. There's something even stranger about the bodies washing up in the river, all bright red and waxy. When the Doctor and Clara go missing, it's up to Vastra, Jenny and Strax to rescue them before they too fall victim to the Crimson Horror!

Episode 12 - Nightmare In Silver
Hedgewick's World Of Wonders was once the greatest theme park in the galaxy, but it's now the dilapidated home to a shabby showman, a chess-playing dwarf and a dysfunctional army platoon. When the Doctor, Clara, Artie and Angie arrive, the last thing they expect is the re-emergence of one of the Doctor's oldest foes. The Cybermen are back!

Episode 13: The Name Of The Doctor
Clara is summoned to an impossible conference call, alerting her that the deadly Whisper Men are closing in on Vastra, Jenny and Strax. Someone is kidnapping the Doctor's friends, leading him toward the one place in all of time and space that he should never go. It's a deadly trap that threatens to unravel his past, present and future...

[SpoilerTV]

Speaking of the season finale, here are some thoughts on the episode from writer Steven Moffat, who previews the villainous Whispermen:

"The thought of stylish whispering almost faceless creatures was an idea that firstly scared me and that I thought would work well in an episode that looks forward and back... [The episode is] full of surprises and questions that have never been answered in the history of Who, including the Doctor's greatest secret. We're not pretending, we're not kidding, it's actually going to happen. We'll also find out what makes his new companion so impossible and there's a surprise that no one has got right so far, and one that will change the course of Who forever!"

You know, I'd still generally consider myself a Steven Moffat fan, but I feel compelled to point out — he's probably pretending and/or kidding about all that. [Blogtor Who]

Person of Interest

Here's the description for episode twenty-one, "Zero Day," which features a bunch of returning guest stars:

THE COUNTDOWN ON A MYSTERIOUS VIRUS CAUSES THE MACHINE TO MALFUNCTION JUST AS THE POI TEAM TRIES TO LOCATE AN ELUSIVE MILLIONAIRE WHOSE NUMBERS COME UP, ON "PERSON OF INTEREST," THURSDAY, MAY 2 — Carrie Preston, Amy Acker, Sarah Shahi, Brett Cullen, Jay O. Sanders and John Nolan Guest Star — Reese and Finch realize that a virus has rendered The Machine erratic, causing it to issue numbers irregularly. As they race against the viral countdown, the team searches for a tech millionaire so elusive no one has ever seen him. Also, Detective Carter's mission to bring Cal Beecher's murderer to justice lands her squarely within the sights of the HR criminal organization.

[SpoilerTV]

Once Upon a Time

Costar Lana Parilla discusses what's ahead for Regina as the season wraps up:

Regina has her suspicions with Greg to begin with. She knows who he is, though she doesn't really know why he's here. She suspects that it's about his father, but there has to be an ulterior motive. Regina has her "Spidey senses" - she's so intuitive - so I think she's very suspicious of them. She doesn't trust them and she knows that there is something else going on.

How would you tease the season finale? What sort of emotions will fans go through in the final moments?
This is always hard… I'm not very good at teasing finales. I think people are going to be very surprised to see the two sides come together and work together for the greater good, light and dark coming together and having to make a decision that is best for everyone included. We're always separating, it's always light against dark and dark against light, you know. Good against evil or evil against good. So it's a very sobering moment in the finale where the audience is going to be very surprised to see some characters have to come together, to work together, to save one another.

[TV Line]

Falling Skies

Costar Moon Bloodgood previews what to expect from season three:

It's seven months since you've last seen Anne, so she's right about to give birth because she's into her second or third month when she realizes she's pregnant. So she's supposed to have the baby any day now. We have now befriended an alien group called the Esphani, and so we are co-habitating with the Esphani and also the Vohm. We now have a new machine that can de-harness children. So I feel like we have progressed in our technology, and I think we've kind of adjusted to life in Charleston. This is our new home.

Tom is now President, so Anne is kind of the First Lady.
You're right, I never even thought of it that way. I think Anne shies away from that role, and definitely she's much more of a Laura Bush versus a Hillary Clinton kind of First Lady. And it's not explored deeply, but you do see that Anne's really missing Tom. She's about to have a baby. She's swamped with work. Lourdes, her usual sidekick has now become a doctor and so she's much more involved. But you can see that Anne is feeling just kind of neglected by Tom, and so are his kids. [Tom] is feeling pulled in a million directions, and we're all trying to be supportive and not complain, but you can just see that Anne misses him. And she's a little threatened by Gloria [Reuben's new character], who's sort of his assistant now. So there's tears happening in the relationship, and I think Tom is also realizing he's in over his head.

There's more at the link. [EW]

Additional reporting by Katharine Trendacosta and Charlie Jane Anders.