In a move worthy of artist HR Giger's infamous monster, Ridley Scott's Alien prequel has mutated into a very different beast.

According to Deadline, Scott's project, formerly known as The Alien Prequel is now officially known as Prometheus, with a script written by Lost's Damon Lindelof from an original draft by Jon Spaihts. Far from the prequel to Alien we were all expecting, Prometheus will be an unrelated story, albeit one set in the same universe as the one originally created by Scott and his collaborators way back in 1979.

"While Alien was indeed the jumping off point for this project, out of the creative process evolved a new, grand mythology and universe in which this original story takes place," Scott explained in Fox's press release. "The keen fan will recognize strands of Alien's DNA, so to speak, but the ideas tackled in this film are unique, large and provocative. I couldn't be more pleased to have found the singular tale I'd been searching for, and finally return to this genre that's so close to my heart."

Swedish actress Noomi Rapace, having impressed Scott with her turn in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, has been signed up to appear as a character called Elizabeth Shaw, while Angelina Jolie and Charlize Theron are reportedly in the running to play a character by the name of Vickers.

"In a world flooded with prequels, sequels and reboots, I was incredibly struck by just how original Ridley's vision was for this movie," enthused writer Damon Lindelof. "It's daring, visceral and hopefully, the last thing anyone expects. When I sat in a movie theater as a kid, feet raised off the floor for fear that something might grab my ankles, I never dreamed in my wildest imagination I would one day get to collaborate with the man responsible for it. Working alongside him has been nothing short of a dream come true."

Given the enthusiasm Scott has expressed for directing a prequel to Alien, and one that explores the backstory of the mysterious Space Jockeys from the first film ("We are talking about gods and engineers. Engineers of space," the director said in an interview last year), the decision to distance the film from the franchise that inspired it is a strange and unusual one.

Could it be possible that, in the process of developing and rewriting the script (not to mention the rumoured changes Fox requested to make the film a PG-13), the story has moved so far from the horror/thriller roots of its predecessor that it can no longer be considered part of the earlier film's lineage?

A little bit of us also wonders if Fox thought that the Alien name wasn’t the box office gold it required for such a major movie any more. We don’t have sales figures for the Alien Blu-ray set, released before Christmas, but we do wonder if those numbers were pivotal in calling whether this film was an extension to the Alien franchise, or something new altogether. In short, given that the most commercially successful of the last four Alien movies was Alien Vs Predator, was it better – from a box office perspective – to just start from scratch?

Still, with the Prometheus script a closely guarded secret, it's unlikely we'll know much more about the film's new direction for some months yet. One thing that has been confirmed, however, is its release date. Prometheus is currently scheduled to arrive in cinemas on 9 March 2012.

Deadline

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This review contains spoilers.

3.13 Monster

Since the appearance of Darth Maul's 'brother' in the Season 3 trailer, much of Star Wars fandom has been eager to see the introduction of another horned, red and black-marked Sith.

That time has come and, oh boy, disappointment is not on the agenda. In fact, we're blessed with a plethora of Maul-a-likes, or Nightbrothers as they're also known, in the latest installment of The Clone Wars.

Following on from last week's cracking episode, Asajj Ventress, hellbent on exacting revenge on Count Dooku for dumping her quicker than garbage from a Star Destroyer (well, trying to kill her, at any rate), is on the trail for a Nightbrother, the males who live on the far side of her her planet, Dathomir.

The ditched Sith sets about testing these men, all resembling Maul in markings and horns, but before she does, Ventress offs a few in the most chilling and nasty of fashions. Quickly she has gone from sympathetic jilted apprentice to an extremely unlikable and terrifyingly bloodthirsty assassin (just like she was before).And this unpleasantness is at the very heart of Monster.

Never before in the onscreen Star Wars adventures (big and small) has there been such a sustained level of cruelty, evil and violence with abandon. The torture of the Nightbrothers by Ventress is not only shocking, but also deeply distressing, as she takes great delight in callously killing her brothers.

The Sith's actions are dripping with malevolence, particularly as she strangles her way through the opposition, with her boot crushing the throat of her enemy. There's worse to come in the form of Savage Opress, the chosen Nightbrother, whose first kill is disgustingly graphic.

The Clone Wars airs during mid-evening in the US, but here in the UK episodes air on Saturday mornings and at teatime. This is not the kind of fare one can normally imagine waking up to or chomping din-dins along to. One can imagine the Daily Mail busting their balls over the nature of the violence and repulsive imagery in Monster. Crucially, however, these scenes are not gratuitous.

I mean, we're dealing with Sith here, right? These guys and gals are real bad motherfuckers and we truly see the Dark Side of the Force at work here with the transformation of Opress at the hands of the Nightsisters. He goes from a thinking, caring and engaging warrior, voiced with some style by big screen bad boy, Clancy Brown (Highlander, The Shawshank Redemption), to the desensitised titular monster fuelled by anger and rage.

Full marks to the production team for such a daring and bold story, never scared to fully realise the horror of what's on show. It may be unpleasant to watch and may leave a bad taste in the mouth, but The Clone Wars has delivered yet another unmissable and captivating slice of remarkable television.

Read our review of episode 12, Nightsisters, here.

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This review contains spoilers.

You know how Doctor Who always has a cheap episode per season? My guess is this was it for Primeval. That's not to say it was a bad episode, but setting everything in and around a school gave me the feeling that the outside broadcast and location shooting money wasn't here for this week's adventure.

Again, not to say that this episode was weak, it wasn't. It was all pretty gripping, and while I could not help having flashbacks to Aliens with all the camera glitches and running down corridor elements, the actual threat, although not on a massive scale, was very unnerving. Meanwhile, the confined corridors and classrooms made a nice location for what was essentially a dinosaur survival horror episode.

While in detention, three school kids and a teacher are doing a Breakfast Club, sitting out a punishment for something at school. And although we're never actually told, there is an implication the two geeky kids are there for stink bomb making or messing around with chemicals in school.

Joining these two is a pop princess who is very quick with the put-downs and Seth Rogen-style teen comedy references, forming a fun little group of victims for the monsters of the week to chow down on. And it doesn't take long for the teacher to shuffle off his mortal coil, as he is attacked from inside a vending machine (don't ask. It was a little strange) by a half lizard, half council estate status symbol canine, which proceeds to take him out with a mix of venom and huge jaws and claws.

The anomaly is spotted back at the ARC, and we begin to find that the newly formed team are already keeping secrets. The tightly intertwined, close knit family of previous seasons is a thing of the past, and agendas and outlooks are a lot different from the research and analysis of previous seasons.

First of all, it seems that Philip wants to do a lot more with the dinosaurs than just study them. The danger and potential threat they pose (even Rex) is something that he deems to be too high, and he asks Connor to provide him with ways in which to dispose of the creatures, much to Abby's dismay.

While the original team were happy to send the monsters and creatures on their happy way via the nearest anomaly, keeping on those they could not get back, Philip's new regime is considerably more harsh. However, there seems to be an another agenda here, possibly linking back to the 'New Dawn' initiative that was mentioned last week.

It's not only Connor, Philip and Abby and the potential threat to Rex and company that are having a bad time about it. Everyone is keeping secrets as the Emily, Ethan and Matt storyline also heats up. Again, it's a little early to tell, but could there be love, betrayal and a lot more sinister things coming into play with the human characters the anomalies spit out?.

But while these plots, betrayals and potential problems bubble under for the rest of the season, it's back to this week's monster of the week scenario and back in the school Connor, Matt and Becker have their hands full trying to capture the lizard/dog things. (While the names of the creatures escaped me, just think of a reptilian version of the 'Terror Dogs' from Ghostbusters. They were a bit like that.)

Once again, a nod of acknowledgement and respect goes out to the CG crew, as what could have been potentially silly monsters were, via the power of the pixel, credible and vicious threats.

Now, I mentioned last week that, at times, Primeval is a bit dark for a prime time Saturday night and for two episodes we have seen the show pushing the boundaries of its timeslots as far as gore and ‘nasty' bits are concerned. I think that shows should have ‘watch behind the sofa' moments, but this week I think that maybe they went a little far.

As mentioned earlier, the school the monster dogs invaded was not empty, and while the usual cannon fodder was dispatched early on, before the credits this week, in the shape of the teacher, there were a couple of scenes that maybe should not have been shown. Namely, the prissy pop princess' demise.

While it was only implied that she had been eaten by the creatures, the build up and eventual pay off under the gym bleachers was not a nice thing, especially for kids. And while its understandable that it's all make-believe, if I were a parent, I would have serious considerations about letting my kids watch the show. And if I were a kid, I'd have a serious look under any or all gym equipment, just in case there is something nasty there.

It was dark, it was close to the edge and it was actually a very good episode, especially given the budget and limitations of location. The threat of the monster dogs was viable, especially towards the end when the nest of them were found in the canteen.

The fact Becker was attacked from behind by one shows that the ARC team are not all superheroes and gives an actual sense of danger. While surviving and providing the ladies with a few minutes of no shirt action, the blood and attack was all pretty vicious and there was a real sense that the current mix-up and establishment of a new status quo means that, potentially, there could be even more casualties this season.

While there were a few clichés with the geeks helping out Connor with the computers and using the school science lab to save the day, along with the creatures in the ARC getting a reprieve thanks to some eleventh hour tinkering by Lester, all in all, things were not too bad in this episode. Especially considering it could have been turned out to be a by-the-numbers homage to Aliens. Instead was a viable piece of survival horror drama that really didn't pull any punches when it came to the actual surviving element.

Read our review of episode 3 here.

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This review contains spoilers.

7.2 Old Sparks Come New

Last week I had something of a downer on Hustle, thanks to an exceptionally lacklustre opening story. I've decided that a really good Hustle story requires a mark that's beyond any redemption, a twist where the con goes wrong at some point, and it needs to have its dramatic tongue firmly in its cheek.

Which is exactly what Old Sparks Come New delivered, delivering possibly the most entertaining Hustle story in a while.

The chosen villain was something of an easy target, but when you see companies advertising on TV where they admit their loans have an interest rate of more than 3,000%, then you're inclined to think that legally sanctioned robbery is being committed in our midst.

But then at the heart of this story is also a subplot about the morality of what grifters actually do, and how they rationalise it to themselves, and others. In Hustle we're asked to believe that conmen have a strict code of ethics and an unshakeable confidence in their craft, but in this one Emma starts to wonder about the path she's on, and if it's the right one. This was so well built into the story, I did wonder for a moment if Kelly Adams was actually being written out, but they shied away from that narrative jump in the final act.

The strength of this Hustle lies in two areas: the exceptionally funny pantomime villainess, Georgina Althorp, played by Angela Griffin, and the choice to get out of London and their imaginative use of Birmingham as a backdrop to the proceedings.

Angela Griffin was excellent, but she was unfortunately upstaged by Robert Glenister, who, in the scenes where he was imitating an especially vile business owner who had hit hard times, entirely ate the scenery in overbite chunks and then spat it out.

But the stand-out moment for me was when the con went slightly awry following Georgina's demand to view the stately home that she thinks she's buying. Their flashback explanation of how they got all the viewing public out of the house and gardens was masterful, and had me chuckling for hours afterwards.

What also made me laugh was the brilliantly underplayed conversations between Rob Jarvis (Eddie) and Robert Vaughn (Albert). Vaughn didn't say much, but emoted plenty as Eddie rambled on about some of the girlfriends he'd been forced to drop in the past. This is where Hustle can be quite subtle on occasion, and it enhances my viewing enjoyment significantly.

Overall, this was so much better than the series opener, and I'm now invigorated with anticipation for the rest of season 7. Having taken in the architectural splendour of Brum, I'm curious where they're going to take us next? Liverpool, Manchester or Newcastle?

For me, it doesn't matter, as long as they don't do what ATV always did in the sixties, where they put stock footage up with the label 'Cario' or 'Rio De Janeiro' before cutting to a bar set they'd made in 20 minutes out of cardboard in a shed at Shepperton Studios.

Next week, Mickey and the gang go hunting in a casino, which sounds a very natural habitat for them.

Read our review of the series 7 opener, As Good As It Gets, here.

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As ever, the annual crush of movies flooding into multiplexes produced a number of unjustly overlooked casualties last year. Joe Dante's The Hole, a film originally released screened in the US in 2009 (although not widely released) and only receiving a limited release in UK cinemas last September, is but one of them.

For Dante, the director of much-loved 80s classics such as The Howling, Gremlins, and  my own pet favourite, Innerspace, The Hole should have marked his triumphant return to the big screen, his first feature since the poorly received Looney Tunes: Back In Action. Instead, the film struggled for publicity as inferior films with bigger marketing budgets stole its oxygen.

Certainly, The Hole has many of the hallmarks of Dante's best films. A family-friendly mixture of horror and thriller, there are passing nods to the mischievous imps in Gremlins, and the broad, sly humour of Innerspace.

Chris Massoglia stars as Dane, a troubled teenager who, along with his little brother Lucas (Nathan Gamble), discovers a mysterious hatch in the basement of his new suburban home. "You have a gateway to hell in your basement," intones the implausibly pretty girl next door, Julie (Haley Bennett), "And that is really cool."

Allowing curiosity to get the better of them, the youths unlock the hatch and stare at the abyss within, unleashing an ancient evil that manifests itself in weird, unexpected ways, from a pallid little girl whose jerky movements recall the creepier moments in Japanese horror cinema, to a mischievous jester doll with a worryingly powerful throwing arm.

The Hole plays a little like a PG-13 retelling of Lucio Fulci's 80s gore epic, The Beyond, in which a basement gateway to the realm of the dead results in plagues of zombies and face-munching spiders. Given Dante's voluminous knowledge of horror and cult cinema, such a reference is unlikely to be accidental. And, indeed, there are numerous nods to classic genre flicks for film geeks to enjoy, from a disused factory called Gloves Of Orlac to cameos from veteran actors Dick Miller and Bruce Dern.

While many viewers will guess the reasons behind its supernatural events, this doesn't prevent The Hole from being a compelling, entertaining film with some surprisingly eerie moments. There's an interesting subtext, too, about childhood trauma and its psychological effects, economically illustrated in a beautifully stylised sequence that recalls German expressionist films such as Robert Wiene's The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari.

The result is a film that, while not quite in the league of Dante's very best work, is nevertheless cleverly written and genuinely well shot, even without the advantage of the dizzying 3D found in the cinema release (which was used with surprising economy and imagination).

Full of unexpectedly scary moments that will give even hardened horror fans a moment's pause (one shadowy adult figure is particularly menacing), and benefiting from an excellent young cast (Nathan Gamble's winning, natural performance is especially worthy of note), The Hole deserves to be rediscovered on disc.

The Disc

Even without the benefit of 3D, The Hole looks marvellous on Blu-ray, the high definition image doing proper justice to Theo van de Sande's cinematography, and lending its own sense of depth to the inky void of the trapdoor in the basement.

Sadly, the disc's extras aren't anywhere near as sparkling as the film itself, with a brief ‘making-of' documentary that amounts to little more than a synopsis of the main feature. There's also some behind-the-scenes footage and a few surprisingly perfunctory interviews where the cast and crew tell us just how much fun they had during the film's production.

Nevertheless, The Hole is well worth seeking out. Shamefully overlooked in cinemas while noisier tripe such as Clash Of The Titans brought home the bacon, Dante's film is a spooky, funny, unexpected treat.

Movie:
Disc:

The Hole is out now on Blu-ray and available from the Den Of Geek Store.

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The Golden Globes have traditionally, as you probably know, been considered a forerunner for the Oscars, and this year’s gongs were handed out overnight.

For us, and for many, the process, particularly on the movie side, had already been tempered somewhat by the nominations. Burlesque, for instance, found itself up for one of the two Best Picture categories, while Johnny Depp’s dual nomination for his acting in Alice In Wonderland and The Tourist left many thinking that it was just celebrity pandering that determined many of the categories.

Still, if you are looking for Oscar clues, then mark Colin Firth down as the forerunner for the Best Actor Oscar, having beaten the strongly-favoured James Franco, while Natalie Portman and Annette Bening are rightly the forerunners for Best Actress now.

As for Best Picture? Then it might just be down to The Social Network vs Black Swan. But The Social Network is surely the clear favourite.

On the television side, Boardwalk Empire overcame many of its critics to be a big winner, but it was Glee that managed to sweep away a sizeable number of gongs.

Here’s the full list of winners…

BEST MOTION PICTURE - DRAMA
The Social Network

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A MOTION PICTURE - DRAMA
Natalie Portman - Black Swan

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A MOTION PICTURE - DRAMA
Colin Firth - The King's Speech

BEST MOTION PICTURE - COMEDY OR MUSICAL
The Kids Are All Right

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A MOTION PICTURE - COMEDY OR MUSICAL
Annette Bening - The Kids Are All Right

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A MOTION PICTURE - COMEDY OR MUSICAL
Paul Giamatti - Barney's Version

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
Toy Story 3 (Disney Pixar)

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
In a Better World (Denmark)

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN A MOTION PICTURE
Melissa Leo - The Fighter

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN A MOTION PICTURE
Christian Bale - The Fighter

BEST DIRECTOR - MOTION PICTURE
David Fincher - The Social Network

BEST SCREENPLAY - MOTION PICTURE
Aaron Sorkin - The Social Network

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE - MOTION PICTURE
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross - The Social Network

BEST ORIGINAL SONG - MOTION PICTURE
You Haven't Seen the Last of Me; Music & Lyrics by Dianne Warren - Burlesque

BEST TELEVISION SERIES - DRAMA
Boardwalk Empire (HBO)

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A TELEVISION SERIES - DRAMA
Katey Sagal - Sons of Anarchy

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A TELEVISION SERIES - DRAMA
Steve Buscemi - Boardwalk Empire

BEST TELEVISION SERIES - COMEDY OR MUSICAL
Glee

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A TELEVISION SERIES - COMEDY OR MUSICAL
Laura Linney - The Big C

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A TELEVISION SERIES - COMEDY OR MUSICAL
Jim Parsons - The Big Bang Theory

BEST MINI-SERIES OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION
Carlos

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A MINI-SERIES OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION
Claire Danes - Temple Grandin

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A MINI-SERIES OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION
Al Pacino - You Don't Know Jack

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN A SERIES, MINI-SERIES OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION
Jane Lynch - Glee

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN A SERIES, MINI-SERIES OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION
Chris Colfer - Glee

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Now, this is a lot better. The earlier trailer for Scream 4 didn't really set the pulses racing a great deal. But this brand new promo for the film, which is the Canadian trailer, is a lot better.

It still doesn't fully distil some of the concerns about the movie, with rumours across the duration of the production that both writer Kevin Williamson and director Wes Craven weren't entirely happy. But having seen The Green Hornet turn out much better than expected, following rumours of unrest, we've got high hopes for Scream 4.

Here's that trailer...

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Warner Bros is rolling out its final Harry Potter movie in six months' time, as Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 2 is set to arrives in cinemas worldwide from July. And, to be honest, we were expecting the first image of the film to appear to be another shot of Emma Watson, Rupert Grint and Daniel Radcliffe standing side by side with some element of peril on their faces.

But not so. For the first picture to have appeared from Part 2 specifically features Neville Longbottom (Matthew Lewis) in not great shape, with Bellatrix Lestrange (Helena Bonham Carter) in the background. And it is here.

Nice cardigan, Neville...

Bleeding Cool

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The next Twilight movie, Breaking Dawn - Part 1, is currently shooting (along with Part 2) in Canada. But Summit Entertainment is happy to drip feed a few photos here and there to keep Twilight fans happy.

Thus, this shot, which features Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart getting a little bit frisky. Er, hope you like it.

Twilight Breaking Dawn - Part 1 is due on November 18th 2011.

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If you wanted further proof that Spider-Man was heading off in a new direction with its upcoming reboot, then it's worth going and having another look at the first image of Andrew Garfield in the webslinger's costume.

The picture, released last week, led to many thinking that Garfield's Spider-Man would have mechanical webshooters, rather than the organic ones that Tobey Maguire deployed. And this has now been confirmed by Emma Stone, on the red carpet prior to the Golden Globes.

"It's a device," Stone confirmed to MTV, although she remained tight-lipped about anything else to do with the project.

In the comics, we've seen Spider-Man deploy his own webs, and also employ such a device. Yet, it's a further sign, as if any were needed, that Marc Webb's Spider-Man adventure is going off in a very different direction to Sam Raimi's.

Here's the piece at MTV.

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If my own teenage revolution hadn't been so tame, then maybe I'd have acquired the pharmaceutical knowledge needed to determine exactly what has been used to spike the water on BBC comedy panel shows of late. Side effects include: dilated pupils, a light sweat, the compulsion to nostalgically navel gaze into where it all began, and a book deal.

Alan Davies' Teenage Revolution is just one of a slew of memoirs released in the last year or so by Stephen Fry, Phil Jupitus, Jo Brand, Jack Dee, Frankie Boyle, Richard Herring and soon, Michael McIntyre. Not strictly memoirs, but still present on the shelves, are also offerings from Dara Ó Briain and Stewart Lee.

In Teenage Revolution, Davies takes an episodic approach to the decade of his life between the years of 1978-1988. Organising each chapter under the name of a hero from his adolescence, he combines anecdotes about worshipping Paul Weller and driving a 1275 GT Mini into the back of Loughton Co-Op with social history light on Greenham Common, race relations and the miners' strikes.

Out of character for a stand-up comedian, the book's hero worship structure moves Davies out of the spotlight and into the wings. Perhaps less out of character for a stand-up with such typically English charm is the book's underlying sense of embarrassment at being seen to take itself, or himself, too seriously.

Using his teenage heroes and events of 1980s Britain as cover, Davies sidesteps the fact that he is actually writing a (whisper it) celebrity memoir. He takes on the persona of a likeable and funny sociology teacher telling kids about life before iPods and the Internet in order to avoid the trappings of the genre's usual Class A confessions and C-lister spats.

This is really no bad thing. Davies is well aware that the relative privilege of his middle class suburban childhood hadn't provided him with the material for another Angela's Ashes, and even if it had, something tells you he would probably still have spent his autobiography taking the mick out of his own prattish adolescence rather than laying himself bare. 

Sadly losing his mother to Leukaemia at the age of six, Davies could well have strayed into tears of a clown territory, but instead chooses to keep things light. Paeans to Debbie Harry, Neil Kinnock and fag-smoking, model-dating 1970s motorbike champ, Barry Sheene, keep the early stages of Teenage Revolution pretty much on a Smash Hits tip.

That's not to say more serious subject matter isn't covered. A brief schoolboy flirtation with the national front is quickly replaced by membership in every just about every 80s liberal campaign that had a badge and a slogan.

As the years pass, Davies' early passion for American cop shows makes way for earnest support of anti-Nazi, anti-racism and anti-vivisection leagues. So far, so right-on.

His attempt to navigate the frustratingly muddy waters of 80s campus politics brings a smile or two, as does his account of spending his time at Greenham Common wimmin's camp trying to get off with a girl he fancied.

Released in hardback last September under the title My Favourite People And Me 1978-1988, the paperback version of Davies' book was timed to coincide with the airing of an accompanying 3-part series on Channel 4. With the addition of interviews and news footage, the documentary overlaps some of the national events that form the backdrop to Shane Meadow's fictional This Is England '86 four-parter, but is a world away in terms of class, geography and grit.

Davies' show cherry picks from his book, occupying a middle ground in TV documentaries, with more integrity than another I Heart The 80s clone, but obviously less scholarship than something like Andrew Marr's 2007 A History Of Modern Britain.

Never much of a scholar by his own admission, Davies comes across in the book as clever, funny and self-effacing. Written in a conversational, light-hearted style that simultaneously celebrates and sends up his youthful pretensions, Teenage Revolution's trip down memory lane will be enjoyed by fans of Davies' stand-up and QI persona, especially those who were there the first time around.

Teenage Revolution is out now and available from the Den Of Geek Store.

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1. Pilot

As tempting as undoubtedly is, I will be attempting to avoid using boxing terminology in these upcoming reviews as much as I possibly can. I feel that, as a serious piece of drama, Lights Out reviews should be equally serious in nature, and filling it with a never-ending stream of boxing puns would be below the belt. 

FX's new boxing drama, Lights Out, arrives at a time when the network is enjoying a serious hit streak. New shows Justified, Louie and Archer enjoyed extremely successful premiere seasons in both critical and commercial terms. Stalwarts It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia and Sons Of Anarchy continue to be extremely popular, and even Terriers, which was a huge ratings flop, enjoyed tremendous critical success and garnered a devoted following that will surely ensure that it goes down alongside Wonderfalls and Freaks And Geeks as one of the great one-season wonders.

FX has now established itself alongside HBO and AMC as one of the unofficial ‘big three' networks consistently pumping out quality programming, and this, coupled with the involvement of respected showrunner Warren Leight (In Treatment), means expectations for Lights Out are understandably high. So, how does if fare up?

It's good fun. Nothing seismic, but a certainly very entertaining 45 minutes of television. It sets up our cast of characters and the rest of the series nicely, and leaves you wanting to watch the next episode immediately, which is the best thing you can say about any pilot.

The hero of Lights Out is Patrick ‘Lights' Leary (Holt McCallany), a former heavyweight champion who lost his belt in controversy when he refused to finish off a wavering challenger. Left mentally and physically exhausted by this, his wife Theresa (Catherine McCormack) persuades him to hang up his gloves for good.

But we all know how permanent boxing retirements last, don't we? Five years later, Lights and his wife are raising their three girls in the ‘burbs of New Jersey. He divides his time between hanging out with his kids and advising up-and-coming fighters at the gym that he owns with his brother/manager Johnny (Pablo Schreiber, familiar to fans of The Wire as Nick Sobotka).

Halfway through the Lights Out premiere, however, things turn on a dime for poor Lights. It's revealed that ‘Lights' is flat broke, and so the news that his brother has inadvertently got them both in deep with the IRS leaves him with the threat of some serious debt. On top of that, his memory is beginning to show signs of decay, and a quick MRI determines that ‘Lights' is suffering from pugilistic dementia, a long-term brain injury that may result in the early onset of Alzheimer's.

It's at this point that Lights Out shifts tonally and stylistically into something far more interesting than the fairly rote family drama/'coulda been a contenda' hokum that characterises the first half, finishing with an extended sequence that recontextualises a number of events we have seen up until that point, and shows us the, until then, generally warm and gregarious Lights in a altogether different, erm, light.

Without giving too much away, there are parallels to be drawn between ‘Lights' and another great TV anti-hero, Walter White (if you don't who Walter White is, incidentally, would you kindly go and watch all three series of Breaking Bad immediately and I'll meet you back here next week. Thanks). All three of the men superficially live the lives they lead in order to provide for their families, but actually carry out their more nefarious deeds in order to feed a compulsive inner darkness that they struggle to keep hidden from view.

It's an intriguing setup, and McCallany does an excellent job with the character (more on him in a second), but in a way it's a bit of a pity that this is the narrative road Lights Out appears to be heading down.

While it's been the source of countless movies both good and bad, Lights Out is the first television drama based around boxing, and to make it into what appears to be yet another character study of a violent man, a show that we have seen many, many examples of in recent times, feels like it could be a missed opportunity. The boxing industry is so fascinating and filled with so many larger than life characters that it seems a shame to focus mainly on just the one. A Wire-esque cross-section of the entire business would be truly be an interesting way of approaching this subject matter, but admittedly, a much harder sell. So, admittedly, it is easy to see why they haven't gone down that particular route.

If you're going to make a character study, then your lead actor had better be good, and thankfully, relative unknown Holt McCallany puts in a brilliant performance. First of all, he completely embodies the character of Lights in a physical sense, which is incredibly important in a role like this. You have to believe he could hold his own in the ring, and you do, thanks to his huge frame and hewn-in-granite features.

He can do the nuanced stuff just as well as the punchy stuff, too. The moment when Lights is informed of his impending brain damage is wonderfully underplayed by McCallany. In a nicely observed moment, he reacts with an almost amused resignation, with the expression of somebody who has been waiting his entire career for this conversation.

There is more than an echo of Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler about both the character and the way that McCallany plays him, but if you're going to copy someone, then you could do worse than copy one of the best performances of the last ten years.

The supporting characters are nowhere near as engaging. In particular, Holt's wife is in serious danger of being just another Adrian, a mopey drag that acts as an unwelcome distraction from all the fighty-punchy goodness.

I've got faith Leight won't let this character fall into this trap, however, and first and foremost this episode is all about Lights, and as such, it's a solid, engaging start to what looks like an intriguingly promising new series. It's already got me hooked. Get it? Hook-ed.

Look, I tried, alright?

Follow Paul Martinovic on Twitter @paulmartinovic, or for more babble, check out his blog here.

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Having previously looked at the works of Randy Newman, I thought it would be suitable to look at another member of one of film composing's most prominent families.

Thomas Newman's first foray into film composing was assisting John Williams in conducting part of the score for Return Of The Jedi. Since working with one of the biggest all time composers, Newman carved out an incredibly successful career for himself in both movies and TV (notably Six feet Under and Angels In America,) which has seen him nominated for an Academy Award ten times. But he has yet to take home the statue, making him the active composer who has been nominated the most times without a win.

Below are some of the notable movie scores Newman has composed:

Desperately Seeking Susan

Newman's breakthrough came courtesy of his contribution to this Madonna vehicle with his new wave-tinged score suiting the feel of the mood perfectly, also going on to provide the musical blueprint for many other scores he would compose in that era, including, to a certain extent, his contribution to The Lost Boys soundtrack.

The Player

Newman's score for Altman's outstanding satire, The Player marked a maturation of sorts for his style and approach to composing. Doing away with the new wave stylings that he earned a name with through his earlier work, the score for The Player is a wonderfully eccentric clash of styles, which is perfect for anyone looking for a break from traditional score structures.

Atmospheric at times and outright crazy at others, this score really is a fantastic piece of work and is something to behold.

Scent Of A Woman

I often struggle with this film. For the most part, I really like Al Pacino's work, but he's insanely over the top here and this is the role he wins the Academy Award for. Madness!

Anyway, back on track with the score, Newman's most classical score to date really heightens the importance of music for film in general, but especially to those without sight. This is something that is explored beautifully in the film, as Newman's score accentuates some quite tender moments. I might not be a huge fan of the film, but the score is a thing of beauty.

The Shawshank Redemption

Newman earned his first Academy Award nomination for his work here. Sure, it wasn't his finest work at that point, but the critical goodwill directed towards the film highlighted the score as one of the film's many highlights.

Mainly consisting of subdued and moody piano pieces, the score evokes a sense of longing for freedom, as well as an inner darkness at the heart of the film's protagonist. The emotional pa off of the score is excellent, and whilst he has done better work on scores such as The Player, this really is an outstanding score.

The Horse Whisperer

I'll acknowledge that this is quite a manipulative score in places, but I still love it, despite the fact that you may as well have someone shouting "Feel sad! Cry!" in your face. Still, where other scores that are so overt in their efforts to elicit emotion fail, Newman's score for The Horse Whisperer succeeds, as it's so well crafted and executed.

I play this score from time to time. But it's not on heavy rotation by any means. However, returning to it for the purpose of this article proved to be highly enjoyable.

Meet Joe Black

Not the most complete or successful score Newman has composed, in my opinion, but it's interesting to hear how some of the ideas explored in Meet Joe Black developed and were used later in his score for American Beauty.

It doesn't go all out in the emotional exploitation stakes as his work on The Horse Whisperer, but there are some hugely moving themes, particularly those that act as romantic themes, heard in the score.

American Beauty

Another score that saw Newman get a nod from the Academy, and marking the finest score of his career to date, this treatment is packed of moments of humour and beauty that accompany the film perfectly, with it subtlety enhancing the poignancy of the key scenes.

My enjoyment of the film itself may have diminished over the years, but the score remains one of my absolute favourites. It stands as one of the most experimental and inventive pieces Newman has produced to date, utilising a variety of instruments and effects to create almost dreamlike soundscapes.

Finding Nemo

With cousin Randy having provided musical accompaniment to some of Pixar's most beloved films, the studio called upon Thomas to score their underwater coming of age tale. The dreamlike sounds produced on American Beauty proved to be one of the main draws for his talents, as they lend themselves perfectly to the aquatic setting.

Part of why I think this score is so successful is that it doesn't seem as though he approached the project as if he was scoring a kids movie, which many composers do. As a result, this is a remarkably mature piece of work for what is a quite a deep film. (Really, no pun intended there.)

Wall-E

A second collaboration with Pixar produced more outstanding results, as the score really is more important for a movie such as Wall-E than it is with many of the studio's other releases, given the fact that much of the film plays out without dialogue, meaning the score carries the emotion of the work.

It was, no doubt, a lot of pressure, but Newman rose to the challenge and created a score on a grand scale, utilising a 52 piece orchestra as well as incorporating a number of unusual instruments, which is something that's typical of his work.

He was unlucky to lose out in both Best Original Score and Best Song categories at the Academy Awards, as his work here is hugely impressive.

• See all the Music in the movies

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With the box office success of The Expendables last year, it's inevitable that Sylvester Stallone would want to get a sequel underway as soon as possible. According to Bruce Willis, Expendables 2 could begin filming sooner than we'd expected. Collared as he left the Golden Globes on Sunday, the actor said, "Apparently it's going to happen this year."

When asked whether he's going to reprise his brief but memorable role as Mr. Church from the first film, he said, "As far as I know, barring any unforeseen circumstances, but yeah, I would love to be a part of it."

There are also rumours, meanwhile, that Jean-Claude Van Damme may be set to appear in the sequel, having turned down the chance to appear in the first Expendables movie. This is according to the website Van Damme Fans (which comes to us via Dark Horizons), where filmmaker Sheldon Lettich (who wrote and directed the Van Damme movies AWOL and Double Impact) suggests that the Muscles from Brussels could be set to sign up, but only if "Steven Seagal is not in the sequel".

Legend has it that Van Damme and Seagal almost came to blows at a party held by Stallone at his Miami home in 1997. There was apparently a disagreement over which actor could "kick the other's ass". In a 2008 interview, Stallone told the magazine FHM that, when Van Damme offered Seagal a bout of combat in the back garden, the latter "made his excuses and left".

How much weight we can put on Van Damme's Expendables 2 appearance isn't yet clear, but given the success of the first film, we'd be surprised if Van Damme turned down a second opportunity of appearing alongside Stallone and his action contemporaries.

Access Hollywood
Dark Horizons

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After months of waiting, Black Swan is finally here. And, in an odd quirk of interview scheduling and embargoing, we have this roundtable chat with director Darren Aronofsky, from back in October, when the dark, ballet-themed psychological horror screened at the London Film Festival. Back then, anticipation for the film was still building after its well-received premiere at Venice, and the film's American release, and the score of accolades that came at the end of 2010, was still some time off.

However, most curiously, it was Aronofsky's career that provided the most mystery for our assembled journos. See, a couple of days earlier, Hugh Jackman had confirmed Aronofsky's involvement in what is now titled The Wolverine, although the project, which would see the director tackling both a major franchise and a Hollywood-sized budget for the first time, was still left unannounced by studio sources.

We were still a month away from Fox's official statement on the matter, but things seemed certain. Which left us puzzled when, after Aronofsky talked us through his career in financially-risky 'tough sell' movies, and his potential plans for making a 'safe bet' film in the future, he stopped conversation dead in its tracks when Wolverine was mentioned.

Thankfully, this derailing was only a minor issue, and before long we were in full flight, talking about the troubles marketing Black Swan, the world of ballet on film, and the importance of Clint Mansell's score to the finished work.

That one upcoming project aside, Aronofsky proved an eloquent, opinionated, and wholly chatty interviewee, also letting us in on his future plans for the medium of comics, as well as giving us a pragmatic take on the 'Method' school of acting.

You're still attached to the remake of RoboCop. How do you feel about remaking a film that is so iconic?

Oh, it's unbelievable. The first RoboCop's great. Unfortunately, a lot of the business has become about that, and I think, with the right opportunity, it's not such a bad thing. I think so much has changed in the ways that we make films, since the 80s, so you can really do lots of different things. So, it could be exciting.

Would you feel comfortable with somebody remaking your films?

Which one? Go for it! I mean, come on. How are you going to remake Pi? Have fun! Do it in colour, and we'll see what happens.

How do you choose your projects?

So far, it's just that I've doubled-down every time, left the chips on the table and let the cards go, because each one is just about taking a risk and a chance. Every one was as risky as the last one.

I think that's just because I just want to do something. I've got to keep myself interested and keep myself passionate, and so I haven't really made safe bets all the time. I just wanted to try and do something that excites me.

Why do that, though?

I don't know. I think it's my nature to try and make original content, and that's what I've done, is just try and approach things in an original way, and do things differently. It's unfortunate that I go that way, because it's not very good on the bank account.

Do you not ever feel like going for a safe bet?

Absolutely. I'm very interested in it. It would be nice to make a movie that other people want to make, because every one of these movies, I basically have to find the only company in the world that's willing to make it, and it's always a big challenge. I end up spending a tremendous amount of energy and time trying to get money to make these movies and it's exhausting.

Is that what has attracted you to the Wolverine movie?

I don't know what you're talking about.

[After a bit of an awkward silence] Speaking of comics, you have, in the past, released comics based on your own works, such as The Fountain. Is there any chance you will work in that medium again, maybe bringing some other projects out that way, such as your take on Batman?

Well, we're actually doing one, which I can't talk about. It hasn't really been announced. But we're doing a comic book of a script that's really hard to make, and we're going to do a comic version first, and see what happens. Because it seems like, when you come up with an original script, it's not as effective in Hollywood as if you come in with a comic book.

I mean, how successful was Kick-Ass as a comic book, or Scott Pilgrim? Those were fringe comics, right?

They were popular for comics.

Yeah, but what are you talking about? 50,000? 100,000? Scott Pilgrim. I didn't even know it. It's really an underground comic.

It was popular for the community, though. Do you not think, by saying you're taking an unfilmable script and turning it into comics, that you're just limiting your audience? Going from the larger community of moviegoers to comics readers?

When you work really hard on material, you kinda want to get it out there. The reason The Fountain comic exists is because, for a long time, we didn't think The Fountain was going to happen. And so, I went after an artist, because I wanted to get that vision out there. I'm a storyteller, so I can't tell it in my medium of choice. So, let's try it another way.

You're primarily known in some quarters as a very visual director. But after Mickey Rourke's success in The Wrestler and Mila Kunis' award in Venice for Black Swan, do you think you'll get more of a reputation as an actor's director?

I hope so. That's my favourite part of the process, working with actors. And working with Ellen Burstyn on Requiem, that was my biggest thrill. And that sent me down on a path of really focusing on actors.

How important is Clint Mansell to your filmmaking? Do you ever visualise scenes with his music in mind?

Not really. He often writes some things beforehand, but the final product of music is way different than where he begins.

But when I first started this project, we actually were on a panel for a BMG conference in LA. It was before the film even happened, and I made a joke that the reason I was doing Black Swan was for Clint. And there's a truth to that, because I knew this great challenge of taking Tchaikovsky's masterpiece and turning it into a movie score would be a really cool fusion. And I was really excited about what he would do.

So, he basically took that great score and ripped it apart and found certain themes and ideas, and then made this Frankenstein that became the score. And then we came to AIR Studios with an 80 piece orchestra.

Did you try to make the ballet your own, in a similar way?

We just went for it. I was terrified when we started off working on Swan Lake, because it's such a complicated work that has incredible history. So, I never knew how I would get into it and wrap my mind around it.

I knew nothing about ballet. I knew nothing about Tchaikovsky's score. Of course, I knew a lot of the themes, but that was a problem, because I associated most of the themes with Elmer Fudd hunting Bugs Bunny.

So, how to make those fresh for an audience was a real challenge, because that music has been deeply abused, because it's in the public domain. So, how to make it fresh was a big question.

Having worked on this, do you now have an interest in directing a ballet work for the stage?

Me and Benjamin Millepied, the choreographer, were talking about doing some sort of ballet version of the film. Taking Clint's music and some of the choreography he had, and doing that but - I don't know where we would get money for something like that. Chasing money for ballet seems harder than chasing money for a movie.

Did you take a look at The Company, Robert Altman's film about ballet?

Well, I didn't take a look at it. I saw it when it first came out, because it came out while I was thinking about doing a ballet film.

Was it helpful?

I think it's a terrible film. I'm sorry. I mean, I think most films about the ballet world, besides The Red Shoes, are pretty awful. That film [The Company], at least, was realistic, but all it really was was a concert film. I really wasn't into it. Centre Stage, and - I'm trying to think what else is set in the ballet world -

Suspiria?

That's not really set in the ballet world. That just has ballerinas in the back. It has really nothing to do with ballet. Everyone was like, "Ah! You're stealing it from Argento!" But we really wanted to have that documentary feel of the ballet world and build the horror out of ballet.

Are you concerned with how they're going to market it? Or who they're going to market it to?

It really isn't my problem. I used to actually care about that stuff, but I've learned. I don't make films that are easy to market, unfortunately. I think that Pi was the easiest one, because we had that symbol to stick up everywhere, so that was a good gimmick, and created a good mystery, and we didn't have to do huge scale. So, I am nervous. The question is will men like it. Or will men come?

One aspect of the narrative is the idea of a director pushing a performer towards perfection. And as a director who elicits very emotionally raw, impressive performances, is there a commentary there about directors potentially pushing their actors too far?

I see that now. When I was doing the film, it wasn't really on my mind.

I wish I could be as manipulative as Vincent's character was. He was a true master manipulator. I'm very direct, probably direct to a fault with actors, and I've probably scared away a lot of A-list actors, because I tell them how much of a pain this process is going to be, how difficult it is.

So, that's why, if you look at the actors I've worked with, outside of Natalie Portman, they're definitely looking for the opportunity to stretch their wings. Even Natalie, she hadn't been given a leading role. But I haven't gotten the big A-list actors to sign on.

What's been the most traumatic experience, then, in terms of actors working on your films?

I don't find it traumatic. I'm pretty easy. Natalie's worked harder for me than anyone, and that's because of the dance. It's an unbelievable accomplishment, what she's done, physically. The fact that ninety percent of the dancing on the screen is here. That is unbelievable.

These dancers train from the age of four, for twenty years, to get to where they are. And to physically pull that off, and to emote, to actually be telling a story during it, is really an accomplishment.

In a way, I read the film as almost a criticism of Method acting, in the way that the character is pushed to make her personal emotions represented in the performance.

Well, I'm probably pretty critical of that. I used to think it was cool, like I think most young film people. But watching Ellen Burstyn and being around a few masters - I mean, everyone has their own process, but I think it's actually pretty selfish. It's just make-believe.

There's a fucking half a million dollar camera sitting there, and forty lights, and you've got to hit a technical mark. What is the Method when it's such a technical job? It's about make-believing, for a very, very short window.

Like, I think the Method could work when you're stage. Sure, when you walk off stage and you've got to stay in character and you've got to keep the adrenaline up. That makes sense to me.

But film is basically little bursts of acting. Twenty seconds here, 10 seconds there. Two seconds there. I mean, sure, in between takes you could stay there, but once the take's over, when you're in the make-up chair, come on. You can be thinking about what you've got to get done that day and be serious, but you don't have to be an asshole.

To me, it doesn't impress me, actors that do that. I think it's a lot of wasted energy.

If you flash back to 2008, you have The Wrestler coming out alongside The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button and Slumdog Millionaire. And right now you have The Social Network, 127 Hours and Black Swan coming out in a similar time-frame again.

[Laughs] I guess it's unfortunate that I have to be on cycle with Fincher and Danny. Two of the best living directors.

The three of you are some of the most versatile directors in Hollywood. Do you look to them as your contemporaries?

I look up to them. They've been making films for a lot longer than me, and incredible movies. Fincher, he's a real master. And Boyle as well. So, the fact that I'm in the same sentence with them means a lot to me. So, thank you. But I'm a big fan. I saw Fincher's film. I haven't seen 127 Hours. I can't wait. I hear it's fantastic. So, I can't wait to see it.

Mr Aronofsky, thank you for your time!

Black Swan is released January 21st.

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For decades, the writers and directors of Hollywood have looked to books, theatre and even old television shows for inspiration. More recently, hit videogames and comics have been snapped up, tinkered with and projected onto the big screen with varying degrees of success.

As Hollywood casts its net ever wider for potential licenses, we've begun to see a weird new wave of films based on forgotten 70s toys, board games and apparently plot-free 80s videogames. Here's our pick of upcoming movies based on unlikely licenses...

Missile Command

Atari's Cold War arcade game, Missile Command, celebrated its 30th anniversary last year. Like most early videogames, Missile Command is largely plotless. Nuclear warheads, represented by a descending line of red pixels, fall on a row of cities at the bottom of the screen and it's up to the player to bring them down with their anti-ballistic missiles.

It was confirmed on 11 January that 20th Century Fox has acquired the rights to Missile Command. How they'll convert this flimsy property to a three-act film is anyone's guess, though the game's premise at least provides an excuse for plenty of huge explosions.

Asteroids

Another classic Atari game from yesteryear, Asteroids is even more plot-free than Missile Command. The player controls a spaceship, whose task is to simply blast all the inbound rocks that float around the screen.

Universal bought up the rights for Asteroids back in July 2009, with Matt Lopez signed up to write the script and Lorenzo di Bonaventura producing. If Bonaventura's name sounds familiar, that's because he was the man behind such films as Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen, Salt, and the largely appalling videogame adaptation, Doom.

Battleship

Pop star Rihanna, True Blood's Alexander Skarsgård and Liam Neeson are all set to star in director Peter (Hancock) Berg's $200 million adaptation of the board game, Battleship.

I was secretly hoping that Berg's movie would amount to little more than a two hour Battleship tournament, with Rihanna successfully sinking Skarsgård and Neeson's fleet of little plastic ships. Instead, the film will feature heavily-armed armoured battle cruisers blowing up sub-aquatic aliens.

James Cameron doesn't approve. "We have a story crisis," he raved to German website, Spiegel Online. "Now they want to make Battleship the game into a film! This is pure desperation [..,] this degrades the cinema."

Risk

Will Smith's production company, Overbrook Entertainment, is said to be looking to make a film based on the classic strategy board game, Risk, designed by French filmmaker Albert Lamorisse in 1957.

A Sony spokesman said back in 2009, "The strategic thinking and the tactical gambles that players must take in the game are what make Risk a classic, thoroughly engaging game. Those elements translated into an action-packed, thrilling story are what will make this a uniquely exciting movie."

Presumably, the Risk movie will therefore take the form of a fantasy war film, where warring factions in primary coloured uniforms vie for world domination.

Monopoly

It looks as though Ridley Scott will be busy directing his non-Alien prequel, Prometheus, for the next year or so. Though there's the outside chance that his next project could be an adaptation of the capitalist board game, Monopoly.

Back in 2009, producer Frank Beddor spoke enthusiastically about his plans for a Monopoly movie and how he'd convinced Ridley Scott to think about directing it. "I created a comedic, lovable loser who lives in Manhattan and works at a real estate company and he's not very good at his job but he's great at playing Monopoly," Beddor told the LA Times. The 'lovable loser' later wakes up in an alternate Monopoly universe, where he must defeat "The evil Parker Brothers" at their own game. "It was that pitch, that's where Sir Ridley got excited. After I pitched it to him, he put out his hand and said, 'What do I have to be part of this movie?'," Beddor revealed.

There's no word yet as to when Scott will start work on the Monopoly film, and it's possible it may never happen at all. If it does go ahead, expect to see Russell Crowe charging around in a little pewter sportscar (or alternatively, on the back of a little pewter Scotty dog) in about three years' time.

Ouija

Michael Bay's production company is making a movie based on the spooky Parker Brothers toy and necromancers' device, the Ouija board. Given that classic horror film, The Exorcist, already featured a Ouija board to terrifying effect, Ouija's producers have wisely chosen to steer their adaptation in a markedly different direction.

It's been described as a "family adventure movie", which sounds like it'll be a more sinister version of Jumanji to us.

Tron: Legacy scribes, Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz, are on scriptwriting duties, while McG is signed to direct. Ouija's scheduled to appear next November.

Monsterpocalypse

Last July, it was announced that DreamWorks had bought up the rights to the strategy board game, Monsterpocalypse, with Tim Burton signed up to direct.

We've already heard, courtesy of producer Roy Lee, that the film will be a Godzilla-like giant monster flick, with earthlings using huge robots to fight skyscraper-sized alien invaders.

John August, who has collaborated with Burton in the past on Corpse Bride, Charlie And The Chocolate Factory and Big Fish, is set to write Monsterpocalypse's screenplay, and veteran effects guru, Ken Ralston, will be developing the look of the monsters.

The Sims

EA has been planning a live-action movie based on its digital lifestyle videogame, The Sims, for almost four years. Reportedly a film about "what it's like to have infinite power and how do you deal with it", news about the adaptation has been rather quiet of late.

Producer John Davis described the concept for the film as being "Like Weird Science", back in 2008, but other than a tentative 2012 release mentioned on IMDb, new details about the film are rather thin on the ground.

View-Master

When 3D televisions and the Nintendo 3DS were still the stuff of science fiction, the View-Master was the must-have toy for a generation of youngsters. A clever re-packaging of a diversion that had existed since the Victorian era, the View-Master is essentially a set of plastic binoculars that allows the user to look at 3D images. Still going strong, with Fisher-Price currently owning the brand, DreamWorks brought the rights to the View-Master name in July 2009.

Of all the proposed movies on this list, the View-Master one is perhaps the most baffling. With action figures, board games or videogames, you have some sort of premise, at the very least, even if it is a flimsy one. The View-Master is little more than a device, after all. What next, a film based on the George Forman Grill?

Stretch Armstrong

Before computers and consoles came along and corrupted the planet's youth, the wobbly rubber action figure, Stretch Armstrong, was the must-have toy sensation of the late-70s.

Universal and Hasbro reportedly struck a deal in 2008 to create a Stretch Armstrong movie, with a script written by Nicholas Stroller, the genius behind the Jack Black vehicle Gulliver's Travels. Last February, it was announced that Taylor Lautner, still well-oiled from his appearances in the Twilight Saga, would be starring as Stretch.

Odd though a film based on a largely forgotten 70s toy sounds, producer Brian Grazer is enthusiastic about its chances on the big screen. "Stretch Armstrong is a character I have wanted to see on screen for a long time ... It's a story about a guy stretching ... the limits of what is possible to become all that he can be."

Honourable mentions

Rubik's Cube (a movie based on the 70s puzzle/toy sensation was rumoured to be under consideration last November).

Robosapien: Rebooted (based on the toy robot of the same name).

What To Expect When You're Expecting (a movie based on a pregnancy guide book. Whip It! writer Shauna Cross is responsible for the script).

Rollercoaster Tycoon (the rights to this late-90s videogame have been snapped up by Sony).

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Like a stopped clock telling the right time twice a day, once in a while my half-baked guesses and predictions come true. And while last week's series premiere of David Crane and Jeffrey Klarik's sitcom left me rather cold, it nevertheless left me with the feeling that, having spent half an hour setting up the show's premise, Episodes would improve considerably in the weeks that followed.

As predicted, part two of Episodes is a huge improvement on the slightly awkward opening instalment, and it's a shame the BBC didn't show both episodes back to back.

Against their better judgement, husband and wife writing duo, Sean and Beverly, have sold the rights to their BAFTA-winning UK sitcom to smooth-talking Hollywood executive, Merc Lapidus. Arriving in Los Angeles, the couple watch in horror as their writing is slowly picked apart and rearranged before their eyes, and episode one concluded with the revelation that the wildly unsuitable Matt LeBlanc would be starring as an erudite headmaster.

In episode two, Sean and Beverly's anxieties appear, at first, to be unfounded. They meet LeBlanc at a dinner party hosted by Lapidus and are stunned to find that, far from the crass boor they were expecting, the Friends actor is charming and full of enthusiasm for their comedy, and Beverly's smitten. "Oh, he's totally wrong, but he has such nice hair," she remarks.

And then things start to go horribly wrong. While Sean's busy admiring Merc Lapidus' extensive art collection, Matt and Beverly's initial friendship begins to disintegrate. Beverly is horrified by Matt's admission that he found amusement in a documentary about sufferers of Tourette syndrome, and his suggestion that, instead of playing a verbose headmaster in Beverly's sitcom, he could play a hockey coach, leads to outright animosity.

More shrewd and back-biting than he first appears, LeBlanc later has a quiet word with Lapidus, resulting in an executive decision to change the actor's role from headmaster to hockey teacher.

An episode full of genuinely funny moments, LeBlanc is brilliant value, playing a brilliantly skewed, obnoxious version of himself. Stephen Mangan and Tamsin Greig are great, too, as the bickering couple whose work crumbles all around them, and Greig's scenes with LeBlanc crackle with energy.

In fact, this entire episode belongs to Greig, and her concluding, swear-filled rant ends the show on a genuine high.

The first part of Episodes established a great cast and writing pedigree, while this one, thankfully, introduced some genuinely, outrageously funny moments. Having found its feet, I only hope the series can continue to maintain a similarly high standard.

Read our review of the series premiere here.

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Marvel's comic book double bill this summer will, as you probably know, see both Thor and Captain America come to the big screen, in films directed, respectively, by Kenneth Branagh and Joe Johnston.

Marvel has been coy about teasing out the look of, particularly, the latter movie, but we've now seen pictures of the title characters of both films in action. And the firm has now released these fresh images from the two films to whet your appetite a little further.

Thor hits UK cinemas first, on Friday 29th April. Captain America arrives exactly three months later, on Friday 29th July.

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The end result was a little muddled, but Summit Entertainment's RED nonetheless proved to be a strong box office performer last year, and had moments of spark to it, too. And as such, it's now been confirmed that a sequel is on the way.

The Hollywood Reporter has revealed the news that writers Erich and Jon Hoeber have been brought back to pen the screenplay for the new movie. They also penned the first, based on the comic work of Warren Ellis and Cully Hamner.

The first RED grossed over $160m worldwide, off a budget of around $60m, and that's before the DVD and Blu-ray money has been counted up. And that means the second will inevitably be more expensive, especially as deals haven't been done with the principle cast and crew. Thus, Bruce Willis, Helen Mirren, John Malkovich and director Robert Schwentke will all have to be lured back.

It's early days for now, though, as first of all, Summit will be getting its script into place. Don't expect RED 2 to be heading into production this year, we'd suggest.

The Hollywood Reporter

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A pity, this, but not a surprise. Back when it was announced that Christopher Nolan was overseeing the cinematic rebirth of the Superman franchise, and even when the reins to it were passed over to Zack Snyder, there was some chatter that Jon Hamm might be in line to play the Man Of Steel.

This always looked unlikely, if we're being honest. Hamm, best known for his superb work on Mad Men, is turning 40 in March. And 40-year-old men just don't get the lead in superhero movies any more. Especially superhero movies where the studio will be looking to bash out a couple of further sequels before the next reboot.

It's still a shame, but any lingering hope that Hamm might be being considered for Superman was extinguished on the red carpet for the Critics' Choice Awards. There, MTV asked the actor whether there was anything in the Superman talk, and Snyder confirmed to him that it's a "young man's game", and that Hamm has been "aged out".

It is a bit depressing. Not the Superman casting, per se, although I, for one, would love to have seen Hamm in the role. But personally, I grew up watching Roger Moore and Sean Connery as James Bond, with Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker as Doctor Who, and with Christopher Reeve as Superman.

Was age a barrier to me enjoying or appreciating those performances? Not at all. And while some roles are right for younger actors, Hollywood's obsession with the youngest it can get away with in key franchises continues to worry.

To be fair to Superman, if it does go down some element of early Superman story (as rumours suggest it will), then a younger actor would be the right choice for the role. But woe betide said actor if he has the temerity to grow old. And this is, lest we forget, in an industry where actors have it a lot easier in that department than actresses. Were it a new Supergirl that was being cast, then the casting call would be unlikely to ask for anyone over 25.

Here's the piece from MTV.

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