Just a quick update here. Production has now wrapped on The Mummy, which had been filming in London. And just as it does, we get our first look at Tom Cruise on set of the new movie. Here's the pic...

Previously: first look at Sofia Boutella in The Mummy

Currently filming here in the UK is the new take on The Mummy. This is the movie that'll kickstart in earnest Universal's classic monster movie universe, and it's recruited Tom Cruise and Russell Crowe for the film. Alex Kurtzman is directing.

The role of The Mummy, though, is being played by Sofia Boutella this time, who we're shortly to see again on the big screen in Star Trek Beyond. And the first on-set snaps of Boutella as the new Mummy have now appeared online.

We thought you might fancy seeing them, given that you've clicked this far.

The new The Mummy arrives in cinemas on June 9th 2017.

So far in this series of pieces that look at the straight-to-DVD or VOD movies of some of our favourite actors who have fallen on hard times, we’ve only looked at men (to date: Bruce Willis, Nicolas Cage, John Cusack and John Travolta). That’s because, mostly, actresses find themselves almost completely out of the game once they hit 30ish – an unnecessary full stop that a lot of us would like to see removed in the future.

Denise Richards, sadly, is no different. After marrying a man she found herself in an abusive relationship with, her career climb stumbled and she was forced back down into TV roles, where she’s currently still putting in the hours.

Richards had a sparkling, American Dream-like start in life. A beautiful cheerleader from Downers Grove, Illinois, she was the daughter of a humble coffee shop proprietor and phone engineer who moved to California and broke into the movie industry with perceived ease after making her way around the network TV circuit in small parts.

Her breakout role in 1997’s Starship Troopers was where I first clapped eyes on her and, like a lot of people, fell absolutely in love.

The film’s director, Paul Verhoeven, has been providing us with films full of complex, confident, female characters for decades. Sharon Stone’s psychopathically sexual Catherine Trammell would have absolutely broken the internet had it been in full swing at the time; badass Officer Anne Lewis fighting side-by-side with Robocop was a refreshing change - and the casting of Nancy Allen, who had come off a string of hooker-with-a-heart-of-gold movies, was inspired. Verhoeven also gave us Black Book’s Rachel Stein risking life and limb to infiltrate the Gestapo, and he even blew the Cannes Film Festival completely away with his 'comedy' Elle just a few months ago. The 77-year-old Dutchman has dished out plenty of subversive heroines and villains to keep me happy over the years, at least.

But Denise Richards’ Lt. Carmen Ibanez is probably one of Verhoeven’s more progressive heroines and I hear you laughing, but let me explain why.

Starship Troopers, whilst being a deftly satirical film about war and fascism that went over plenty of peoples’ heads at the time, refuses to bend to the usual tropes when dealing with main character Jonny Rico’s love interest Ibanez.

Ibanez is dating Jonny at the outset of the movie, but it’s quickly established that she’s not happy with him. He doesn’t challenge her mentally or emotionally and she later dumps him to concentrate on her career. Denise plays Ibanez well, and the film doesn’t stoop to inferring that she is a bad person for how she treats Jonny (although some people might project that onto her).

Later, when they reunite in the final act, your standard action film would have Ibanez realise the error of her ways and embrace Jonny with love hearts in her eyes after the muscly dreamboat rescues her from certain death, but she doesn’t. The two simply process their ability to take care of each other and stay friends before she steadfastly moves on with her career, getting a huge promotion and becoming a battleship captain.

I mean, holy shit. Thank you.

Subsequently seeing Richards take bad hits in her personal and professional life has maybe been a little harder for me to take than most, so I had a look at some of her forgotten, post-Bond girl straight-to-DVD flicks in search of a gem…

[WARNING: definitely contains spoilers for the film Fight Club]

Good Advice (2001)

IMDb – 6.2, Rotten Tomatoes – 29%

Good Advice is the film where Denise Richards met Charlie Sheen, so it comes with a lot of baggage. Their relationship has been well-documented as abusive and publicly harrowing, so it’s hard not to want to shout “DON’T DO IT!” at the screen from the opening scene.

Sheen stars in the lacklustre rom-com as a disingenuous playboy (a stretch for him, no doubt) who loses his job tinkering with the stock market on a single bad deal, pushing him to move in with his advice columnist girlfriend (Richards). She’s merely the device to get him taking over her role at the newspaper though, and he’s soon writing back to desperate people with the worst advice in the world after she ups and moves to Brazil. Through writing the column, Sheen slowly learns to be sensitive to the problems of others and falls in love with the paper’s editor, becoming fully reformed by the denouement.

The trouble is, Sheen as a reformed character is not something we’re able to buy on any level and he seems to be barely trying here. Richards does the job of playing a bubbly narcissist well enough, but there’s not much for her to do, and the film just sort of chugs along until the inevitable, quasi-uplifting conclusion.

There are a few laughs from Jon Lovitz as Sheen’s best friend, but overall I’d advise you give this one a miss.

The Third Wheel (2002)

IMDb – 5.5, Rotten Tomatoes – 33%

A forgotten Miramax romantic comedy from the early aughts era of nine billion forgotten Miramax romantic comedies, The Third Wheel comes to us via “one of the producers of American Pie”.

There was a time when countless films were marketed as having some vague connection to American Pie, but it’s not like we can be smug about that kind of thing being lost to the past – every other horror DVD these days flaunts a cover claiming to be “from the minds behind Paranormal Activity 4” or whatever.

The DVD cover for The Third Wheel also says things like “THE LAUGHS KEEP COMING!” and “IRRESISTABLE ALL-STAR CAST” – but, bafflingly, they’re not claims attributed to anyone. This makes me think we could get away with doing this in real life, like on a CV or just hyping up an evening out - “when you go out for a beer with me, THE LAUGHS KEEP COMING!”

The camerawork in the film is very much of that Miramax-era style, too - sort of plonking a camera down and having characters walk in and out of frame is a technique that is slowly fading into history and this film shows that it’s something we can probably be grateful for.

Perhaps fulfilling some backroom handshake deal with a desperate bod over at Miramax, both Ben Affleck and Matt Damon are in The Third Wheel. Not for long, you understand, but they both have enough lines to be considered part of the cast, despite Damon being uncredited for his part.

The plot is problematic as hell on a swathe of different levels. Luke Wilson (the other Wilson, but not the other other one) who struggles to put in an emotive performance at the best of times, plays a businessman who becomes infatuated with the new girl at work (Richards, natch). From the outset, despite being written as a smart, confident career woman, Richards is established as a prize to be won. Wilson fantasises about her telling him that he’s her reason for even living, and that’s before the rest of his office start a betting system designed to pay out whenever he reaches another base with her.

When Wilson finally asks her out on a date, Richards (confusingly) agrees, but their date is hampered by a homeless man who deliberately gets run over by cars to encourage the drivers to pay out quickly and be on their way. Due to a series of ham-fisted events, the couple are forced to spend the rest of their date with the homeless man, which turns out to be wholly cringeworthy, and culminates with a horrifying scene where the homeless guy forces himself on Richards to spur Wilson into becoming her white knight.

Just awful.

You Stupid Man (2002)

IMDb – 5.9, Rotten Tomatoes – N/A

Welp, that’s the worst title in the world innit? Closer examination of the UK DVD cover (not pictured) reveals Denise Richards being sold as “from Scary Movie 3”. Ouch.

David Krumholtz is the star of this romantic drama. I think he’s been pretty much fantastic in everything I’ve seen him in since I first clocked him in 1998’s Slums Of Beverly Hills, so to find he’s front and centre here makes me feel really positive going into this (despite the jarring visage of the World Trade Centre in the opening credits accidentally revealing that the film may have been sitting on the shelf for a few years prior to release).

Unfortunately, he’s completely miscast as the straight guy in You Stupid Man and is even more underwritten than the other characters.

Krumholtz plays Owen, who is head-over-heels with the vapid Chloe (Richards) until she cheats on him and he finds himself developing a platonic friendship with Nadine (Mila Jovovich), with whom he hopes to pass the time until Richards sees the error of her ways.

Richards has little to do here except be pretty and act as a plot device separating the main couple from ending up together. Like When Harry Met Sally with the guts ripped out, the film doesn’t have anything exceptional or original to offer and the dominating theme is simply that Krumholtz is too dumb to move on from an unfulfilling relationship, so if you’ve read the title you’ve pretty much seen the entire film.

Edmond (2005)

IMDb – 6.3, Rotten Tomatoes – 46%

After checking out all the DVD covers, this was the one I was most excited about. Actually, it’s probably the one I was most excited about seeing from the long list of films I’ve had to sit through thus far for these pieces.

First of all, it’s a Tartan DVD. Tartan Films were very much the go-to distributor in my 20s when I wanted to see stuff from foreign markets or smaller, independent English language movies. In the days before widely-available broadband, Tartan brought us (extremely elderly) folk the likes of Battle Royale, Ringu, A Tale Of Two Sisters and Oldboy, as well as titles like Capturing The Friedmans and Dead Man’s Curve. When Tartan folded in 2008, it was as a sad a day for the industry as much as it was for countless movie fans.

Secondly, Edmond is helmed by one of my favourite directors, Stuart Gordon (Re-Animator, From Beyond). I’ve not seen a Gordon film I didn’t enjoy on some level, so my expectations were way the hell up for this.

Thirdly, it’s based on a David Mamet play and if there are any Glengarry Glen Ross fans in the house, I don’t need to tell you that when Mamet’s words are done right, you’ve got pure magic on your hands.

With all that, in addition to some 4-star reviews on the DVD cover, Edmond had my interest fully piqued.

The film, as it turned out, was just ok. The music and direction were good, and the look of the film - with its pops of colour and delicate lighting – was especially nice, but this is one of those Mamet adaptations that suffers for its dialogue sounding too stilted, too stagey.

The story has William H. Macy realising that he is no longer happy in his current relationship and vowing to go out and make his life more interesting. This mostly involves frantically philosophising while desperately trying to get laid, so he ultimately flits from one incredibly brief encounter to the next with a series of women. A stripper (Richards, on screen for about 2 minutes total), a peep show girl (Bai Ling) and a hooker (Mena Suvari) all take it in turns to thwart his sexual advances, until the whole things starts to feel like one of those frustrating dreams you have where you’re almost about to get laid, but wake up just before getting down to it.

I can’t recommend Edmond in any real way, but if you’re a Mamet or Gordon completist, you’ll probably want to check it out.

Blonde And Blonder (2007)

IMDb – 2.9, Rotten Tomatoes – N/A

“HILARIOUS!” screams the review quote on the cover of Blonde And Blonder. I squint at the attribution underneath. “Empire Film Group” says this is hilarious, ok.

Curious, I Google Empire Film Group - turns out they’re a film distribution company. Guess what film is amongst the ones they distribute? Yep, it’s Blonde And Blonder. Jesus wept.

You can probably work out the plot of Blonde And Blonder for yourself, but Denise Richards and Pamela Anderson are very stupid woman that are also blonde, because blonde women are dumb and ginger people are the devil’s children and god knows what other myths we can only pray are lost to the sands of time when making snap judgments about someone’s appearance.

The two women are so dumb that they don’t even realise they’ve been living next door to each other for about a year when they run into each other during a flying lesson gone wrong. They dress the same, talk the same, drive the same and both are single. There was a moment about halfway into Blonde And Blonder when I hoped this was going to turn into some sort of Fight Club situation where both would be revealed as the same main protagonist, but sadly it was not to be.

Denise and Pam are drawn slowly into a comedy of errors when they’re mistaken for assassins and asked to “take out” a mob boss in exchange for a huge wad of cash. They jump at the chance, presuming that to 'take out' means 'on a date' and it’s screwballs at dawn all the way down to the final moments.

When the music isn’t bludgeoning you with cartoon nonsense like a military drum playing whenever someone in charge appears on screen or catfight noises when women have a punch-up, there are a stream of jokes you won’t laugh at, including a farting animatronic turtle and an audition for a stripper gig that has the two women tap-dancing because they think it’s Broadway. Woeful. I know many people don’t think these actresses deserve better than this, but my argument would be that everyone deserves better than this and we, as human beings, deserve better than this.

According to Wikipedia, Blonde And Blonder had an $8,000,000 budget, which seems insane because it looks so cheap. I can only imagine the weight of that went on Pamela Anderson’s fee for starring in this terrible Dumb And Dumber-wannabe comedy, because I don’t know how else to process it.

I still hope there’ll be another great role for Richards in the future. I think she’s earned it.

Until then? Everybody fights, no one quits. We’ll keep fighting… and we’ll win.

Next time: Val Kilmer...

Follow our Twitter feed for faster news and bad jokes right here. And be our Facebook chum here.

Remember the good old days? They were good weren’t they? Not like now. It’s horrible now. That’s why everything on TV is comforting, coddling, backwards-looking fluff. We all just want to dive onto a feathery pile of period television and forget about the cruel, unsettling world of today. A world where, get this, the Soviets have gone into space. And there’s that war in Korea. Everyone’s testing hydrogen bombs all over the place, Castro’s taken over Cuba and innocent people keep getting lynched. I ask you. It’s little wonder all we want to watch on TV are cosy Westerns. Switch on Gunsmoke and all that worry melts away.

Fast-forward a few decades to now, when the release of 80s-set sci-fi series Stranger Things prompted a chorus of pronouncements on what’s been termed our peculiarly nostalgic age. The urge to retreat back to the familiarity of childhood—anybody’s childhood—has apparently never felt stronger. The real world, they say, has turned to such shit that everyone’s seeking solace in simpler times.

Stranger Things fills that need nicely, it’s true. If Dawson Leery had ever got it together to make a Netflix series, this would be it, an eight-hour pass to a Steven Spielberg theme park including free entry to John Carpenter World and lunch at an all-you-can-eat Stephen King Buffet (avoid the fortune cookies). An enjoyable sci-fi with a great cast, there are worse ways to retreat from reality and forget about what you saw on the evening news.

There’s nothing specific to our time though, about comfort as a function of television. Audiences have been reassured by nostalgically backwards-looking TV since screens were no bigger than your thumb and housed in cabinets that could accommodate the entire cast of The Waltons.

What was The Waltons anyway, but a decade-long distraction from Vietnam and Donny Osmond? Bonanza and Wagon Train did the job for those in the fifties living under the shadow of the bomb. Little House On The Prairie and Happy Days did it for seventies viewers trying not to think about recession, the tarnished political class and glam rock trousers. For decades, a conveyor belt of Dickens and Agatha Christie adaptations have taken the UK’s mind off impending doom. Nick Berry in Heartbeat got us through the John Major years almost single-handedly.

TV has always looked fondly backwards. We’re not the first lot to use it as a reassuring la-la-la hum against distant gunshots and explosions. We won’t be the last. It’s every generation’s vanity to think that it lives in the worst of times and to covet the wholesome simplicity of days gone by. We forget that for the majority of those who lived in them, there was nothing simple about it.

The world, if you take the trouble to look, has always been scary and unsettling. One reason we find our childhood eras so comforting to view though TV screens is that, as a rule, kids don’t follow the news. Bad things happening then were vague shadows, not hi-res images appearing minute-by-minute in the palm of our hand. Our ignorance was our bliss.

The belief that there’s so much comforting TV around because the special horror of our lives requires it is worth treating sceptically. One, because it’s cheering to remember that things aren’t quite as bad as all that. Two, because it’s not true. This stuff isn’t driven by emotions, but by economics. The proliferation of channels and streaming sites with infinite room on their schedules for ‘original’ programming is fuelling a fire for new content. Rebooted or pre-sold titles are more popular than new titles because they pose less financial risk, not because diddums needs a comfort blankie.

The fact that we’re now encouraged to heed the banking advice of Fred Flintstone and Top Cat points less to the idea that we’re all so traumatised by real life we need to retreat into the cartoons of our youth and more to the idea that marketers see us as simple idiots who’ll grinningly throw handfuls of cash at anything that we remember. (Halifax’s next mascot: a white dog poo and some pink custard.)

Though obviously widespread now, reviving old properties and continuing franchises in different forms is hardly exclusive to today. Dr Kildare for one, was several films, comics, novels and a radio programme before it was a 1960s TV show and 1970s revival of the same. There’s been a Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson on screen almost continuously since TV began. The Happy Days TV universe, with its Mork from Ork and Laverne & Shirley spin-offs, pre-dated Marvel and DC by decades.

If it was ever thus and cultural nostalgia is as much a part of any generation as our own. Why then, might it feel as though we’re the ones drowning in it?

A simple explanation is that our collective voice rings louder in the ear than it used to. Thanks to social networks, we’re talking more rubbish to more people than ever before. The sort of nonsense chatter that would once fill only pubs and bus shelters has been amplified by the tools we’ve built ourselves—including this website—to the point that it feels as though seventy per cent of human communication is just people remembering King Rollo. Thanks to Twitter, a simple chat between friends about which of the Tracy Brothers to shag, marry or kill now takes place at the figurative volume of a primary school playground that’s been filled with tigers and then set on fire.

More and louder pop culture talk is one part of it. An economy that’s involuntarily widened the post-teenage-pre-adult tranche of life for many might be another. The ‘nos’ bit of nostalgia originally referred to a physical home that you yearned for in absentia. Now that nobody can afford to buy a physical home, cultural property is all that can be yearned for. You try leaving behind Neil Buchanan’s Art Attack when it’s the rock you’ve built your identity on. When young people are priced out of obtaining the houses, jobs and kids that would previously have signalled they’d made it as grown-ups, they also have a lot more time on their hands to talk about Power Rangers.

Nobody’s as nostalgic for their childhood as people their early twenties. Unlike the rest of us, they can still smell it. And probably still fit into their old jeans. The closer you come the grave, the more you just want to get your head down and race towards the finish line blind to any milestones that might point to how long you still have to go.

Probably. I wouldn’t know. I’m very young.

The final bone to pick is with the assumption that period TV is all comfort and no challenge. Stranger Things might be a fun hymn to 80s movies designed to provoke fuzzy feelings about the days of massive walkie-talkies, but not all historical drama aims to reassure.

This Is England certainly didn’t. The BBC’s latest Sunday night period venture, an adaptation of Joseph Conrad’s terrorism-themed The Secret Agent, is no Cranford. Ditto for the politically savvy Wolf Hall. Call The Midwife even might masquerade as a lovely drama about nuns and umbilical cords, but underneath the frilly hats it’s really a hard-as-nails pro-NHS protest anthem.

We’re alright, is the conclusion. Or at least, not really worse off or more damaged than ever we were. Ours isn’t essentially a tragic age, sometimes we just insist on taking it tragically. So, you know, chin up. 

Hello! How are you? It’s one of those long letters we tend to write to you, to let you know what we’re up to. In this case, we want to just have a natter about three things….

CHANGES IN THE WAY WE POLICE COMMENTS

I think my favourite comments on Den Of Geek articles over the past few weeks were found in a thread about, well, let’s just say a major blockbuster film. The commenter in question was unhappy about the film, wanted it to fail, had lost his cat, was unhappy about remakes, and generally quite down on a certain movie. The response from several people? ‘Sorry to hear about your cat, and hope you’re okay’. I loved that. 

We’re proud as punch of the community at Den Of Geek. Each month, we get over 15,000 comments on the articles at the site, and the overwhelming majority are people nattering, cracking jokes, debating, arguing, and being part of a group of people we’re honoured to have reading the site.

Sadly, though, not everyone has been like that. In recent weeks, there’s been a growth in people who think it’s okay to call people names, to attack people, to passive-aggressively take potshots at them.

I need to be absolutely clear on this, for the avoidance of doubt: none of that is welcome at Den Of Geek.

The whole idea of us having comments is for people to chat, without having to worry that they’ll be bullied, persecuted, chipped at or snarked at for their views. We very rarely block or ban people from commenting, but I’m afraid that’s changed a little in the past week, and it’ll continue to do so. It’s my intention to tighten things up a little. Let this be one of the sites online that people aren't nervous about coming to have a natter at.

To be clear, and I guess Ghostbusters is the elephant in the room here. Of the 500+ comments on the film review page so far (and Ghostbusters hasn’t been the only issue in the last week or two, else I wouldn't have had to write this post), the majority are passionately arguing both sides of the debate. Don’t believe me? Go and look.

Unfortunately, we’ve had an influx of anonymous commenters who are being less constructive, and in a couple of cases, quite nasty. Again, let me be clear: this is not welcome at Den Of Geek. It just isn’t. I’m toying with blocking all anonymous comments, but I’m holding off that option for the time being.

For those who argue that I’m curtailing their free speech, let me assure you I’m not. I can heartily recommend Fasthosts, for instance, one of the many competitive companies who will sell you a domain name and webspace. Then, you can set up your own web page, and enjoy as much free speech as you like. At Den Of Geek? We work on an ethos of be excellent to each other. Anything that strays off that is liable to be removed. I make no apology for this.

One further flag: if your comment is something along the lines of ‘I haven’t seen the film, but…’, before launching into a tirade against the film in question, can you please think twice? I’m going to look at such posts on a case by case basis, but wanted to alert you that it’s something that’s very much on our radar.

Please, though: help us. If you see an inappropriate comment, click on the flag icon. There’s just a small team of three of us at the heart of Den Of Geek, and we need all the help we can get! Please help us make this a community where we can talk about films, shows, games, comics and nice T-shirts, without the poison that infests so much of the rest of the web.

WRITING FOR DEN OF GEEK

Now, an apology. Cunningly, I’ve just highlighted that there are only three of us at the heart of the site, and I’m very aware that we’re miles behind with correspondence. I’m often asked, though, what we look for in writers for Den Of Geek, and wanted to give some kind of answer to that question. Hopefully this will help.

Here are some of the things we can’t ever envisage wanting, for instance:

• Anything that lists x reasons why xx will suck
• The top 25 worst xxx
• Wikipedia scrapes

What are we after? Well, we’re always after interesting feature ideas. What I’d say is that we get pitched lots of variants on xx reasons why Doctor Strange/Suicide Squad etc will be great. But what could you bring to that? What’s your angle? What’s in your head?

Likewise, go off the beaten track. Pitch stuff nobody else is writing or talking about. The best thing you can bring to an article is your brain. Raid it. What gets you buzzing? What do you love to write? Pitch that. Don’t worry if you don’t think it’ll get any clicks. Just pitch something you care about.

We do pay (not very well) for all contributions, and the budget is naturally enough stretched to breaking point. Plus, er, we take an age to respond. But if all that hasn’t put you off, send a mail to geekcontent@gmail.com, tell us about you, and pitch some ideas. Don’t worry if you’re 15 or 80, and never send us a CV. We read articles, not CVs!

CHANGES AHEAD

We’ve tucked this in at the end, just to alert you. All of those comments where you told us that the website looked a bit old/tatty/stank of fish? We listened. As such, for the last couple of months, work has been underway on a new look for Den Of Geek. Cigarette packet guess? 76% of you will hate it, but happy to offer some odds on that closer to the time. We got away with our last big rebuild, four and a half years ago. Rest assured we’re just as petrified this time around.

Thanks, as always, for reading. Be excellent to each other.

Simon Brew

Editor, Den Of Geek

On the 8th September 1966, Star Trek made its debut on US television. Introducing the crew of the USS Enterprise on their exploratory voyage across the galaxy, it provided the jumping-off point for a franchise that has endured for 50 years.

Series creator Gene Roddenberry may have taken inspiration from a number of sources when he came up with Star Trek - AE Van Vogt's novel Voyage Of The Space Beagle, MGM's movie Forbidden Planet, to name two - but American television hadn't seen a genre show quite like this before. Employing some of the best sci-fi writers of the era, Star Trek was a space opera which dared to tackle big themes: xenophobia, equality, social change, all in the context of an adventure series with plenty of colour, humour and more than a touch of 60s kitsch.

At a turbulent moment in American history, Star Trek offered the possibility that humanity could evolve beyond conflict and xenophobia. Discussing the legacy of the series in 1988, Roddenberry described the themes he'd tried to explore up to that point.

"Star Trek speaks to some basic human needs," Roddenberry said. "That there is a tomorrow - it's not all going to be over with a big flash and a bomb; that the human race is improving; that we have things to be proud of as humans. No, ancient astronauts did not build the pyramids — human beings built them, because they're clever and they work hard. And Star Trek is about those things."

Star Trek imagined a future where the human race had spread out all over the galaxy - not as conquerors, but as peaceful explorers. Tensions sometimes developed among the Enterprise's diverse crew, but Star Trek otherwise showed characters from different races and nations - or, in Spock's case, other planets - working in harmony.

Fifty years later, Star Trek's still going strong, with Star Trek Beyond in cinemas this month and a new television series set to air in early 2017. The 23rd century of the series may seem a long way off, but it's also fair to say that much has changed in our planet's history since September 1966. So are we any closer to the utopian vision imagined by Gene Roddenberry, or is it still centuries away? What relevance does Star Trek have in the present?

Those are questions we recently put to the cast of Star Trek Beyond - Karl Urban, Zachary Quinto, John Cho, Chris Pine - as well as its director, Justin Lin. The result was a range of responses resulting from pessimism to a brighter sentiment that, yes,  we are moving closer to a more peaceful, enlightened and equal future. Opinions varied, but what was striking was just how thoughtful and considered the stars (and director) of Star Trek Beyond's responses were. Here's what they had to say.

Karl Urban - Leonard "Bones" McCoy

There's the Brexit that's just gone on, the rise of extremism. The constant outbreaks of violence in the States. Star Trek represents a vision of hope, hope for humanity, that we can move beyond these times. We can work together and that we will no longer persecute each other and destroy each other and kill each other. That we will be unified, and I think that's why Star Trek resonates - I think that's why it's important, culturally. 

John Cho - Hikaru Sulu

[Star Trek] came about at a similarly tumultuous time in America. It was a time of great optimism, but also marred by great tragedy as well, so it was an interesting portrait of the hope of modernist America. Sadly, there are some parallels that are happening right now. We're dealing with some... [trails off] incidents that are striking at the very heart of what we believe right now, at least in America. And it's testing our values as a society.

Not to read too deeply into it, but I just feel like Star Trek is a nice answer culturally speaking. It's not a political answer, it's just a cultural answer. The theme of this one is that family bends but doesn't break, you know? There's something beautiful about it. I hope people have an appetite for that message.

Karl Urban

Personally, no - I don't believe we are [closer to the future depicted in Star Trek]. It's pretty disheartening to see what's going on in the world, not only the way we treat each other as human beings, but also the way we treat this planet. We were flying over here, and we passed over a country and it was pointed out to us that they were burning the forests. It's sad, but I think that's part of why Star Trek's important. It's a beacon, it's a lighthouse, as it were, a vision of humanity. It shows how we can operate at the highest level and be the best that we can be. And in some ways, because it is about earthlings, it resonates more on that level than say, something like Star Wars.

John Cho

I don't know. I think I disagree. I think the Earth may be in bad shape, [but] it does seem like there's an assumption... we're more in agreement that there should be equality amongst genders. That's an assumption. In the 60s, there was not a consensus on that. There was a debate about the superiority of the races or something, but that was still a debate. Now, at least, maybe culturally we're policing that more. There are dissenters, but generally, there seems to be an agreement that one life is worth one life. Now, in practice, that's not happening, but at least there's not that debate. I don't know. 

Karl Urban

Alright, look... the ideology's always been there. It was present in the 60s, that's why Star Trek was created. But you asked whether we're closer to this utopian vision? I just don't think we are.

John Cho

George [Takei] was saying that he had a discussion with Gene Roddenberry about Sulu's sexuality back then, and Roddenberry was frank and said, "You can't do that. Not at this time." But now we can. And ironically, George is the one who's objecting, but that doesn't seem to be the case worldwide. So it seems there is some marker...

Karl Urban

I know what you're saying. There is some progression, yeah. In terms of certain microcosmic changes in society, for sure. But still, globally? We're a mess. [pauses]  What a downer.

Justin Lin - director

[Star Trek's idyllic future] was the first thing I thought about when the potential to take over came up. It became very interesting to me to try to deconstruct that. It's been around for 50 years and you see this crew, and you see the Federation - utopia. And sometimes that's assumed, you know? So I really wanted to deconstruct it, and hopefully at the end of the movie we can reaffirm why people have been passionate for so long.

I grew up watching the original series on reruns, and it was very unique. I saw people from very diverse backgrounds together on a shared journey. That was my first sense that family doesn't have to be by blood; it's about a shared journey. I think that is very important, and that was part of the goal when I got together with Doug [Jung] and Simon [Pegg] was to really honour that, and challenge it with a new philosophy brought in by Krall [Idris Elba's villain]. Hopefully, again, it reaffirms [Star Trek] and propels it for another 50 years. 

Zachary Quinto - Mr Spock

We're living in an increasingly nationalistic, xenophobic time, and you can see it reflected in societies all over the world - whether it's here in the UK with the whole Brexit debacle, or in Australia where we just came from, where their most recent elections were too close to call. The razor-sharp line of division that exists between political ideologies in our own country in the United States, I think it's clear that these movements are forming - and one is more forward thinking and more embracing and more inclusive. The other is less tolerant and more judgemental and more fear-driven and fear-based. I think, you know, over the next generation, we're going to see which way we turn as a civilisation.

While this remains a summer blockbuster, popcorn film, I think underneath that are some more resonant themes that are reflective of the times we're living in.

Chris Pine - James T Kirk

I like this film because there's a simplicity to the theme. It's essentially - the question that it asks - is, "Is the Federation good?" The good guys think it is and the bad guy does not, and the bad guy ends up alone, and the good guys end up with their family. Not to be super reductive about, that's what it feels like it's about, to me. Working together always works together better... it also appeals to a primal, animal thing, which is that humans are social creatures. No one can survive on their own. Thinking you can is ridiculous, especially going into the middle half of the 21st century. To think you can do it alone is just ridiculous.  

Zachary Quinto

The advancement of technology has probably guided us more than anything else in one direction or another. I don't know, it's hard to say. We're so much more connected, but we've never been more fractured as a culture. I don't know. I feel like we're living in really precarious times, and I don't think we're any further along toward a utopian view of our culture than we were then.

If anything, I think we're a little bit more astray, more far afield from true integration and true acceptance. I think the next 50 years are going to present the human race with challenges that so far exceed the limitations of geopolitical boundaries or nationalist identity. We're going to be up against challenges that we can barely fathom at this point. So how we embrace them and deal with them will define a great many things about where we go, but, you know, it's hard to say. We're teetering on the edge, I would say. 

Chris Pine

I think about Reagan's idea of the shining city on the hill... this idea of "We were once great when..." I think the human race has always been pretty fucking abysmal to one another. We've always killed one another, tried to destroy each other. So maybe in the human...I feel so dumb for talking about these big ideas, but you know, maybe the realisation of the full human potential is the utopian thing.

Maybe that is our collective struggle, is to find a way to get there. But right now it seems like we're duplicating what was written in the Bible, a millennium ago, which is "An eye for an eye." Revenge policy; "If you hit me, we'll hit you back worse"; ad infinitum.

Justin Lin

Great sci-fi, great Trek is always an allegory for something that's happening to us as a society. On every level, on every scene, we're conscious that we're exploring those things. Sometimes they're so subtle that you might not notice it, but hopefully you'll feel something.

I think we're closer than we were in 1966. But there are always going to be growing pains. Especially now, there's always stuff that's happening, but you have to have hope. I think that's what Star Trek has - at the end of the day, with all the adventures and all the conflict, what I love is the sense of hope.

The fact that we're human beings, and we're flawed. But at the end of the day, we have to believe that we'll eventually make the right choices.

Remember around the time Paul Feig’s Ghostbusters movie was just heading into production? A report sprung up that a second new Ghostbusters film was being developed, that was set to be headlined by Channing Tatum and Chris Pratt. The rumour was dismissed by Pratt and producer Ivan Reitman at the time. And in a new interview, Reitman – who directed the first two movies – has addressed just what happened.

“I was never involved in that, it was never real”, Reitman said to the Globe & Mail, albeit seemingly admitting that the project was an active one for a while. “There was a writer hired by the studio who did 30 pages, and it wasn’t very good”.

“The biggest misconception was that we were creating a parallel film in case the girls version didn’t work out”, he added. “But the only movie we were making was Paul’s movie. It never faltered”.

As for the future of Ghostbusters, Reitman was asked if there were plans for a cinematic universe. “I hate using those terms – it diminishes what we’re going to end up doing”, he said, admitting that “we’re hoping we can make sense of these two parallel movies [the original series and latest] – we have an idea for it, we’re working on it”.

Given that the new Ghostbusters film opens with a Ghost Corps logo, the umbrella under which Sony is looking to make more films in the series, expect more concrete news on a new film in due course...

The Globe & Mail

Game Of Thrones season 7 start date

All our worst fears have come true, as the prominent rumours about the start date and structure of Game Of Thrones season 7 have been proven correct. 

Collider has confirmed that HBO's dragon-stuffed mega hit will not return until summer 2017, instead of coming back in the show's usual April slot. We still don't know the exact premiere date date, but we'll let you know when we do.

Also, season 7 of Game Of Thrones will definitely consist of 7 episodes instead of the usual 10. This has been rumoured for a while, and can arguably be seen as a positive thing. The showrunners are plotting the endgame of Thrones across season 7 and season 8 entirely on their own terms, which should make for brilliant viewing. 

We'll bring you more news as we hear it. In the meantime, we've got some extra Game Of Thrones season 7 info on page 2....

Game Of Thrones season 7 directors

Entertainment Weekly has got the skinny on Game Of Thrones season 7's directors. Here's the list of talented chaps that will be calling the shots on the show's penultimate season...

Alan Taylor: the Thrones veteran who helmed the season 1 and season 2 finale episodes before being snapped up by Hollywood for Thor: The Dark World and Terminator: Genisys.

Jeremy Podeswa: the director of season 5's controversial episode Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken. He also directed the first two episodes of season 6.

Mark Mylod: directed The Hound's comeback episode The Broken Man and Arya's chase-stuffed hour No One.

Matt Shakman: a newcomer to Thrones who has previously worked on It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia, The Good Wife and Fargo.

You'll notice that Hardhome and Battle Of The Bastards helmsman Miguel Sapochnik is missing from that list. The Red Wedding director David Nutter is also absent. 

Game Of Thrones season 7 episodes

Word on the web has long suggested that the Game Of Thrones showrunners are planning to wrap the story up in thirteen episodes using shortened seventh and eighth seasons.

These rumours have now been confirmed by the showrunners themselves. David Benioff has told Deadline that "It’s two more seasons we’re talking about. From pretty close to the beginning, we talked about doing this in 70-75 hours, and that’s what we’ll end up with. Call it 73 for now."

When you add to this The Door director Jack Bender's previous statement that "They’re only doing seven [episodes]" in season 7, we can surmise that the current plan is for two shorter seasons - season 7 consisting of 7 episodes, and season 8 consisting of 6 episodes. This theory was recently confirmed by Collider.

Game Of Thrones season 7 story

Benioff went on, in that Deadline interview, to tease the ultimate endgame conclusion of Game Of Thrones...

"We’re trying to tell one cohesive story with a beginning, middle and end. As Dan [Weiss] said, we’ve known the end for quite some time and we’re hurtling towards it. Those last images from the show that aired last night showed that. Daenerys is finally coming back to Westeros; Jon Snow is king of the North and Cersei is sitting on the Iron Throne. And we know the Night King is up there, waiting for all of them. The pieces are on the board now. Some of the pieces have been removed from the board and we are heading toward the end game. The thing that has excited us from the beginning, back to the way we pitched it to HBO is, it’s not supposed to be an ongoing show, where every season it’s trying to figure out new story lines. We wanted it to be one giant story, without padding it out to add an extra 10 hours, or because people are still watching it. We wanted to something where, if people watched it end to end, it would make sense as one continuous story. We’re definitely heading into the end game now."

We'll bring you more news as it happens.

Deadline has broken the news that The Walking Dead alum Benedict Samuel (he played The Wolf in AMC's zombie fest) will portray new villain The Mad Hatter in Gotham season 3. 

Here's how Mr Samuel's take on Bill Finger's Lewis Carroll-inspired supervillain has been described:

"Jervis Tetch [AKA The Mad Hatter] is talented hypnotist teetering on the edge of madness. He arrives in Gotham with an unwavering desire to find his sister, Alice, a young woman who went missing in the city years ago. It is anyone's guess just how far down the rabbit hole he's willing to go in order to find her."

You may well remember that Hugo Strange was seen holding a copy of Carroll's Alice Through The Looking Glass during season 2, while he was going through his implanting-personas-in-his-patients'-heads phase. It seems safe to assume that Tetch is one of Strange's creations who managed to escape Arkham Asylum at the end of season 2.

This makes Samuel the second former Walking Dead star to nab a comic book villain role this year, after Tyreese actor Chad L. Coleman was cast as Arrow season 5's big bad.

Gotham season 3 air date

Gotham will return to Fox - over in the USA - on Monday the 19th of September. We'll let you know when we hear Channel 5's UK start date.

More as we hear it.

Gotham season 3 cast

The rumours were true: Gotham season 3 is getting a new Poison Ivy. Clare Foley will no longer be playing the leaf-loving DC Comics villain. Instead, Ted 2's Maggie Geha (pictured above) will step into the role.

As for how Gotham will explain the change in Ivy's apperance, TV Line reckons this is the answer:

"Following an encounter with a monster from Indian Hill, Ivy Pepper finds herself reborn, and one step closer to the DC villain she is destined to become: Poison Ivy. Now a 19-year-old woman who’s harnessed the full of her charms, she sets her sights on Bruce Wayne (David Mazouz)"

Once Upon A Time's Mulan actress Jamie Chung has also landed a role in Gotham season 3. She'll play Valerie Vale, an aunt of the reporter Vicki Vale from the comics. Valerie will be the one on journalistic duties during Gotham season 3, presumably because Vicki is too young at this stage.

Valerie Vale has been described, via TV Line, as "a crackerjack reporter dead set on uncovering the truth behind Indian Hill. Confident and dogged, she will do anything to get the scoop, and soon sets her sights on Gordon, who she believes is the key lead in her story."

As executive producer John Stephens told CBR, other new villains for Gotham season 3 will include the Tweedle Brothers, the Court of Owls and Solomon Grundy.

Gotham season 3 images

Gotham season 2 packed plenty of surprises, including the unexpected return of Jada Pinkett-Smith's Fish Mooney (now with superpowers!) towards the end of the season.

Executive producer Danny Cannon has now taken to Twitter to share the first images from Gotham season 3. And as you may have expected, they include a dramatic still of Fish and a few big teases of things to come...

#gothamseason3 Mooney's entrance. pic.twitter.com/81cZUP0RHX

— Danny Cannon (@DannyJCannon) July 9, 2016

pic.twitter.com/auNiA1Rb51

— Danny Cannon (@DannyJCannon) July 2, 2016

Gotham season 3. Barnes @MichaelChiklispic.twitter.com/hdw5BpNIKQ

— Danny Cannon (@DannyJCannon) June 30, 2016

#gothamseason3@donalloguepic.twitter.com/iiuXCoPl4F

— Danny Cannon (@DannyJCannon) June 24, 2016

#gothamseason3@ben_mckenzie@missmorenabpic.twitter.com/AGsjK9hND5

— Danny Cannon (@DannyJCannon) June 22, 2016

#gothamseason3pic.twitter.com/NcOA8ZF8TU

— Danny Cannon (@DannyJCannon) June 22, 2016

#stuntdoubles@camrenbicondova#gothamseason3pic.twitter.com/B5zr1zf1b7

— Danny Cannon (@DannyJCannon) June 22, 2016

#gothamseason3pic.twitter.com/L0KiEsWeKf

— Danny Cannon (@DannyJCannon) June 21, 2016

More Gotham news as it happens.

TV Insider has unleashed an official poster for Marvel's Luke Cage Netflix series, which will be available at this year's San Diego Comic-Con. Here it is, as designed by Marvel's Joe Quesada...

Luke Cage release date

Speaking at a swanky premiere event for Daredevil season 2 back in March, Colter confirmed when Luke Cage will launch. Here’s what he said, as picked up on Twitter...

“I’ll just say this – it’ll be action packed, from the beginning to the very end. Trust me. Daredevil premieres on March 18^th, and I will see the fans on September 30^th. You heard it here first.”

So, expect all 13 episodes of Marvel’s Luke Cage – starring Mr Colter as the impenetrable and eponymous hero – to reach Netflix on Friday the 30^th September 2016.

We've got loads more information about Luke Cage on page 2 of this article...

Luke Cage trailer

As you will have seen if you've watched to the end of Daredevil season 2 already, this is the first teaser trailer for Luke Cage's solo Netflix series...

Luke Cage story

Mike Colter has been chatting to Entertainment Weekly (in an online video, which Collider transcribed) about the story set up of Luke Cage... 

"There are politicians and then there are shady characters that function on the other side of the law. Who does what? I won’t say, but this becomes a situation where there are a lot of people who want to help Harlem and think they have Harlem’s best interests, but, ultimately, just because they think or say they have Harlem’s best interests, sometimes they’re being very selfish or being very short-sighted. So sometimes what they’re doing is actually harming the community.

"So this is where Luke comes in because Luke is a person who likes to, he observes and he listens and he takes in to account what people tell him, and he’s a pretty smart guy himself and he understands that some peoples’ way may not be the best may not be the best in the big picture so ultimately Luke has to get involved because there are a lot of things that happen, a lot of people get hurt, a lot of lives are lost and unfortunately he’s the only one who is capable of actually helping deal with this because sometimes the law enforcement is actually not the best because they’re not aware or they’re not capable, or maybe they’re corrupt. So, without getting into too many details, Luke Cage is gonna have to step up and be the man."

So, a sense of what the series is going to be like is starting to come together.

Luke Cage tone

Previously, Cheo Hodari Coker - the writer of Luke Cage's first two episodes - chatted about the tone of the show. As reported by Collider, the writer-producer described the show thusly:

"It’s very sophisticated. I mean, it’s got a ’90s hip-hop vibe, but it’s really forward-thinking. We have Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad doing the scoring for us. We have a lot of different musical appearances, but at the same time, we’ve got the Marvel action. We’ve got drama. I would like this to be, I mean, I know this is heavy but, The Wire of Marvel television, because we really deal with a lot of different issues."

Luke Cage cast

Speaking to CBR, Mr Colter has discussed where the Luke Cage series will pick up with his indestructible hero.

"He is reeling from the experience that happens in Jessica [Jones season 1], and he's trying to get himself back on track. His bar was blown up, and now, he has to start over again," Colter teased of the series.

"He's just got to figure out where he is now, and what he's doing with his life because he wants to define himself as a man, define himself in society and try to deal with his own demons. Just like Jessica had to deal with her demons, he has to deal with his demons, and that's where he starts. I can't tell you much more, but it will be interesting! It will be interesting and very unique."

Earlier this year, while talking to IGN, Colter touched upon the setting of Luke Cage before going on to explain how Rosario Dawson's hero-helping nurse character Claire Temple - previously seen in Daredevil and Jessica Jones - will fit in.

"Luke Cage does take place up town. It's a different backdrop,” he clarified, before revealing that the writers will manage to get Dawson’s Claire into this new locale in way that’s “very unique, and you'll see it makes sense".

"It's seamless,” he continued. “We're in the same city. She knows of me, obviously, from a personal standpoint, but it'll be interesting to see because she will deal with me in a different way than she dealt with Matt Murdock. Matt Murdock's character's completely different from mine." 

"She's going to serve a very significant part of the Luke Cage story,” he confirmed. “Not overwhelmingly so, but you will definitely be satisfied with the amount of screen time you see […] She's definitely going to be someone that's going to have a large storyline and help out a lot."

Sonia Braga has signed up to play Soledad Temple, the mother of Rosario Dawson’s Claire Temple.

"A character as strong as Claire needs an equally powerful mother, and with Sonia we found the perfect actress to deliver the stellar performance we needed," said Marvel’s TV chief Jeph Loeb via Marvel.com. "In Marvel's Luke Cage, fans will now get a chance to see where Claire got the fire we love her for."

We also know that Simone Missick will play the superhero detective Misty Knight, some form of rival crime fighter to Colter's Cage.

Luke Cage directors

Speaking to Empire Magazine on Twitter, Scottish director Paul McGuigan has revealed his involvement in Marvel's Luke Cage...

@empiremagazine@LukeCage ...don't tell anyone but I might have directed the pilot and second episode...just saying.

— Paul McGuigan (@paul_mcguigan) March 19, 2016

So it looks like McGuigan - known for helming Victor Frankenstein, Lucky Number Slevin, and four episodes of Sherlock (The Hounds Of Baskerville, A Scandal In Belgravia, The Great Game and the pilot A Study In Pink) - has helped establish the world of Luke Cage by calling the shots on the first two episodes. Exciting stuff.

More news as it happens.

Latest update: Mouse Guard added to the 'films without dates' page.

Comic book fans of the world - were you planning on spending your spare cash on anything other than cinema visits and DVD box-sets for the next six years? Well, tough. Hollywood has other ideas.

Ever since Bryan Singer’s X-Men movie jump-started the comic book movie trend in 2000 (building on the stellar work of Richard Donner and Tim Burton in the decades prior), Fox, Sony, Warner Bros., Disney and Marvel Studios have all been repeatedly cashing-in on the resurgent popularity of capes, cowls and anything ending in ‘Man’.

Now, the sheer size of the comic book movie-making world has reached a critical mass. There are now seven such films (at least) slated for every year between 2016 and 2019. There’s also a few confirmed for 2020 already, and plenty of other spandex-clad projects scattered around without dates (we’ll stick them at the end of this enormous article).

Now that X-Men: Apocalypse and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out Of The Shadows have finally reached our screens, here's what the future of superhero cinema has in store...

2016

The Killing Joke animated movie

What’s it about? It's only one of the most famous Batman stories of all time, folks. DC are continuing their long history of stellar animated projects by bringing Alan Moore and Brian Bolland’s The Killing Joke to the screen.

The iconic comic from 1988, which sees the Joker at his maddest and deadliest, needs little introduction. Suffice to say we’re very excited for this one. It’s a comic that influenced both Tim Burton and Christopher Nolan’s takes on The Clown Prince Of Crime, and, to be honest, you’ve probably read the book already so we needn’t have written any of that.

Whether The Killing Joke is destined for DVD or cinemas is currently unclear, but if there was ever a time to bring a DC animated film to the big screen, it’s surely now.

Who’s involved? Bruce Timm, who created the art style for most of DC’s animated universe since the early 90s, is at the helm. We pray every night that Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill might sign up to reprise their iconic roles.

When’s it coming out? It’ll be in American cinemas for one night (July 25th 2016), before getting a digital release on July 26th and a physical release on August 2nd.

Suicide Squad

What’s it about? The Suicide Squad is a faction of villains from the DC universe that's coerced (through not very friendly means) into doing missions for the US government. Fans of Arrow have seen an incarnation of this team recently, but don’t expect the same cast or characters for the movie.

Sharp-shooter Deadshot will be played by Will Smith. Harley Quinn will be portrayed by Margot Robbie. Jared Leto's Joker will also appear. Batman appears briefly in the first trailer. We’ve also heard rumours that Warner Bros. are trying to snare Jesse Eisenberg for another performance as Lex Luthor for this one.

You can read more about the Joker's role in Suicide Squad here, or see our detailed preview of the film here.

Who’s involved? David Ayer (who most recently helmed Brad Pitt tank movie Fury) is set to direct. The huge cast also includes Joel Kinnaman of RoboCop reboot fame.

When’s it coming out? 5 August 2016, in the USA and the UK.

Doctor Strange

What’s it about? Following on from a cheeky namedrop in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, this standalone film will see Marvel induct Stephen Strange to the Marvel cinematic universe. He’s a surgeon, and a bit of a dick, who becomes a master of the mystic arts soon after losing his ability to work in a car accident.

We discussed a potential source of comic book inspiration for this one here, but there’s years of material to choose from. A sidekick called Wong features regularly, and happens to be a bit of a bad-ass.

Most importantly though, this movie will open up possibilities for parallel worlds and strange magical lands in Marvel Studio’s interconnected universe, which should be very interesting indeed.

Who’s involved? Scott Derrickson of Deliver Us From Evil and Sinister fame will direct. Mr Benedict Cumberbatch is confirmed to be starring.

Interestingly, Rosario Dawson has played Night Nurse (a sometime ally of Strange) in Marvel’s Netflix universe, though it’s unclear if she’ll feature in the film world too.

When’s it coming out? 28 October 2016 in the UKA / 4 November 2016 in the USA.

2017

The LEGO Batman Movie

What’s it about? An unexpected, but entirely welcome, one here. There was no shortage of things to love in Phil Lord and Chris Miller’s The LEGO Movie, but the off-the-wall portrayal of Batman was certainly a highlight for a lot of people.

Expect more tongue-in-cheek gags about Batman’s inherent ‘darkness’ here, perhaps another song (check out the end credits to The LEGO Movie if you missed it), and either a black or very very dark grey costume. Given The LEGO Movie universe’s seemingly free reign, we’d expect a lot of villains too.

Who’s involved? In an answer to all our hopes and dreams, Will Arnett will be returning to the role of Bruce Wayne/Batman here. Seth Grahame-Smith of Dark Shadows and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter will script, while Robot Chicken regular Chris McKay will direct. Count us very much in.

When’s it coming out? 10 February 2017, in the UK and the USA.

Untitled Wolverine Sequel

What’s it about? So, Hugh Jackman’s cigar-chomping, bub-calling, f-bomb-dropping Logan is getting another standalone movie.

We’re not sure what they'll do with this one – in light of Days Of Future Past they could opt for Wolverine Origins: Let’s Try Again. Or, following-on from his previous solo outing it could be The Wolverine 2. They could even take the Fast & Furious route, totally change the title-style and simply opt for Wolverine III (which would let them use Wolvie’s claws as roman numerals again, at least).

Plot-wise, we don’t know much either, but we do know this standalone movie will be filmed after X-Men: Apocalypse. Still, that doesn’t mean we couldn’t jump to a different point in Logan’s time stream instead. The area between the main plot of The Wolverine and the 'four years later' Days Of Future Past tease, for instance... Is your head hurting too?

Recently, Jackman mentioned Old Man Logan as a potential inspiration. You can read about that barmy-but-brilliant comic run here.

Who’s involved? As well as Mr Jackman, director James Mangold (who directed The Wolverine) will also return. He also wrote the treatment for this new instalment, from which a script is currently being developed by unknown entity David James Kelly.

When’s it coming out? 2 March 2017 UK/ 3 March 2017 USA

Guardians Of The Galaxy Volume 2

What’s it about? A very welcome sight to many, this. After the huge success of Guardians Of The Galaxy, co-writer and director James Gunn will be reuniting the same bunch of a-holes for a brand new adventure. The title is officially Guardians Of The Galaxy Volume 2, taking inspiration from the Awesome Mix tapes from the first film.

Plot details? They’re not confirmed, but you can take a decent stab, we think. Star Lord’s father was teased fairly blatantly in the last instalment, with dialogue seeming to suggest we might meet the ancient celestial superheroes known as the Eternals rather than Quill’s traditional comic book dad.

Other strands we’d expect to see developed are Thanos’ love/hate (or should that be hate/hate?) relationship with his daughters, and a shed-load of Infinity Gauntlet teases.

Who’s involved? James Gunn, of course, is returning for more after smashing all expectations with his first Guardians story. The original cast we’d expect, too, and plenty more Josh Brolin. Beyond that, who knows?

Perhaps, after the events of Age Of Ultron, we might even see some of the cosmic Avengers bumping into their earthly counterparts? A big green ragey one, perhaps? That’s a bit of pipe dream, we admit.

When’s it coming out? 28 April 2017 UK/ 5 May 2017 USA

Wonder Woman

What’s it about? Here’s a bit of a potential game changer – so far, Marvel Studios has been leading by miles in its box office battle with DC/Warner Bros., but this film might change that. Unless Marvel has more unannounced films up its sleeves, Wonder Woman will mark the first female-led movie from either party in their franchises' current incarnations.

In the comics, Wonder Woman begins life as the Warrior Princess of the Amazons on the island of Themyscria. Using indestructible bracelets, a lasso of truth, an invisible plane and a tiara that doubles as a handy projectile, Wonder Woman is just as formidable as any hero of the DC world.

Before this movie, she would have already appeared (in full costumed action) in Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice, suggesting that this won’t be an origin story (unless told through flashback).

Her origin is a point of contention, with the recent ‘New 52’ revamp throwing out continuity which cast her as a hero-created-by-clay-and-magic and instead reimagined her as a demigoddess in her own right. It seems the latter is more likely this time around.

Who’s involved? Gal Gadot will reprise the role of Wonder Woman after debuting in Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice. Patty Jenkins - who dropped out of Thor: The Dark World late in the game - will direct.

When’s it coming out? 2 June 2017, in the USA and the UK.

Spider-Man: Homecoming

What’s it about? This is the first standalone Spider-Man flick to come from the exciting new alliance between Marvel Studios and Sony, which will see the Andrew Garfield continuity thrown out.

Instead, Tom Holland will explore Peter Parker's younger years following on from his introduction in Captain America: Civil War.

Robert Downey Jnr will make an appearance. It's currently unknown who the villain of the piece will be.

Who’s involved? Kevin Feige and Amy Pascal will produce the film together, and that they have 'hand-picked' Jon Watts (whose upcoming thriller Cop Car has turned a lot of industry heads) to direct.

When’s it coming out? 7 July 2017, in the UK and the USA.

Thor: Ragnarok

What’s it about? Aha, here’s something juicier to analyse – Ragnarok, the apocalypse of the Gods. We did a full speculation piece on this one, which you can find here.

Short version: this is when shit really hits the fan for the residents of Asgard. Ragnarok is a cyclical happening which frequently sees the likes of Thor and Odin stripped from their positions and left with a heck of a rebuilding job.

We’d expect some major consequences here, including perhaps the long-rumoured departure of Natalie Portman from the Marvel cinematic universe. You can bet that Loki will be stirring up trouble concurrently, or at least doing some hefty scheming as Asgard crumbles. Cameos from other galactically-enabled Marvel heroes aren’t entirely out of the question, either.

Who’s involved? Chris Hemsworth will run about in a cape once more, you will be glad to know. But will the demise of Asgard give him a chance to leave the role? Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost, who traditionally work in Marvel comics and animation, will pen a screenplay together. Directorially, there’s no clues as of yet. Alan Taylor, who helmed Thor: The Dark World, is very unlikely to return.

When’s it coming out? 27 October 2017, and 3 November in the USA. Ignore the date on that promo pic, Marvel has been reshuffling.

The Justice League: Part One

What’s it about? As if you don’t know already, the Justice League movie is DC/Warner Bros.’ answer to Avengers– it’s the ultimate DC team-up featuring Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman and Cyborg. We wouldn’t rule out appearances from the The Flash or Green Lantern at this stage either.

The plot will presumably follow similar beats to Avengers Assemble, with a spate of in-fighting leading to an eventual alliance, and a quest to bring down a very powerful baddy.

Who might that be? Well, Darkseid is a hot rumour at the moment. Darkseid is a member of DC’s New Gods, who inspired the invention of Marvel cinematic universe big bad Thanos back in the 70s. He’s massive, immortal, invulnerable and alien. DC are surely looking for ways to undermine Marvel, but would they really go as far as to push out a Darkseid movie so soon before Marvel’s Infinity War? Brainiac, a green alien/android villain oft portrayed with Superman-like powers, has also been rumoured.

Who’s involved? Zack Snyder is back directing, with Chris Terrio also being touted for a return, apparently. Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Gal Gadot, Ray Fisher and Jason Momoa are sure things, and, although not listed on IMDB, Ezra Miller seems very likely (for a cameo at least). J K Simmons has joined the cast as Commissioner Gordon.

When’s it coming out? 17 November 2017 in the USA and the UK.

Bloodshot

What's it about? Sony have moved forward with a new comic book property offering heaps of crossover potential - Bloodshot. The announcement came a few months after Sony publicly announced the idea to share Spider-Man with Marvel Studios, which may or may not be a coincidence. 

Anyway, to give the character the respect he deserves - Bloodshot is an excellent and much-loved comic book character in his own right. Heralding from Valiant Comics, he shares more narrative DNA with Wolverine than Spidey, as a former soldier who has been memory wiped. An injection of nanites into his bloodstream enables him to interface effortlessly with technology, heal quickly and shape shift. He's also not bad with guns.

Now, he will get his own movie. We can presumably expect origin beats, probably including Project Rising Spirit - the government solider-enhancement project that caused Bloodshot's powers and memory-less-ness. Often, they send him after strong telekinesis people called Harbingers.

A movie called Harbinger - based on a super-powered team, in the same world as Bloodshot - will be released on an unspecified date. Both Bloodshot and Harbinger will get sequels. After that, a huge crossover called Harbinger Wars will tie everything together a few years later (more info on all of those films in our 'who knows when, but somewhere between the rest' section towards the end of this article).

Who's involved? John Wick duo David Leitch and Chad Stahelski will direct, from a script by Kick Ass 2's Jeff Wadlow and The Thing remake's Eric Heisserer. Matthew Vaughn and Jason Kothari will serve as executive producers.

When's it coming out? Bloodshot's movie has been announced for 2017, with no specific date yet stated. Casting hasn't been announced yet, though, which could mean delays.

We've got more comic book movies on page 2 of this article...

Curses. We've had to do that thing where - to keep page loads on mobile devices a bit easier - we've had to put in one of those page break things. We, like you, aren't particularly keen on said page breaks, but it makes sense on longer articles such as this one.

Without further ado, let's move on to 2018...

2018

Black Panther

What’s it about? This time Marvel wins – the first black superhero to headline their own film in this current battle will be Chadwick Boseman as Black Panther. 

T’Challa (Black Panther’s real name) is ruler of the fictional African nation of Wakanda, where a huge supply of vibranium (the hard-to-destroy stuff in Cap's shield, and glimpsed in Age Of Ultron, too) gifts him with the best armour on the planet. He’s a hero in his own right, though, with strength, speed and some nifty gymnastic skills on his side.

As we mentioned earlier, the character will already be introduced by this point thanks to an appearance in Captain America: Civil War. We’d expect a straight-up adventure flick here, possibly co-starring Andy Serkis (reprising Ulysses Klaue from Age Of Ultron).

Who’s involved? The only confirmed cast member is Mr Boseman in the starring role, but we’d expect a wider Marvel cinematic universe presence to help get the ball rolling here, especially considering T’Challa’s Civil War link. Scripting and directing on this one remains entirely unknown at this stage, although there has been some potential names banded about recently.

When’s it coming out? 9 February 2018 in the UK. 16 February in the USA.

The Flash

What’s it about? This one’s caused a bit of mild internet controversy – weeks after launching a successful new TV version of The Flash, DC/Warner Bros. announced a recast film version.

Grant Gustin from The CW series definitely won’t star here, unless someone’s plotting a Flashpoint-style crossover. Seems like a strange place to launch a film franchise though.

Either way, The Fastest Man Alive is coming to the big screen. Expect running, lightning, superpowered-baddies and maybe even time travel (depending on the source material).

Who’s involved? Ezra Miller is cast as Barry Allen/The Flash. There’s no less than six screenplay writers listed on IMDB so far. Seth Grahame-Smith recently dropped out as director, making room for Dope's Rick Famuyiwa.

When’s it coming out? 23 March 2018 in the States. Everywhere else? We don’t know, but we’d expect it to travel the world at lightning pace. Geddit? Arf.

Avengers: Infinity War Part 1

What’s it about? The one’s the biggie, the mammoth crossover Marvel Studios has been teasing since we first saw the Infinity Gauntlet hidden away in Asgard all those years ago. Thanos, the big purple fella from the end of Avengers Assemble and Age Of Ultron, and various points in Guardians Of The Galaxy, will finally be taking centre stage in this one.

We did a wider preview here, but the basics are this – throughout the Marvel cinematic universe movies, Thanos has been gradually collecting Infinity Stones (the Tesseract, the Aether, the Orb) and will use the whole set here (plus a special glove called the Infinity Gauntlet that he tried on during Age Of Ultron) to terrorise the universe.

Expect every Avenger going, regardless of previous bust-ups, to team-up here to try and take him down. Seeing as this is part one of two, don’t expect them to achieve victory just yet.

Who’s involved? Cast-wise, expect whichever Avengers are still around to take part in this one. We’d expect a few members from the original team, some Guardians Of The Galaxy, Black Panther, and maybe even some Defenders. Behind the scenes, we don’t know, though the Russo brothers have been rumoured for Joss Whedon’s Avengers hot-seat post-Age Of Ultron.

When’s it coming out? 26 April 2018 UK/ 4 May 2018 USA.

Ant-Man And The Wasp

What's it about? Scott Lang and Hope Van Dyne will return for another adventure! The title tells us that Hope will get to suit up this time, following on from that credits tease from Ant-Man. 

In the comics, these two have been known as something of a power couple, and were even founding members of the original Avengers. It's no surprise that they're co-headlining a film, then, even though is the first time Marvel has put two superhero names in the title.

As for story, didn't Mitchell Carson (played by Martin Donovan) make off with some particle-based tech at the end of the last film? In the comics, he gets a shrinking suit of his own and becomes a bit of a baddie. That strand could play a part here, as could links to Infinity War Parts I and II - which Ant-Man And The Wasp sits in the middle of. 

Who's involved? Paul Rudd and Evangeline Lilly are certain to return. Michael Douglas is likely, too. We'd expect Peyton Reed to helm things behind the scenes again, too. He was keen on the idea when we interviewed him.

When's it coming out? 29 June 2018 in the UK. 6 July 2018 in the USA.

Animated Spider-Man movie

What's it about? At the moment, we're not too sure. But we do know that Sony have officially pushed this project into production. We also know that it will 'co-exist' with the live action Spidey, who now has his rights shared between Sony and Disney's Marvel Studios. Although, exactly what they mean by 'co-exist' in this context isn't quite clear.

Is this the same Spidey as the live action version, then? Is this just a more child-friendly form of storytelling? Will we see live action Spidey jump straight into Civil War, with the animated film to fill in his backstory? For the record, we know none of the answers to those questions.

If this proves lucrative for Sony, though, you can bet other studios will start making animated adventures concurrently to live action franchises. 

Who's involved? Phil Lord and Chris Miller, the duo behind 21 and 22 Jump Street, The LEGO Movie and - interestingly - DC's The Flash movie (live action).

When's it coming out? July 20th 2018, making summer 2018 very crowded indeed.

Aquaman

What’s it about? This is one we weren’t sure we’d ever get to write about – a real Aquaman movie which is actually happening in real life, not just Entourage. Long dubbed unfairly as too silly to make it to film, DC/Warner Bros. has finally decided to put some chips down on this one.

With those chips, will of course be some fish. Aquaman is the king of Atlantis (at least to start with), with strength, swimming, endurance, healing and marine telepathy on his enviable Top Trumps list of powers. He can control water too, in some stories.

DC is introducing the character in 2016’s Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice, and he will also appear in The Justice League Part 1 before this film hits our screens, so don’t expect origin beats in this one. The weight of his throne’s responsibility and/or a giant fish beast of some variety, perhaps? Ocean Master, his evil (and sometimes amnesiac) brother, seems a likely contender too.

Will this be another dark, gritty DC movie, or will it embrace the potential for humour in this title (which is explored hilariously in the animated Batman: The Brave And The Bold series)? Only time will tell.

Who’s involved? Mr Jason Momoa of Game Of Thrones and Stargate Atlantis fame will be putting in his third performance in the role at this point, so he should already be familiar to audiences. There’s two separate scripts in development, of which DC will presumably announce their favourite in the near future.

When’s it coming out? 27 July 2018 in the USA. Denmark gets it a day early, if you were wondering.

2019

Captain Marvel

What’s it about? While the name Captain Marvel dates back to the 60s, the version we’ll be seeing is based on comics mainstay Carol Danvers who, despite also existing since the 60s herself, only took on mantle of Captain Marvel in 2012 after ditching the (arguably less-cool) Ms. Marvel moniker for a modern re-vamp.

Like most heroes, her powers have been altered and played with over the years, but she’s generally seen as boasting superhuman strength, speed, durability and the power of flight. Absorbing and projecting energy is another common feature.

What exactly Captain Marvel the movie will entail, we’re not entirely sure. In her original comic book incarnation though, the explosion of an alien device gifted Carol her powers. Said device was of Kree origin, which could fit into the MCU nicely. Her adventures will be primarily Earth-bound though, we’re assured. There could be a tie-in to Infinity War, too.

Who’s involved? We don’t know diddly squat on this side of things yet, but there’s plenty of wild speculation going around - Katee Sackhoff, Emily Blunt and Amanda Seyfried have popped up on a few ‘dream casting’ lists.

When’s it coming out? 8 March 2019.

Shazam!

What’s it about? This one’s been in the news a lot recently, despite not being slated until nearly five years’ time. You might know already, then, that Shazam! is the story of Billy Batson, a boy who becomes a superman-esque hero when he utters the word ‘shazam’, thanks to some magical wizardry. Not unlike Bananaman, really. Just with fewer bananas.

Expect a more kid-friendly tone and, if current thinking is to be believed, a separate universe to the main DC film continuity.

This character was previously known as Captain Marvel, but don’t let that confuse you – this is a completely separate entity to Carol Danvers' 2018 adventure, not least because they’re from completely different studios, comic book companies and creative teams.

Who’s involved? Can you smell what The Rock is cooking? We hope not, because it’s not coming out of the creative oven until 2019. Yes, that was our roundabout way of reminding you that Dwayne Johnson will star as the villainous (though sometimes dabbling in anti-heroism) Black Adam.

This is a New Line Cinema production, with Toby Emmerich executive producing and Darren Lenke (Jack The Giant Slayer, Turbo) working on the script.

When’s it coming out? 5 April 2019 in the USA.

Avengers: Infinity War Part 2

What’s it about? If Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 is the biggie, this one is the, um, really biggie. With all the players taking their positions in the first part, this is where the big phase-ending bust-up will take place.

With the Inhumans and Captain Marvel released in the interim, we could well see even more faces surprising us with cameos in this one.

It wouldn’t be the end of years of build up without some tragedy either, so we’re expecting the tussle for the Infinity Gauntlet to take no prisoners.

Who’s involved? As mentioned earlier, you can expect a troupe of Avengers, some Guardians Of The Galaxy, Black Panther, and maybe even a Defender or two in this one. It remains to be seen whether the Russos, Joss Whedon or maybe James Gun will take the lead behind the scenes, but we will probably at some point after Age Of Ultron has finished in cinemas.

When’s it coming out? 26 April 2019 UK/ 3 May 2019.

The Justice League Part 2

What’s it about? Again, like Marvel’s Avengers: Infinity War Part 2, this flick will knock down any dominoes that are positioned in The Justice League Part 1.

Whoever the baddie is (apologies for the vagueness but there really are no clues yet), they will get a whopping beat down in this one from the likes of Supes, Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, The Flash, Cyborg and some form of Green Lantern.

It’s interesting, looking at the schedules, that DC is leaving a bigger gap between parts than Marvel, but what that means we have no idea. We’ll update this section when we know more.

Who’s involved? Zack Snyder will finish what he started here, as will Chris Terrio if Warner Bros. does indeed get him to sign up. Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Gal Gadot, Ray Fisher and Jason Momoa are again certainties, and we still wouldn’t be surprised at seeing a flash of Ezra Miller at some point. Whoever takes on the Green Lantern mantle is also expected to appear.

When’s it coming out? 14 June 2019 in the USA.

2020

Cyborg

What’s it about? As you might have guessed, this one’s about a cyborg. Not just any cyborg though, the DC comics superhero called Cyborg who first appeared on-page in the 1980s.

In his original incarnation, Victor Stone becomes Cyborg after his scientist parents experiment on him, increasing his intelligence, strength and durability, as well as giving him the ability to fly, an array of technical gadgets and some computer-enhanced fighting skills.

In the comics New 52 reboot, his relationship with his parents (particularly his father) is less positive, but they still make Victor into Cyborg. This time it’s to save his life though, rather than merely for research purposes.

Who’s involved? We have a casting, folks: Cyborg will be played by Ray Fisher. By 2020, you will have already seen him in Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice and both parts of The Justice League movie. Behind the camera? No clues yet.

We expect DC will need someone other than Zack Snyder to helm its projects by this point, so we think you can rule him out of this one.

When’s it coming out? 3 April 2020 in the USA.

Mystery Marvel film 1

What's it about? In the same announcement as Ant-Man And The Wasp, Marvel Studios plonked their beach towel on this deck-chair of a date. They'll release something in May 2020, but we don't yet know what.

Who's involved? Um... Marvel Studios?

When's it coming out? 1 May 2020

Green Lantern Corps

What’s it about? Here’s the film DC is so worried about that it's banking on every other property at its disposal before attempting this one – the Green Lantern reboot. Recently, the title was confirmed to be Green Lantern Corps, which strongly suggests the inclusion of several different Lanterns.

Reynold’s played the Hal Jordon fighter pilot version, but there are countless other Green Lantern identities for Warner Bros to invest in. John Stewart, traditionally an architect endowed with the imagination-based powers of the Green Lantern Corps, is something of a fan favourite. Only time will tell which versions will make it into the movie.

Who’s involved? Not the foggiest clue at this stage. If they do opt to include Hal Jordan again, though, Nathan Fillion has frequently voiced the character in animation. Wouldn’t that be brilliant?

When’s it coming out? 19 June 2020 in the USA.

Mystery Marvel film 2

What's it about? No clue! This is another date that Marvel has announced without letting us know a title, concept or creative team. 

Who's involved? Marvel Studios, a writer, a director, some actors.

When's it coming out? 10 July 2020.

Mystery Marvel film 3

What's it about? We've got all our spectrometers on the roof, but we still haven't worked out what any of these mystery Marvel movies are. All we know is that Marvel Studios have bagsied this release date.

Who's involved? Dunno!

When's it coming out? 6 November 2020, in the USA.

We've got yet more comic book movies on page 3 of this article...

Curses. We've had to do that thing where - to keep page loads on mobile devices a bit easier - we've had to put in one of those page break things. We, like you, aren't particularly keen on said page breaks, but it makes sense on longer articles such as this one.

Without further ado, let's move on to the comic book films without dates...

Who knows when, but somewhere between the rest…

Mouse Guard

What's it about? This one's an award-winning comic series that was written and illustrated by David Petersen. As Collider neatly puts it, "Mouse Guard follows a brotherhood of anthropomorphic mice living in medieval times. Despite it’s cutesy sounding logline, the comic series is known for its complex characters, mature storylines, and detailed world-building."

Who's involved? Rogue One: A Star Wars Story scribe Gary Whitta is penning the film script for 20th Century Fox, with Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes director Matt Reeves attached to direct.  

When's it coming out? We don't know, at this stage.

Lumberjanes

What's it about? The Lumberjanes comics by Shannon Watters, Grace Ellis, Noelle Stevenson and Brooke A. Allen follow a group of girl scouts at a place called Miss Quinzella Thiskwin Penniquiqul Thistle Crumpet’s Camp for Hardcore Lady Types.

Supernatural forces interfere with the camping trip, sending the group of highly capable young women into all sorts of extraordinary scenarios. It's pretty bad-ass, in all honesty.

Who's involved? 20th Century Fox has Will Widger (who's famed for his Black List screenplay The Munchkin) working on a script. Fox's plan is apparently to recruit a female director to helm the movie.

When's it coming out? Dunno.

Aleister Arcane

What's it about? In the comics (written by Steven Niles with art by Breehn Burns), a local horror-loving TV host by the name of Aleister Arcane is forced off the air due to complaints from parents. Shortly afterwards, real-life terrors begin spreading across the town.

The film, according to Variety, will focus on "a group of children who befriend a bitter old man" before a curse is laid upon the local area. We'd guess that's the same bloke.

Who's involved? Jim Carrey is attached to star and produce. Eli Roth will direct. Jon Croker is penning the script. Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment are bankrolling the whole thing.

When's it coming out? It's unclear at the moment

The Leaves

What's it about? The Leaves - based on a one-off comic by Kevin J. Walsh and Ashwin Chikerur - is the story of a young man who lands in a parallel universe after a freak accident in India. He keeps insisting to the love of his life that they are soul mates. There is just one issue. She doesn’t recognise him with any amount of convincing.

Questions arise. What kind of twisted accident catapults you that far from reality? Is his girlfriend an amnesiac or an alternate version of herself? Why isn’t the protagonist an alternate version of himself? Will he encounter his own mirror image somewhere in the space-time continuum? If a second version of him does materialise, will the girlfriend recognize that one? 

Who's involved? How I Met Your Mother star Josh Radnor is directing. He also worked on the script with  Christopher Kyle and Kevin J. Walsh. But apparently Mr Radnor will not appear on screen.

When's it coming out? Dunno.

Son Of Shaolin

What's it about? Jay Longino's Son Of Shaolin graphic novel hasn't even hit shelves yet, but Sony Pictures has already picked up the cinematic rights. Due to the fact the comic hasn't yet been released, it's tough to say what this one is about.

Deadline is calling it "a contemporary Kung-Fu story that intertwines Shaolin mythology with many of the current issues faced by teens growing up in a gentrifying neighborhood." But that's all we know for now.

Who's involved? Dwayne Johnson - Planet Earth's busiest man - is attached as a producer, but it's unclear as of yet whether he'll star in the movie as well. 

When's it coming out? Nobody knows... yet.

Rising Stars

What's it about? 113 Illinois children were in-utero when a meteor landed in the area. Eventually, these kids gained superpowers. Before long, these 'specials' began getting killed off one by one. Rising Stars is a bit murder mystery and bit superhero-y, essentially. 

Who's involved? World War Z, Sense8 and Thor screenwriter J. Michael Straczynski penned the original comic and will return to draft the script. There's no word yet on the director, but MGM is attached on the studio side.

When's it coming out? Unknown.

Malignant Man

What's it about? Malignant Man is the story of terminal cancer patient Alex Gates, who believes that a malignant tumor is gnawing away at what days he has left until he finds out the even more ghastly truth. What he thought was a tumor is actually an alien parasite that has been unknowingly giving Gates a transfusion of paranormal powers.

Not unlike like the genetically engineered spider that bit Peter Parker and turned him into a web-slinging superhuman, the alien bloodsucker mutates Gates into something of a hybrid hero with a new lease on life. He is assigned to fight an evil army creeping under the skin of society, as he slowly unravels secrets about his path that lead to the truth about what seems to be a symbiotic connection between him and the parasite.

Who's involved? San Andreas director Brad Peyton is teaming up with James Wan (who co-wrote the BOOM! Studios graphic novel) to co-direct this one. will call the shots. Zak Olkewicz drafted the screenplay.

When's it coming out? No clue.

Irredeemable

What's it about? Like Malignant Man, this one is also a BOOM! Studios graphic novel on its way to the big screen. Mark Waid's Irredeemable is all about a superhero called The Plutonian who goes from Earth's mightiest hero to its most deadly villain. His bid to slaughter the population of the planet shocks The Plutonian's fellow heroes, and the millions of innocent citizens who previously adored him.

Who's involved? Adam McKay - off the back of his huge success with The Big Short - is attached to direct. Tommy Wirkola is working on the script.

When's it coming out? Not sure.

Untitled Harley Quinn and friends movie

What's it about? By the sounds of it, Harley Quinn is already nailed-down as the break-out star of Suicide Squad. Warner Bros must be impressed, because the studio is plotting a female-focused heroes and villains follow-up film with Harley Quinn at centre stage. Batgirl and the Birds Of Prey could appear as well.

Who's involved? An unnamed female writer is currently penning a script (she has a name, we're sure, it just hasn't been announced). No director yet. Margot Robbie will reprise the role of Joker's deranged ex Harley.

When's it coming out? Dunno, but DC are definitely working on it.

Suicide Squad 2

What's it about? The sequel to August 2016's Suicide Squad film. You'd assume that this one will pick up where that one leaves off, and probably feature a new mission for the eponymous squaddies.

Who's involved? Whoever survives the first film (Will Smith? Margot Robbie? Jared Leto?) will surely return here. David Ayer will probably be back to direct, as well. 

When's it coming out? Dunno, but The Wrap reckons it'll shoot next year.

Gambit

What’s it about? A fan favourite character here. For lovers of the comics and/or anyone who grew up watching the 1990s X-Men cartoons – Gambit is the coolest mutant in the pack, charging playing cards with energy and waving a stick around acrobatically. He’s cooler than that description makes him sound, honest.

You might recognise the name from X-Men Origins: Wolverine, but this is expected to be an entirely new version thanks to X-Men: Days Of Future Past's timeline-meddling.

Expect hustling, long coats, laughs and – hopefully – a thick Cajun accent.

Who’s involved? The much-loved-and-linked-with-everything 21 Jump Street star Channing Tatum will be taking on the role, and it’s one he’s eyed for a while, apparently. Lauren Schuler Donner, one of the X-Men movie universe’s over-seers since the start, is very vocal about her excitement for this project. Joshua Zetumer has written the script from a Chris Claremont treatment. Doug Liman is currently attached as director.

When’s it coming out? It was originally meant to be 2016, but the film has now been pushed back. A new date is yet to be confirmed.

Untitled X-Men Movie

What’s it about? Um… Well, nobody knows that at this stage. The project charmingly dubbed Untitled X-Men Movie will deal, presumably, with the aftermath of X-Men: Apocalypse and, potentially, all the other memories Wolverine has lost since the events of Days Of Future Past.

It’s been expressed that X-Men: Apocalypse was seen as a culmination of the First Class arcs, so we wouldn’t be surprised to see a whole lot of new mutants this time around. Mr Sinister and Shadow King sit on a few unused-villain rumour lists, but we’d be more inclined to hedge our bets on a Magneto-as-the-main-villain plot, since we’ve not seen that in some time.

Who’s involved? Expect Bryan Singer, in some capacity or other, to remain involved. The same goes for Simon Kinberg, who seems vital to the X-Men movie machine at this stage. Cast wise? All bets are off, but there’s bound to be a mixture of new talent and a few familiar faces.

When’s it coming out? Dunno.

Black Widow

What's it about? “We think she’s an amazing character. We think Scarlett Johansson’s portrayal of her is amazing. She’s a lead Avenger and has amazing stories in her own right to tell that we think would be fun to turn into a standalone franchise.”

That's what Marvel's Kevin Feige had to say on the topic of a Black Widow movie, whilst talking to Deadline in May 2016. He also mentioned that - out of Black Widow, Falcon, Hawkeye and War Machine - "the one creatively and emotionally that we are most committing to doing [a solo movie for] is Black Widow."

Talks could well be underway already, but so far no writer, director or release date has been nailed down for the project.

Who's involved? Feige is obviously keen, and Johansson would surely star. 

When's it coming out? No clue, for now. Marvel's current slate of films runs until 2020. We may have to wait until after that for Black Widow's solo film.

Inhumans

What’s it about? This is one which rumours have been flying around about for quite some time - Marvel Studios’ movie version of Inhumans.

With the lack of X-Men and Fantastic Four characters in its roster, this property is a perfect way for Marvel to mass-introduce some new superpowers and superheroes into its huge shared universe.

In the comics, the Inhumans are a race of ‘evolutionarily-enhanced humans’, with its royal family – originally consisting of Black Bolt, Medusa, Karnak, Gorgon, Triton, Crystal, Lockjaw and Maximus the Mad – leading the majority of Inhumans-based comics.

Expect galactic scale, loads of superpowers, family in-fighting and possibly cameos from other corners of the MCU (Captain Marvel has featured frequently in the comics).

Who’s involved? Joe Robert Cole, who only has family drama Amber Lake on his CV so far, will pen a screenplay. On the casting side of things, we’d expect Marvel Studios to take a similar tact to Guardians Of The Galaxy here and introduce a strong group of actors from various walks of the entertainment world. Cameos from Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. characters - some of whom have been exploring their latent Inhuman DNA recently - could be a possibility.

When’s it coming out? 12 July 2019 was the initially-announced release date, but in April 2016 Marvel announced that the film has been pushed back. A new date has not yet been confirmed.

Dream Jumper

What's it about? A boy who can jump into his friends’ nightmares to rescue them from a monster that won’t let them wake up.

Who's involved? Greg Grunberg wrote the comic. His old mucker JJ Abrams is producing the movie. And that's all we know for now.

When's it coming out? No clue, just yet.

Lobo

What's it about? Warner Bros have been talking about a Lobo movie for years, and – perhaps spurred on by the success of Fox’s Deadpool – the studio is now pressing forward with it again. If you’re unfamiliar, Lobo is a grownup-friendly DC Comics character and an alien mercenary.

Who’s involved? Wonder Woman scribe Jason Fuchs has been hired to write a script. The San Andreas duo of Dwayne Johnson and director Brad Peyton were attached a few years ago, but it’s unclear if they’re still with the project.

When’s it coming out? Dunno. 

Untitled Booster Gold and Blue Beetle movie

What's it about? This one's pitched as a 'buddy cop' superhero movie. It's believed to be a team-up adventure shared by Booster Gold (an arrogant hero from the future, who travels to the present day to show off using advanced technology) and his chum Blue Beetle (who gains strength and some snazzy armour from an alien scarab). We're expecting a light-hearted tone, plenty of gags and lots of action.

Who's involved? The CW's superhero stalwart Greg Berlanti is attached as a producer and is also rumoured to direct. Zack Stentz (Thor, X-Men: First Class) is currenly working on the script.

When's it coming out? Dunno.

The Fantastic Four 2

What’s it about? The fact that Fox announced this follow-up before we had even seen a trailer for the first post-reboot Fantastic Four was a big show of confidence in the brand. Given the critical and box office failings of the film, the announced sequel seems a lot less likely to actually happen. As far as we know, though, it is still being discussed behind closed doors.

Who’s involved? Miles Teller, Michael B Jordon, Kate Mara and Jamie Bell will presumably reprise their roles, if this follow up does happen. We'd bet that director Josh Trank won't be back, though.

When’s it coming out?  The initial prediction was 14 July 2017 on both sides of the Atlantic. Fox quietly dropped the film from that release date recently, but we reckon that they could yet attempt one more bite at the Fant4stic cherry.

Venom

What's it about? A Venom spin-off movie has been under discussion for years, and at one point seemed like a very plausible addition to Marc Webb/Andrew Garfield’s The Amazing Spider-Man universe. Many thought that this symbiotic solo project was dead when Tom Holland replaced Garfield and Sony teamed up with Marvel Studios, but it’s now looking like it’s back on.

Who’s involved? Omnipresent Spider-Man movie producers Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach are involved behind the scenes, and have signed up Dante Harper (Edge Of Tomorrow) to work on a screenplay. 

When’s it coming out? No clue, just yet.

Deadpool 2

What's it about? "We certainly are talking about the sequel," producer Simon Kinberg told Collider a few months back, and THR confirmed the existence of Deadpool 2 shortly before the film reached cinemas.

"We were talking about the sequel while we were making the movie just because when you make a film like this that's from a serialised source material, you hope that it's the first of many."

As the first movie covers Deadpool's origins and a battle with Ajax, one would expect a different baddie and a bigger budget for the sequel. Cable could show up, too, according to the writers.

Who's involved? Mr Kinberg, natch. Ryan Reynolds, of course. Director Tim Willer and writer Paul Wernick? Quite possibly.

When's it coming out? No clue, but not for a couple of years.

The Empty Man

What's it about? Cullen Bunn and Vanesa R. Del Rey’s BOOM! Studios graphic novel The Empty Man has been picked up by 20^th Century Fox for the big screen treatment. The comic is all about a string of disappearances in a small American town, and the strange supernatural entity that could be to blame. 

Who's involved? David Prior - a newcomer to feature directing, who has previously shot the acclaimed short film AM1200 and a string of DVD special features - will call the shots.  

When's it coming out? No clue just yet.

Tag

What's it about? This one's another indie comic from BOOM! Studios, with art by Kody Chamberlain and words by Keith Giffen. The story is that of man who begins decomposing after he is 'tagged' with a curse by a total stranger. He has to decide a course of action - find a cure, or pass it on? - before he, um, dies. In the film, there'll be a female protagonist instead of a bloke.

Who's involved? Annabelle director John Leonett will direct a script by Ben Collins and Luke Piotrowski, for 20th Century Fox.

When's it coming out? No idea, yet.

Bananaman

What’s it about? This one has a bit of a soft spot in our hearts already, but might seem a complete mystery to our American cousins. 

Bananaman is the secret superhero identity of Eric Wimp, a young and - you guessed it - wimpy boy. He’s endowed with "the muscles of twenty men, and the brains of twenty mussels" when he eats a banana, though.

A tongue-in-cheek parody of the superhero world has never been more needed, so we’re very glad to see Eric leaping onto the screen from the pages of Nutty/The Dandy/The Beano (delete based on your age). Rumours that the film will be subtitled ‘Man Of Peel’ constantly make us giggle.

Who’s involved? Well, that remains a mystery, though we know that England’s Elstree Studios have been the base for the production. We’d wager noone particularly famous, seeing as we’ve not heard anything yet.

When’s it coming out? It's unclear at this stage. We were told 2015, but it doesn't have a set-in-stone release date yet, meaning it'll probably be a little later than initially predicted.

100 Bullets

What's it about? Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso's 100 Bullets comic is a series of revenge stories centred on Agent Graves, a man who doles out free guns and untraceable bullets to people, and points them in the direction of the people that ruined their life. 

Highly influenced by pulpy noir fiction, 100 Bullets is published by DC's Vertigo imprint. It ran for 100 issues (aptly enough), and picked up all of the big awards in comics along the way.

Who's involved? Tom Hardy came on board as a producer recently, and is rumoured to star as Agent Graves. Chris Borrelli has already written a script. Beyond that, we're not sure who's involved.

When's it coming out? Not for a while yet. 

Nemesis

What's it about? Rumours of a Nemesis movie floated around for a while, but the lack of any action for quite an extended period made us hesitant to put it on this list. However, things seem to have taken a step in the right direction recently, so in it comes.

Nemesis - written by Mark Millar and drawn by Steve McNiven, for Marvel's Icon imprint - is essentially a twisted Batman story, where the billionaire whose parents get taken from him turns his resources towards villainy instead of crime-fighting. Many cops get in the way of his vengeance.

Who's involved? Until recently, 20th Century Fox were at the helm. But, after a stagnant period, it looks like Warner Bros. may take on the project instead. Director Joe Carnahan co-wrote a script with his brother Matthew Michael Carnahan. Ridley Scott is on board as a producer.

When's it coming out? Not for a while yet, but we'll keep you updated.

Chew

What's it about? Chew, an Image comic, is the story of Detective Tony Chu, who polices a world where poultry has been made illegal after a devastating bird flu epidemic. It's written by John Layman, with art by Rob Guillory, and has won a brace of both Eisner Awards and Harvey Awards.

Now, it's been picked up for the big screen treatment, in animated form, with The Walking Dead's Steven Yeun lined up to star as Tony Chu. Tony is a 'chibopath,' which means he can get a psychic reading from anything he eats, enabling him to work out how it died. He can also absorb abilities in the same way. Tony is described as a "by-the-book square that never met a department regulation you couldn't love."

David Tennant joined the cast recently, in a role that was originally being lined up for the late, great Robin Williams. He will play Mason Savoy, a mentor-turned-villain to Tony.

Who's involved? John Layman (who writes the comics) has penned a script, and Jeff Krelitz (Torchwood: Web Of Lies) is set to direct. The cast also includes The Guild's Felicia Day as food critic and love interest Amelia Mintz.

When's it coming out? We don't know yet, but we'll keep you posted.

Sony/Marvel's Spider-Man 2

What's it about? This one's the sequel to the Spider-Man movie which is slated for 2017, starring Tom Holland. Not coming us much of a surprise, two sequels are apparently already being planned for that film.

Most fans will be hoping for this one to veer closer to Raimi's Spider-Man 2 than The Amazing Spider-Man 2, and we'd wager that the biggest decision Marvel Studios and Sony have to make for this one is how to handle villains. Temptation will surely remain to cram in plural baddies, and tease an even bigger third instalment, but that's the idea that sounded the death knell for Marc Webb's time helming the franchise.

As it stands, we don't even know who the villain will be in the first Holland-starring Spider-Man film, so it's pretty hard to predict what'll be happening in its sequel. It'd be nice to see the likes of Carnage getting a chance to shine, though. 

Who's involved? Presumably Kevin Feige and Amy Pascal on the producer side, and Jon Watts in the director's chair.

When's it coming out? No clue. At a guess, maybe 2019.

Sony/Marvel's Spider-Man 3

What's it about? Your guess is as good as ours by this stage. Again, though, it sounds like the new Sony/Marvel alliance are thinking about the third film in this franchise already. This is the stage where Raimi's Spider-Man franchise dipped in quality, and eventually marked the end of the series. Webb's Amazing Spider-Man movies didn't even mark it this far. Therefore, we'd wait until the first Tom Holland-starring Spidey movie comes out before saying that this one was set in stone. 

However, if it does happen, we'd expect Spidey to be heading into some big conflict both personally and in his superhero life by the third instalment of a series. Whatever seeds are sown for future films in 2017's Spider-Man film, they'll probably come full-circle here. 

Beyond that, our guessing powers are pretty limited.

Who's involved? If all goes to plan... Tom Holland to star, Feige and Pascal to produce, Jon Watts to direct. 

When's it coming out? No idea. 2021 at a guess.

The New Mutants

What's it about? So - let's kick off our subsection about announced films that haven't yet been given release dates. The newest addition to this section is Fox's X-Men universe spin-off The New Mutants. It's been confirmed that this project exists, and that it will draft in some - you guessed it! - younger mutants.

These not-quite-as-aged-as-those-other-mutants characters will stand on their own, it would seem. For the time being, indicators suggest that this movie won't feature crossovers to the other X-Men franchise installments. Rather, it will show us a different corner of that world.

The brand name New Mutants has been kicking around since 1982, when a comic under this title - by Chris Claremont and Bob McLeod - was first released. This incarnation of the young mutant spin-off team featured characters called Cannonball, Karma, Mirage, Wolfsbane and Sunspot. Of those, we've already seen Sunspot in the Days Of Future Past film - he was the fiery one who helped out in the future fights, played by Adan Canto. The movie could pick a whole new team, though, to be fair.

Who's involved? Naturally, Fox - holders of the X-Men rights - are the studio behind this one. They've enlisted The Fault In Our Stars director Josh Boone to helm proceedings. He has a Vampire Chronicles movie to direct first, though, so don't expect this one for a few years. Knate Gwaltney, Simon Kinberg and Laura Shuler Donner will produce.

When's it out? A release date of future past. Well, more future than past. Um... we don't know.

Harbinger

What's it about? Harbinger, as we mentioned in our 2017 section, is set in the same universe as Bloodshot. While Bloodshot is a solo adventure about one memory-wiped enhanced soldier, Valiant's Harbinger comics are team-up stories. The twist? That these guys are villains, not knock-off Avengers.

Leading the team is Toyo Harada (pictured above) - a powerful psionic, who has a range of deadly abilities including telekinesis and telepathy. While he tends to operate his world-domination plans from the shadows, his team often to his dirty work. The ranks of the team include Zephyr (who can fly), Flamingo (creating and manipulating flames), Torque (enhanced strength), Livewire (electromagnetic stuff) and Stronghold (absorbing mass and using it to make himself bigger and tougher).

These guys will probably come up against Sting - not the singer - a former pupil of Toyo, who eventually realises how evil everything they're doing is and attempts to bring them down. 

Harbinger will get a sequel before crossing over with Bloodshot for the Harbinger Wars crossover event.

Who's involved? After co-writing Bloodshot, Eric Heisserer pen this script solo. There's no word on directors yet, but Valiant Comics' Dinesh Shamdasani will oversee all the films as an exec producer, alongside Neal H. Moritz and Toby Jaffe of Original Film. Sony also have Andrea Giannetti on board as their overseer of the project.

When's it coming out? At some point after Bloodshot's 2017 release. 2018, maybe?

Bloodshot 2

What's it about? Okay, sorry, but things are going to get very vague here. Bloodshot, a Valiant Comics adaptation from Sony Pictures, is coming out in 2017. In a big show of confidence, its sequel has already been announced. The fact that we know barely anything about the first movie's plot, though, makes it very hard to speculate about a sequel.

If Bloodshot is an origins movie, you can probably expect bigger and badder foes in its sequel, which may or may not be called 2 Blood 2 Shot. However, if Bloodshot throws its mind-wiped enhanced soldier straight into action, the sequel (Bloodsh2t?) may well be an introspective retro-active origin story a la Wolverine's journey in X-Men 2. 

At this point, Bloodshot could still be under government control, or he could have broken free from his programming and tried to bring down the shady project that made him. As this will be Bloodshot's last solo outing before Harbinger Wars, we could also see the first glimpse of a crossover with the super-villain team mentioned in the above section.

Who's involved? Well, assuming everyone is still friends after the original Bloodshot movie: David Leitch and Chad Stahelski of John Wick could return to direct. Kick Ass 2's Jeff Wadlow and The Thing remake's Eric Heisserer might write the sequel. Perhaps, Matthew Vaughn and Jason Kothari will serve as executive producers... again. 

When's it coming out? Maybe 2019? The first movie comes out in 2017, so it will be after then.

Harbinger 2

What's it about? Well, Harbinger 2 is the sequel to Harbinger - the super-villain team-up that we speculated about two sections above this one. The whole team hinges around Toyo Harada's attempts to conquer the Earth in a clandestine way, with his fear that humanity will destroy itself otherwise being his motivation.

The decision to announce a sequel to Harbinger before the first film has come out is so ballsy that it's thrown our speculation skills completely out of whack. What proof have we got that a villain-focused movie can work? Well, all the pre-hype for Suicide Squad, but not much else. Seeing as this is treading new ground, then, it's hard to know what to expect.

This film will be followed by Harbinger Wars, which pits Bloodshot against Harbinger after four films of build up, so Harbinger 2 will probably see the origins of the scheme so evil that it will warrant a crossover.

Who's involved? Probably the team from Harbinger 1 -  Eric Heisserer on scripting duties, Valiant Comics' Dinesh Shamdasani will as an exec producer, Neal H. Moritz and Toby Jaffe of Original Film doing the same. Sony's Andrea Giannetti keeping an eye on things.

When's it coming out? Continuing our rate of one-film-a-year guessing, this one could be out in 2020.

Harbinger Wars

What's it about? Here it is - the film you will have been waiting for years for - Harbinger Wars. It's not hard to see why Sony were drawn to this project - an anti-hero and a team of villains, with two films each of set-up, before a big bombastic bust-up to round things off.

The Harbinger Wars occurred in 2013 in the comics, when Bloodshot decided to atone for the sins committed on his shady missions by releasing a bunch of strong telekinetic types from prison. Naturally, this starts an epic battle between Bloodshot's team and the Harbingers led by Toyo Harada.

This crossover run saw the secret conflict between Toyo's Harbinger Foundation and Bloodshot's Project Rising Spirit finally go public, with big battles occuring in locales around the globe. Las Vegas was a memorable one. If we know the minds of studio execs, they'll probably leave this open for more sequels.

Who's involved? Sony will again be the studio behind this, and will probably pool talent from their Bloodshot and Harbinger teams. No director has been confirmed yet.

Starlight

What's it about? Starlight is an Image Comic that had a limited run of six-issues in 2014. It's all about the Happily Ever After of superhero life, focused on spacefaring saviour Duke McQueen.

Back in the day, Duke McQueen save the universe. After that, he went home, got married, had a few kids and generally settled into his twilight years. Eventually, his wife passes away, and his children move out. He's left only with memories of superhero stardom and the family life that now seems so distant. 

Of course, a call eventually comes to draw him back into action for one last job. It's a desperate plea from a world he once saved - how could he resist? Duke McQueen then returns to action, like a middle-aged Flash Gordon. Examines issues of aging and living in the past very well. 

Who's involved? Well, Mark Millar wrote the comic and is overseeing the movie project. 20th Century Fox are the studio involved, with Gary Whitta (The Book Of Eli, After Earth, Star Wars: Rogue One's story) working on the script. As for a director, there's no clues yet.

When's it coming out? Best guess? Around 2017, at the earliest.

Chrononauts

What's it about? This one's been described as a 'time-travel bromance for the ages.' As if you need more information to be convinced, the protagonists are called Corbin Quinn and Danny Reilly - two buddies with a heap of scientific know-how between them. 

The story of Chrononauts sees them journey through time, with a conundrum popping up of whether they should use these abilities to save mankind or to serve their own needs and desires. Eventually, these two science bros decide to have a little fun with it, but end up in scrapes with some of history's most dangerous villains. Even scarier is the fact that their bosses from the future are trying to hunt them down for going rogue. 

There's a fun twist, too - that their adventures are being televised back home, causing lots of trouble. We won't spoil much more for you here, but do seek out the comics if you want to know more. 

Who's involved? This is another Mark Millar comic, so again he's involved at a high up level. Contrastingly to Starlight (which is at Fox), Chrononauts is being bankrolled by Universal. Millar apparently has one half of his bromance cast, but is still trying to find the perfect partner for him.

When's it coming out? It looks like Starlight is a bit further along, but as different studios are making the movies, there's a chance Chrononauts could catch up. 2017 or 2018 is our best bet.

Justice League Dark

What’s it about?Justice League Dark is a classic horror-inspired offshoot of the main Justice League. We’ve not been updated on it in a while, but we suspect there’s another DC announcement coming soon to reveal all their less-mainstream release dates.

Expect demon-from-hell Etrigan, elemental creature Swamp Thing and the self-explanatory Deadman to make appearances alongside recently-on-your-telly-box occult detective John Constantine (who is also set to have his own movie, if you scroll down a little).

Who’s involved? Guillermo del Toro was at the helm, but is now said to have departed the project. No successor has been announced yet. Casting is a big question mark, too. Warner Bros have farmed out this film to their subsidiary New Line Cinema.

When’s it coming out? Your guess is as good as ours.

Sandman

What’s it about? Neil Gaiman’s Sandman, long dubbed un-filmable, looks set to make it to the big screen after all.

Considering all the other films in this article, the world may well need a reminder that superheroes aren’t the only good things to come out of comic books in a few years, and this could be just the film to prove that point.

This one’s also printed under DC’s separate Vertigo line, and sees Gaiman explore the world of dreams unlike anything else we’ve come across. He includes Dream, Destiny, Death, Desire, Despair and Delirium as characters as well as a whole host of crazy cameos (including William Shakespeare). It really needs to be read to be understood (for the time being, at least).

Who’s involved? Mr Joseph Gordon Levitt is involved, but whether he is acting, producing or directing (or all three!) remains a mystery. David S. Goyer helped pitch the film and Jack Thorne of How I Live Now is attached to work further on the screenplay. As with Justice League Dark, Warner Bros have handed development of this one to New Line Cinema. 

When’s it coming out? In the future, most likely.

Lucifer

What’s it about?Lucifer is a Vertigo comic book that originally span out from Neil Gaiman’s Sandman. It sees Satan coming to Earth, specifically LA, after getting bored with life in hell.

If you recognise the name and basic concept, that’s because Lucifer has been developed into a TV show by Fox. The film version will be handled by Warner Bros’ subsidiary New Line Cinema, though, so it’s unclear whether it’ll be linked the show.

While the show has borrowed elements from the police procedural toolbox, the film could take a different approach altogether, for all we know.

Who’s involved? Beyond the fact that New Line Cinema are involved, we know literally nothing. The film is definitely being discussed, though, as it cropped up in a recent announcement.

When’s it coming out? It’s unclear at the stage, but not for a couple of years at the very least.

Constantine

What’s it about? You’ll probably be familiar with this one – Constantine is based on a chain-smoking occult detective from Vertigo’s Hellblazer comics. He’s already been played on film by Keanu Reeves, and on TV by Matt Ryan.

Both live action incarnations were short lived, so Warner Bros are having another pop, this time through their New Line Cinema subsidiary. The news that a film was in development came in the same announcement as that of Lucifer and Preacher’s upcoming movies.

Who’s involved? We wouldn’t expect this one to tie into the ill-fated Constantine TV show or the prior film, but beyond the involvement of New Line, we don’t actually know anything for sure.

When’s it coming out? It won’t be for a good few years yet.

Preacher

What’s it about?Preacher is all about Jesse Custer, an American preacher who goes on a literal quest to find God after being possessed by a supernatural creature called Genesis.

A TV version is already in development, with Dominic Cooper in the lead role. AMC are producing the series, with Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg and Sam Catlin producing.

AMC have worked with Warner Bros in the past, but it’s unclear whether this film will tie into the TV show, or be its own separate entity.

Who’s involved? New Line Cinema, a Warner Bros subsidiary, are developing a movie. Beyond that, we know nothing.

When’s it coming out? In several years time.

Untitled Batman movie

What’s it about? Now, we’ve been promised this one, by the generous folks at DC/Warner Bros., but have no clues as to the timeframe nor even a whiff of a plot synopsis. A rumoured title is The Batman.

Given that Ben Affleck has the role for Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice, and the two Justice League movies, his older, grizzled, experienced Batman will surely be the focus here.

Presumably, all his villains are already established in this continuity, so could we see a sprawling detective story like The Long Halloween, or an all-in villains experience like the Arkham Asylum game? We’ll let you know as we hear more.

Who’s involved? Ben Affleck is surely a certainty to star, and is strongly believed to be directing and helping with the script, too. Argo and upcoming Justice League films writer Chris Terrio is also said to be working on a script, with help from Affleck and comics legend Geoff Johns. 

When’s it coming out? Unknown Bat-time, unknown Bat-place. But apparently before 2020. 2018 is the current hot rumour.

Untitled Superman movie

What’s it about? Another one we’re struggling to find space for in our calendar, which has nonetheless been confirmed. It's a standalone Superman film.

By the end of Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice and The Justice League double-bill, Cavill’s Supes will no-doubt be a far more experienced hero.

We’ve spoken before (see here) about how the unstoppable foe of Doomsday could make for an action-packed Supes film at some point, could this be the project?

Who’s involved? Cavill is surely returning, we’d imagine, even though his current contract doesn’t include it. Again, Snyder and Terrio might want a shot, but DC could equally want some fresh blood. We’ll keep you posted.

When’s it coming out? Whenever Superman damn well pleases (between 2016 and 2020).

X-Force

What’s it about? And finally, for now at least, our last dateless film and the final comic book movie on this list, is Fox’s X-Force movie.

If you’re not familiar, X-Force is an offshoot from the X-Men stories, with more of a focus on anti-heroes and darker storylines (though not exclusively).

In the comics, Wolverine is a regular member as is time-travelling bad-ass Cable. Deadpool, Cyclops, Colossus and Archangel (who we’re betting on an X-Men: Apocalypse appearance from) are among the familiar faces in the ever-changing roster.

Who’s involved? We’d expect some familiar faces to help establish this new team, with the by-this-point-reintroduced Deadpool, and Cable, already confirmed. Jeff Wadlow (Kick Ass 2) is writing the script.

When’s it coming out? Um……

Spider-Man spin-offs which haven't been officially cancelled yet

The resurrection of the Venom movie suggests that these thought-binned Sony projects may yet be revived as well…

The Sinister Six

What’s it about? Here’s another group of villains uniting for a shared mission. The Sinister Six is a group of foes to Spider-Man, who, like the Suicide Squad, have a revolving door-style roster.

It previously seemed fairly certain that Harry’s established version of the Green Goblin from Amazing Spider-Man 2 would play a central role, with the Rhino, Doc Ock, Vulture, Kraven the Hunter and Mysterio being the other expected villains about a year ago. Since Sony ditched the Amazing Spider-Man continuity and signed up Tom Holland, though, all bets are off on this one.

Whoever ends up starring, it’s up for debate whether villainy or redemption will unite the team. And indeed, how big a role Spidey will play.

Who’s involved? Drew Goddard of The Cabin In The Woods fame was expected to write and direct, last we heard. He also scripted Cloverfield and World War Z. As for casting, no ruddy clue at our end.

When’s it coming out? The Sinister Six’s US release date of 11 November 2016 is now utterly impossible. Sony may wait and see how Tom Holland's Spidey gets on in Civil War before pushing ahead with this one.

Untitled Female Superhero Spider-Man Movie

What’s it about? Here’s one of the vaguer entries on this list. One thing you can count on: despite how catchy it is, Untitled Female Superhero Spider-Man Movie probably won’t remain the title if this film ever does see the light of day.

Black Cat is the rumour, albeit one that Felicia actress Felicity Jones doesn’t seem to know much about (see here). Now that her only Spidey cinematic universe appearance is no longer canon, we'd say that she's probably out of the picture. Another potential is Spider-Woman, most commonly known as Jessica Drew in the comics. She traditionally lacks Spidey’s actual powers, but has a knack for crime-fighting nonetheless.

Other than that, who wouldn’t want a Madame Web movie? Or the Spider-Verse comics' alternate universe Spider-Woman – none other than a parallel world’s Gwen Stacey?

Who’s involved? Your guess is as good as ours, but Andrew Garfield and Marc Webb definitely won't be involved.

When’s it coming out? It was originally slated for 2017, but there's no chance of that now.

We’re going to keep this article updated until such a time as an actual apocalypse occurs or Hollywood stops announcing comic book movies so far in advance - whichever comes first. If you spot anything wrong, just pop it in the comments and we’ll get it sorted. Thanks!

Follow our Twitter feed for faster news and bad jokes right here. And be our Facebook chum here.

By the power of Greyskull, Entertainment Weekly has broken some very exciting news for fans of geeky telly from the 1980s. He-Man And The Masters Of The Universe is getting something of a revival, as brand new episode of the iconic 80s animated show is set to debut at this year's San Diego Comic-Con.

The fine folks at Super7 produced the episode, which is going by the title The Curse Of The Three Terrors. Here's a brief trailer, just to prove that we're not making this up...

If you're lucky enough to be attending SDCC this year, you can catch the full episode on Wednesday. It remains to be seen whether this comeback will lead to a full new series of the show. We'd wager it depends on how much hype is garnered by The Curse Of The Three Terrors.

There's also been talk of a live-action He-Man movie, with Charlie's Angels and Terminator Salvation helmsman McG executive producing.

We'll let you know as we hear more about He-Man in all his forms.

Update: The likelihood of Den Of Geek being given its own space ship seems to be shrinking by the day, so thank the cosmos for No Man's Sky. A game of exploration and survival in a virtual universe teeming with exotic and sometimes dangerous life, it's a game we've been looking forward to with eager anticipation. 

With the game's release just a month away, there's a brand new trailer - what appears to be the first in a series - which highlights No Man's Sky's exploration and seamless movement from space travel to on-foot exploration. 

No Man's Sky goes gold, out in August

Given just how small the core team at indie developer Hello Games is, the scale of their space sim No Man's Sky is quite astonishing. It'll offer an entire procedurally-generated galaxy of planets, many inhabited with exotic life forms, some land-based, others aquatic.

Ever since it turned heads at E3 a couple of years ago, the game's become one of the most anticipated of the year - which might explain the outpouring of frustration (and occasional bursts of anger) when Hello Games pushed No Man's Sky's release date back from its original June window to August.

For anyone fearing that the space sim might wind up being pushed back again, there's good news: it's gone gold, which means Hello Games have finally finished it. To mark the occasion, the studio opened a bottle of something fizzy (probably Sprite or something) and published the following image on Twitter:

Look at their happy, bearded faces.

All of this means that, yes, No Man's Sky will officially launch on the 9th August in the US and the 10th August in Europe. Platforms? PC and PlayStation 4. Hurrah!

No Man's Sky: 18 minutes of gameplay footage

We don't claim to know all that much about No Man's Sky. We just know we really, really want to play it.

Thus far, we've figured out that it's a space sim in the truest sense of the word. Not only can you zip around the game's virtual galaxy in your ship, but you can also touch down on any planet, hop out of the cockpit and go for an explore.

Here's where it gets really exciting: each planet has a procedurally-generated and therefore unique eco-system. You'll find strange creatures and flora that even the game's creators hadn't necessarily predicted. You might encounter aquatic life forms in the sea, or grumpy, boar-like animals on the land.

But what we hadn't yet figured out is, what are No Man's Sky's objectives beyond exploration and finding new creatures? Hello Games' new 18-minute video (thanks, IGN) lifts the lid a little on this enigmatic game, revealing a fairly typical first-person shooter interface (this is, to the best of our knowledge, the first time we've seen the shooting mechanics in action). We also get to see a little bit of how your ship, suit and weapons can be customised via a menu screen, and how blasting away at even incidental background details has a lasting impact on the landscape. 

The most exciting bit? Hopping into the ship at roughly the 10 minute mark. There's something thrilling about the freedom No Man's Sky promises to give us; the sense that there's an entire galaxy out there to explore.

No Man's Sky does have an ultimate aim, we understand: to gather enough resources to gradually work your way to the centre of the galaxy. To be honest, we'll be happy to just bimble about in our space ship and discovering weird and cute new animals.

No Man's Sky is coming soon to PC and PlayStation 4. When we have a release date, we'll be sure to pass it on.

IGN

Follow our Twitter feed for faster news and bad jokes right here. And be our Facebook chum here.

UPDATE

A second trailer for The Girl On The Train has been released, and we've got it right here...

THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN: FIRST TRAILER (APRIL 2016)

Paula Hawkins' book, The Girl On The Train, has been a huge bestseller, that's stayed in the charts for some time. It's an impressive piece of work, too, and it didn't take long for the movie rights to be snapped up.

The film arrives in cinemas later this year, with Emily Blunt taking on the lead role. Joining her in the cast are Luke Evans, Rebecca Ferguson, Edgar Ramirez, Allison Janney and Haley Bennett. Erin Cressida Wilson has adapted the novel for the screen, and The Help's Tate Taylor is directing.

The first trailer for The Girl On The Train has just landed too, with the film set to land in UK cinemas on October 7th 2016. And without further ado, here it is...

Jackie Chan's been in a couple of buddy comedy pairings over his long career already, including Rush Hour (with Chris Tucker) and Shanghai Noon (with Owen Wilson). Skiptrace sees the martial arts legend team up with Johnny Knoxville, the former Jackass guy who plays an American fugitive fleeing some particularly nasty Chinese gangsters here. Chan, meanwhile, plays a detective who winds up in Knoxville's orbit when the latter witnesses some sort of hideous crime.

The action-comedy's directed by Renny Harlin, best known for such action flicks as Die Hard 2: Die Harder and Cliffhanger, so there should be plenty of solid set-pieces in Skiptrace, even if Chan (and Knoxville for that matter) no longer pulls off the kind of gonzo stunts he once did. Still, the fight scenes look great fun - fending off an opponent with outsized Matryoshka dolls is pure Jackie Chan.

Skiptrace opensin US cinemas on the 2nd September following a run on the streaming service DirecTV. We'll be sure to update you when we hear about a UK release.

Deadline

Back when Breaking Bad returned for its final batch of episodes in August 2013, it had a dedication at the end of it. The card read 'Dedicated to our friend Kevin Cordasco'. As it turned out, Kevin Cordasco was a 16-year old who had been battling cancer for seven years, who had met both Bryan Cranston and Vince Gilligan. Cordasco died before he could ever get to see the episode dedicated to him.

I found this such a moving story, that it got me wondering about the dedications that appear on films, and what the story behind them was. After all, the dedications are there for a reason. What I uncovered was some funny stories, mainly extremely sad ones, and some extremely moving dedications. These stories are presented with due respect to everyone concerned.

I've tried to stay clear of the more obvious ones (with one or two exceptions). But here are some of the people whose names will forever be associated with the movies they have dedicated to them.

THE ABYSS: SPECIAL EDITION

The special edition of James Cameron's ambitious 1989 film The Abyss is dedicated, via an on-screen card, to Captain Pierce Oliver Kidd Brewer Jr. He was a professional diver, who died in 1990 at the age of 41. He'd also worked with James Cameron on Piranha Part Two, many years earlier, and the two were friends. He reportedly took his own life.

ADAPTATION

Spike Jonze's brilliant film comes with the dedication of 'In Loving Memory Of Donald Kaufman'. Don't go looking him up, though. Kaufman is a fictional character in the film...

THE ARTIST

Oscar-winning picture The Artist is dedicated to the memory of Kamel Ech-Cheik, describing him as "one of the classiest men in the world". Ech-Cheik was a composer who had put together scores for films such as OSS 117 and Mes Amis. Ech-Cheik was a childhood friend of The Artist's director Michel Hazanavicius. He died in 2011,

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST

Towards the end of the credits for Disney's Beauty And The Beast is the following dedication: "To our friend Howard, who gave a mermaid her voice and a beast his soul, we will be forever grateful. Howard Ashman 1950–1991".

This was a dedication to lyricist Howard Ashman, who also served as executive producer on Beauty And The Beast. Ashman was widely credited with being one of the major catalysts behind the Disney animation renaissance, thanks to his incredible work, alongside Alan Menken, bringing the musical side of The Little Mermaid and Beauty And The Beast to life. A notoriously hard man to work with, Ashman died of complications relating to his HIV positive diagnosis in 1991, and never got to see the absolute final cut of Beauty And The Beast, nor the critical outpouring that followed it.

BEFORE MIDNIGHT

The third and thus far final part of Richard Linklater's exquisite Before... trilogy has a special thanks hidden in its end credits to Amy Lehrhaupt. As it turns out, she was the inspiration for the first movie. She and Linklater met and spent a night in each other's company, thus providing the spark that would set Linklater on the path to 1995's Before Sunrise.

Sadly, this story doesn't have a happy ending. Unbeknownst to Linklater at the time, Lehraupt died before she had a chance to see the first film. Her relationship with Linklater had fizzled out after their first night together, and she died in 1994, in a motorcycle accident. She was just 24 years old. Linklater wouldn't find out she'd died for another 15 years or so. Slate reported the story in full, here. 

BIG HERO 6

Another sad story here. 

In the end credits for Disney's Big Hero 6 reads the line 'Thanks Andy, we miss you'. As producer Roy Conli told us, "We had a young man working with us, who we lost. It was Andy, and he was helping us in the marketing department. It was surprising and sudden. He was relatively young, and unfortunately we lost him.

We're talking about a film about loss. One of the things in it that I wanted to make sure of was that the message we sent to him did not throw the audience. He was a lovely, lovely man".

THE BLING RING

Sofia Coppola's 2013 drama was the final cinematic work of Harris Savides. Savides' career as a cinematographer included films such as Zodiac, American Gangster, Milk and The Game. He died of brain cancer at the age of 55, and The Bling Ring is dedicated to him.

CARS

Pixar's 2005 movie Cars was dedicated to the memory of Joe Ranft. Ranft was a major creative force at Pixar, the co-director of Cars and writer on films such as The Lion King, Toy Story, A Bug's Life and The Brave Little Toaster. He tragically died at the age of just 45, when his car veered off the road into the ocean. An incredible force in animation, he's sadly missed.

CLIFFHANGER

There are two dedications with Cliffhanger. One is for the mother of Mario Cassar, who funded the movie. The other is Wolfgang Gullich, who worked as Sylvester Stallone's stunt double on the movie. He was killed in an automobile accident unrelated to the movie, once production was over. A dedicated sports climber, he was just 31 when he died, failing to regain consciousness after his car accident, and dying two days after it.

CON AIR

The wonderful Con Air is dedicated to Phillip Swartz. He was a welder working on the film, who was crushed when a model of the plane used in the movie fell on him. The dedication reads 'In Memory Of Phil Swartz' come the end of the credits.

THE CROW

As you might expect, Alex Proyas' 1994 movie The Crow bears a dedication to Brandon Lee, who died during the production of the movie, courtesy of an horrific accident. But the film also features a dedication to Eliza Hutton. She was Lee's fiancée at the time of his death, and they'd planned to marry in 1993. She subsequently left the movie industry after the release of The Crow, and lived a private, quiet life, undertaking a sizeable amount of volunteer and charity work.

THE DARK KNIGHT

There are two dedications in the credits of Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight. The credit reads "In memory of our friends Heath Ledger & Conway Wickliffe". The reasons for the Heath Ledger dedication are well known, but Conway Wickliffe was killed during the filming of the movie. He was a special effects technician, who died while filming a car chase on the movie. He was 41.

DRAGONFLY

The Kevin Costner-headlined thriller from 2002 bears a dedicated to Katharine Curtiss. Curtiss was married to Alan Curtiss, who was the assistant producer and first assistant director on the film.

THE EXPENDABLES 2

Come the end credits of Simon West's Expendables sequel is a dedication to the memory of Kun Lui. Lui was working as a stuntman on the movie, and died in an on-set accident that injured another. He was working on the second unit of the film. He was 26 years old.

FAST & FURIOUS 7

FLIGHT

Edward 'Ed' Limato died at the age of 73 in 2010, from complications resulting from pneumonia. Robert Zemeckis dedicated his 2012 movie Flight to him. Limato was a long-time talent agent and senior vice president at the William Morris Agency, with a client list featuring Denzel Washington, Steve Martin and Nicolas Cage. There is also a tribute to him in the 2010 movie Unstoppable.

FROZEN

The end credits of Disney's huge animated hit have an in memory of Poppy, Lola, Caleb, Kayla line. As director Jennifer Lee told us, they're the names of the quads that two of the animators were expecting, but sadly lost.

GOLDENEYE

The Pierce Brosnan-headlined resurrection of the James Bond movie franchise has a line in its credits that reads 'To the memory of Derek Meddings'. Meddings died while the film was in post-production, at the age of 64. He was taken by cancer.

He'd had an incredible career, working as a special effects and miniatures designer on Thunderbirds, the first three Superman films, Cape Fear, Krull, Batman and Live And Let Die. Goldeneye was his last film.

HELP!

We don't make this up. The 1965 Beatles movie, Help!, sports a dedication to Elias Howe. Elias Howe was the inventor of the sewing machine, and he died in 1867 at the age of 48. His inclusion, as the story goes, came as a result of an on-set discussion that traced back the fashion of The Beatles, concluding that if the inventor of the sewing machine had never existed, they would never have anything to wear.

JOHN Q

The Denzel Washington headlined John Q has a dedication at the end that reds 'For Sasha'. Sasha is the daughter of the film's director, Nick Cassavetes, and she was born with a heart defect. She's healthy now, thankfully, but from reports, she was critically ill at one stage, and underwent more than her fair share of surgery. Cassavetes would go on to direct the movie take on My Sister's Keeper, partly as a result of his and Sasha's experiences.

LETHAL WEAPON

'This picture is dedicated to the memory of Dar Robinson', reads the credits of Lethal Weapon, adding that he was 'one of the motion picture industry's greatest stuntman'. He received similar credits on Cyclone and Million Dollar Mystery, making up his final three films. He was 39 when he died back in 1986, and it was while making Million Dollar Mystery when a stunt finally went wrong for him, leading to him riding his motorbike off the edge of a cliff. He was survived by his three children.

THE LION KING

Disney's biggest grossing hand drawn movie is dedicated to the memory of Frank Wells. Wells was the Disney President and Chief Operating Officer from 1984 through to his untimely death in 1994. He died at the age of 62 in a helicopter crash on his way back from a skiing trip.

His death had ramifications too, causing a power struggle at the heart of Disney between Michael Eisner and Jeffrey Katzenberg, that ultimately resulted in the latter leaving, and co-founding DreamWorks with Steven Spielberg and David Geffen.

The Lion King arrived the summer after Wells' death, and a building at Walt Disney Studios now also bears his name.

LORD OF THE RINGS: RETURN OF THE KING

There aren't that many nice stories in this article, but this one feels particularly unfair. 17-year old Cameron Duncan was a filmmaker who came to the attention of Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh while making the Lord Of The Rings movies. His life was taken from him at such a young age by a variant of bone cancer. Fran Walsh would write the song Into The West, as used in Return Of The King, inspired by Duncan. You can find out more about him on the extended edition of the film on DVD.

MAD MAX BEYOND THUNDERDOME

"For Byron" reads the card at the end of the third Mad Max movie, released in 1985, and it's in reference to Byron Kennedy, the producer of the first two films, who was killed in a helicopter crash back in 1983. He was only 33 years old.

MULHOLLAND DRIVE

David Lynch dedicated his cinematic puzzle Mulholland Drive to Jennifer Syme. Syme worked for Lynch for a while, and took a small role in Lost Highway. She died at the age of 28 back in 2001, following a motoring accident which killed her instantly. She was driving from a party at Marilyn Manson's house, and he would go on to write the song Just A Car Crash Away about her in 2007.

MIRACLE

Disney's 2004 film Miracle, starring Kurt Russell, was dedicated to the memory of Herb Brooks. Brooks, a prominent US ice hockey play and coach, served as a consultant on the movie (not least because Russell was playing him), and died shortly after it was complete, at the age of 66. As the dedication read, "he never saw it, he lived it".

THE MUPPET CHRISTMAS CAROL

'In loving memory of Jim Henson and Richard Hunt' reads the card in The Muppet Christmas Carol. This was the first Muppet film following Henson's tragically early death in 1990, at the age of 45. Dedications to him appeared at the front of episodes of Sesame Street, Basil Hears A Noise, Dinosaurs and The Cosby Show, too.

Richard Hunt was at the time of his death in 1992 a longtime Muppet performer, for characters such as Statler, Janice, Scooter, Beaker and Sweetums. He was one of only five performers to work on all five seasons of The Muppet Show. He died of complications from AIDS, at the age of 40.

MUPPETS MOST WANTED

In the end credits to Muppets Most Wanted, there's an in memory dedication to Jane Henson and Jerry Nelson. Jane Henson was the wife of the late Jim Henson, and she died in April 2013 (whilst Muppets Most Wanted was in production). Nelson, meanwhile, was one of the real legends of the Muppet performers. He died in 2012, but his audio work was used briefly in the new film.

PACIFIC RIM

Ray Harryhausen and Ishiro Honda are both given dedications at the end of Guillermo del Toro's Pacific Rim, a fitting tip of the hat to two of cinema's finest makers of monsters. Harryhausen died in 2013, having made an unrivalled contribution to visual effects. Put his work in Clash Of The Titans against the recent, loud remake if you want evidence of that.

If you're not familiar with the name of Ishiro Honda, meanwhile, he's the man who directed the original Godzilla movie back in 1954. Regarded in some quarters as the father of Godzilla, he died in Tokyo back in 1993. Both men left a tremendous legacy, and it seems fitting that del Toro pay tribute to it.

PARKER

The Jason Statham-Jennifer Lopez vehicle was dedicated to the memory of Donald E Westlake. Westlake, under the name Richard Stark, was the man who wrote the novel Flashfire, upon which the film was based. The same novel was also the basis for Payback and Point Blank. Westlake died in 2008, at the age of 75.

This article is continued on the next page. We don't like splitting our lists like this, but with the very longer ones, it does seem to make sense...

Here's the second part of the article.

THE PEACEMAKER

DreamWorks' first movie, The Peacemaker is to the memory of Paul Leder. Leder died at 70, from lung cancer, and was a writer, producer, director and editor of movies. He was also the father of Mimi Leder, the director of The Peacemaker.

PRETTY IN PINK

Pretty In Pink is in memory of Alexa Kenin and Bruce Weintraub, both of whom were involved with the movie. Kenin had a small role in the film, and died in 1985 at the age of just 23, soon after Pretty In Pink was completed.

Bruce Weintraub, meanwhile, was 33 when he passed. He worked as set decorator on the film, having previously contributed to Blow Out, Scarface, The Natural, Prizzi's Honour and many more.

P.S. I LOVE YOU

The 2007 movie adaptation of Cecilia Ahern's P.S. I Love You is in memory of Windland Smith Rice. She was the sister of the film's producer, Molly Smith. She died in 2005, after building a strong career as a photographer, of a rare heart disorder. She was just 35 when she died.

RED HEAT

Walter Hill's 1988 union of Arnold Schwarzenegger and James Belushi is dedicated to Bennie E Dobbins, who was working as stunt co-ordinator on the film. He's previously worked on the Star Trek TV show, and his extensive film credits covered Dirty Harry, The Towering Inferno, TRON and Commando. Dobbins suffered a fatal heart attack while Red Heat was shooting in Austria, back in February 1988. He was 56 at the time of his death.

RISE OF THE GUARDIANS

Before the end credits begin on Rise Of The Guardians, there's a dedication to Mary Katherine Joyce. She was the daughter of William Joyce, the man who wrote the book the film was based on, and its original co-director. Mary died of a brain tumour at the age of just 18 back in 2010, when Joyce took a step back from directing the film (handing it over to Peter Ramsey). The entire film is dedicated, movingly, to Mary.

THE ROCK

Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer produced big blockbuster hit after big blockbuster hit during their fruitful partnership. Top Gun, Beverly Hills Cop, Flashdance and Bad Boys were just some of their films together as producers. Simpson died young, though, of heart failure related to drug use (the book High Concept, by Charles Fleming, charts his life and his legacy).

Simpson was 52 when he died, in January 1996. Bruckheimer, fed up with Simpson's increasing drug use, reportedly ended their partnership the month before, with The Rock - released in summer 1996 - to be their last project together. Simpson never got to see it, and the film remains dedicated to him. The card reads 'this film is dedicated in loving memory to Don Simpson'.

SANCTUM

Wesley C Skiles died in July 2010 at the age of 52, whilst on a dive in Florida. A pioneer of cave diving, it was some of the incredible underwater photography of Skiles that would go on to inspire Sanctum, the 2011 movie overseen by James Cameron. Sanctum is dedicated to Skiles' memory.

SAVING MR BANKS

There's a post-credits dedication to Diane Marie Disney. She was Walt Disney's eldest daughter, and she died shortly before the release of the film.

SCARFACE

Brian De Palma's take on Scarface bears the a dedication to Howard Hawks and Ben Hecht. Hawks was the director of the original Scarface movie, and Hecht was its lead writer.

THE SEA WOLVES

Before his death at the hands of the IRA, Lord Louis Mountbatten was involved in preparatory work for 1980's The Sea Wolves. The final cut of the film is dedicated to him, reading 'This film is dedicated to the memory of the last Honorary Colonel of the Calcutta Light Horse - Admiral of the Fleet, The Earl Mountbatten of Burma, K.G. 1900 - 1979'.

The credits also pay tribute to Commander B.S. Davies, for his contribution to the mission that the film depicts.

SHALLOW HAL

The Farrelly Brothers' Shallow Hal includes a dedication to Charles Seabrook. In his mid-50s when he died, Seabrook worked in the electrical and camera department on the film, as he had done on the likes of Forrest Gump, Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls and Shadow Conspiracy. He died six months before the release of Shallow Hal.

THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION

There's a unfussy dedication to Allen Greene in the credits of the immortal The Shawshank Redemption. Greene was the agent of writer/director Frank Darabont, and a good friend of his too. Sadly, he died just before the film was finished, as a result of complications related to his AIDS diagnosis.

SPY GAME

Tony Scott's thriller, starring Robert Redford, is 'dedicated to the memory of Elizabeth Jean Scott'. As, incidentally, was Ridley Scott's Black Hawk Down. The connection being, as you might guess, is that she's their mother. She died in 2001.

STAR TREK BEYOND

As the first Star Trek film made since the passing of Leonard Nimoy, Star Trek Beyond is dedicated in loving memory to the man who brought Spock to life. The movie is also 'For Anton'. Anton Yelchin, who plays Chekov, died just weeks before its release.

STUCK ON YOU

The Farrelly Brothers dedicated their 2003 comedy, Stuck On You, to a frequent collaborator of theirs. It's in memory of Herb Flynn, who acted in films such as Shallow Hal and There's Something About Mary for the directors. Flynn died of cancer before Stuck On You was released, at the age of 85.

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES II: THE SECRET OF THE OOZE

In the opening credits of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II, there's a dedication to Jim Henson, and reportedly not one his family were best thrilled with. It was the last film that Henson worked on, but he was reported to be unhappy with the levels of violence in the first movie. Nonetheless, the film bears his dedication.

THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY

The Farrelly Brothers dedicated There's Something About Mary to 17-year old Ryan Mone. The brothers were long-time friends of the Mones, and when Ryan died in a car accident, those chose to dedicate the movie to his memory. A class act.

THIS IS ENGLAND

Shane Meadow's superb 2006 drama gave young Thomas Turgoose an indelible breakthrough role. The final film is dedicated to Sharon, his mother, who died of cancer at the end of 2005. She got to see a short preview of the film before she passed, although never saw the final cut.

TOP GUN

The classic Tom Cruise/Tony Scott blockbuster is dedicated to the memory of Art Scholl. Scholl was a stunt pilot, who died at the age of 53, when his plane went into a flat spin while making the film, and plunged into the Pacific Ocean. The spin was intentional, and designed to get a specific shot for the film, but it became apparent quickly that things hadn't gone to plan.

You can find the Art School Aviation website here, and a memorial field has been named in his honour.

TRANSPORTER 2

The Jason Statham-starring sequel is dedicated to the memory of Michael Stone. Stone was director of photography on the film, and had also worked on the likes of Pearl Harbor, Terminator 3 and National Treasure. Transporter 2 was his first director of photography job on the first unit. He died in a car accident in 2005, at the age of 56.

TURBO

Go through the end credits of DreamWorks' Turbo, and you'll get the line 'In memory of Nicholas Sanger Hoppe'. We had the chance to ask director David Soren about the line, and he told us "he passed away. He had cancer. We just wanted to honour him". A computer VFX artist and animator for two decades, Hoppe died a year after his diagnosis, in March 2013. He had worked on the Kung Fu Panda movies, Turbo, Megamind and more during his time at DreamWorks Animation.

UNFORGIVEN

A fairly obvious one, this. Clint Eastwood adds the words 'Dedicated to Sergio and Don' at the end. That's his nod and appreciation to Don Siegel and Sergio Leone, arguably the best directors he ever worked with. Siegel directed him in Dirty Harry, whilst Leone was the man behind the peerless Man With No Name trilogy.

UNSTOPPABLE

The late Tony Scott's final film, Unstoppable, was dedicated to the memory of Hollie Haines Knowlton. The dedication arises from the true story that inspired the film. The movie, about a runaway train, was based on an event that took place in 2001, and Denzel Washington portrayed Jesse Knowlton (albeit under a different name), one of the men who tried to bring said train to a stop. Hollie Haines Knowlton was Jesse's wife, and she died before the film was released. She shares a dedication in the film's credits with Ed Limato (for more details on him, see the entry for Flight).

THE WAY

Emilio Estevez's The Way, which he wrote and directed, was a personal piece of work, not least because his father was cast alongside him. The movie was released in 2010, and is dedicated to Francisco Estevez. He was Emilio's grandfather, and Martin's father.

THE WICKER MAN

The infamous 2006 remake of The Wicker Man bears the credit 'For Johnny Ramone'. It's not the most beguiling gift that Ramone would have benefitted from, but the late guitarist was the man who introduced Nicolas Cage to Robin Hardy's original The Wicker Man. Ramone died in 2004, and never got to see the remake.

WIMBLEDON

The Paul Bettany/Kirsten Dunst tennis-centric rom-com Wimbledon is dedicated to Mark McCormack.He was the founder of the Intenational Management Group (IMG), and as such managed names in the sports and movies arenas. The dedication was in recognition of what he contribution to the spots of golf and tennis. McCormack suffered a cardiac arrest in January 2003, and finally died from complications in May 2003. He was 72 years old.

xXx

Skydiver and stuntman Harry O'Connor had worked on films such as The Perfect Storm and Charlie's Angels, and his final film, xXx, is dedicated to him. He died in the midst of performing a stunt on the feature, with a Prague police officer saying that "he was being pulled at high speed on a paraglider and hit a pillar of the Palacky bridge. He died on the spot due to heavy injuries". O'Connor was 45 when he died, back in 2002, and the film's tribute describes him as a "beloved friend".

Also...

STEVE JOBS

The films John Carter and Brave are both dedicated to the late Apple boss. The Brave dedication, particularly poignant given that Jobs was one of the absolute pivotal figures in Pixar's life, reads: "To Steve Jobs, our partner, mentor, and friend".

And there are also some non-person specific dedications...

Oliver Stone's JFK is "dedicated to the young",

Star Trek Into Darkness is dedicated to post-September 11th war veterans. Star Trek IV is dedicated to the crew of the ill-fated Challenger space shuttle, whilst Star Trek VI was in memory of Gene Roddenberry.

The Great Escape is "For the Fifty".

The Towering Inferno, meanwhile, is dedicated to firefighters.

We will occasionally update this over time. Our thoughts are very much with those affected by the losses we've talked about.

Follow our Twitter feed for faster news and bad jokes right here. And be our Facebook chum here.

Some movies wear their political messages lightly, some club you over the head. Guardians Of The Galaxy’s most explicit political statement is probably ‘We are Groot’, which could mean anything from ‘You’re my friends’ to a thesis on the benefits of intersectionality. Team America: World Police, on the other hand, provides an argument for military intervention that probably isn’t covered in the Chilcot Report.

Some movies, though, have messages buried at varying depths in the subtext that don’t come out straight away upon the their release. The Lord Of The Rings trilogy, despite having been published in 1955, achieved this. The influence of World War One - the trenches and mechanised warfare - influence a technophobia, as does growing up near the Black Country. Tolkien was brought up in Hall Green near Birmingham, and could literally remember when it was all fields, more lush green idyll than Waitrosed suburb.

From here the nightly view of the North West of the city - at the peak of the area’s industry - was one of glowing furnaces and shooting sparks. The films echo Tolkien’s sentiments towards a simple, rural life rather than an urban, industrial and mechanised one. Mordor and Saruman reflect this attitude and, indeed, their locations reflect the Black Country or areas of intense industry. Power, in more than one sense, corrupts in Lord Of The Rings, and ideas of technological progress are questioned.

Similarly, Forrest Gump can be interpreted as suggesting a simple, decent life is preferable to seemingly progressive lifestyles, as the title character’s naive optimism triumphs time and time again whereas Jenny, his love-interest, continually tries to escape the abuse in her life by joining in with the counter-cultural movements of the times but never manages it. In fact, it simply makes things worse and contributes to her early death, leaving the viewer with the message ‘Don’t do anything liberal or you’ll die’.

The authorial intention behind these stories is not necessarily reflected in these interpretations. Tom Hanks and writer/director Robert Zemeckis saw Forrest Gump as apolitical, the story of an innocent in a cynical world. Tolkien, however, spoke of ‘cold-hearted wizards’ destroying things in their quest for knowledge, hoping that the Hobbits of this world would outlast them. He’d probably had a few by that stage (this was at a Rotterdam ‘Hobbit Dinner’ in 1958) but it does suggest that this interpretation is backed up by authorial intention.

However, the general reception of fiction and its authors’ intentions don’t always go hand in hand. This is not an article about theories I have regarding the politics of movies, rather a description of existing interpretations and how they came about. In Forrest Gump’s case, it seems to be that Jenny’s story - in which almost nothing positive happens to her at all - was latched onto as being representative of the whole film.

Likewise, one line in The Incredibles stands out as a way in for the interpretation that the film represents Ayn Rand’s objectivism. This philosophical system states that, among other things, the primary moral purpose of existence is to bring about your own happiness. In her fiction writing Rand sought to depict her ideal hero, one who is totally dedicated to achieving his goals irrespective of the problems it causes for others. You can see how that links up with the recurring line in The Incredibles saying that if everyone is special then no-one is, and with Dash’s desire to use his powers of speed to easily win at school races. Plus, ideas of innate superiority or specialness also occur in other films by Incredibles writer/director Brad Bird, specifically Ratatouille and Tomorrowland, which also features a group retreating from society to a special hideaway, a plot point echoing Rand’s novel Atlas Shrugged. There is enough to latch onto to deem it problematic, but it’s always been denied by Bird.

The notion of an individual who is distinctly talented and uncompromising also runs through the work of Zack Snyder, most recently in his depiction of Superman. Snyder has praised Rand’s novel The Fountainhead as being a ‘thesis on the creative process and what it is to create something’, saying he wanted to adapt the novel into a movie to The Hollywood Reporter.

This comment led to an examination of his work, his depiction of Rorschach in Watchmen (who was based on an objectivist Steve Ditko character, The Question), and also the version of Superman seen in Man Of Steel and Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice. Here we see Clark Kent’s journey from a man performing heroic deeds anonymously to a superhero told by his parents that he doesn’t owe humanity anything, as he struggles with being a superior being. It matches up with the Randian hero archetype, the (appropriately enough, given its literal translation) Übermensch who must deal with a lack of understanding from society.

Superhero films do generally find themselves open to accusations of holding conservative values, due to their frequent story pattern of establishment figures upholding the status quo in the face of revolution. When villains are given qualities loaded with political significance, or are sympathetic, it results in a story that can be interpreted as the establishment winning. Avengers: Age Of Ultron features government-sanctioned heroes causing and solving their own problems via a colossal death toll, reflecting interventionist foreign policy.

The Dark Knight Rises depicted Batman quashing an uprising whose espoused ideology reflected the Occupy Wall Street movement, while simultaneously acknowledging that Gotham does have problems and that the rebellion’s grievances have some justification. Nonetheless, Batman must maintain the status quo, and the character - being a billionaire channeling his fear - is generally seen punching down in vigilante mode. Because The Avengers and Batman stories invariably feature a preservation of existing power structures, coupled with a wish to make their opponents more interesting and sympathetic, and they can be interpreted both as a satire of and a paean to conservative values.

Disney’s 2011 Muppet movie (called simply The Muppets) was less welcomed by right-wingers than The Dark Knight Rises, with Fox Business host Eric Bolling complaining about the film on his show Follow The Money, with the Media Research Centre’s Dan Gainor saying: "It’s amazing how far the left will go to manipulate your kids, to convince them, give the anti-corporate message." This was in reference to the character Tex Richman (as played by Chris Cooper), an Evil Oil Baron who wished to destroy the old Muppet Theatre due to the wealth of oil underneath it. This lead to Bolling asking "Where are we? Communist China?"

However, American Christian group Focus on the Family gave The Muppets a positive review on its Plugged In site, believing the Muppets' oddball underdog status reflects that of contemporary American Christianity.

When The Muppets - a film designed as silly, family entertainment - can be interpreted in two ways from ostensibly similar viewpoints you can see how something as knowingly theme-driven as The Dark Knight Rises can get latched onto from vastly differing political perspectives, due to aspects of it representing different ideologies.

This makes a difference, as a film takes on a life outside its creator’s intentions, and if it clashes with a viewer’s outlook it can leave a sour taste. Whether you agree with these interpretations or not, the fact they exist means they can be used for or against a movie, giving it and its creators a reputation that persists in cinemagoers minds irrespective of its accuracy.

Appropriately, the opening of Star Trek Beyond sees Kirk (Chris Pine), now a little older and wiser, wearily pondering what the point of his five-year mission really is. "My dad joined Starfleet because he believed in it," he says to his old friend Bones (Karl Urban). "I joined on a dare."

With Star Trek as a whole celebrating its 50th birthday this year, perhaps it's the right time for a film that takes stock of the Federation, the Enterprise, and even the franchise itself. Is the world now too divided and cynical for something as idealistic and utopian as the United Federation of Planets? As fans of the series, I think we know the answer to that question, but it was exciting to be able to ask the cast of Star Trek Beyond what they thought about the franchise's relevance in the 21st century.

We found Karl Urban and John Cho in a relaxed and thoughtful mood when we met them in a London hotel earlier this month, and even their responses to heavy and not particularly junket-friendly questions were thoughtful and movingly personal. Here's what they had to say...

I liked that the film suggested that space exploration can be exciting, but sometimes also repetitive and tedious.

John Cho: Ha, yeah! That was pretty cool, huh?

It's sort of claustrophobic.

Karl Urban: It's a great way to open the film, to deal with the day-to-day reality of a five-year mission. Yes, there's exciting stuff that happens, and we all see that, but it's interesting to see the bits in between.

JC: And I think it was such an interesting coda to the first movie, which is the genesis story. It's all bangs and explosions and how they get there, and to start [this film] with a moment of... really, boredom [Laughs] and an existential crisis as well...

KU: ...it's a bold way to start a movie, isn't it?

JC: I really do think so!

KU: "We're so bored!" [Laughs]

JC: You know, there's a shot that they didn't use, of Kirk eating a breakfast burrito.

KU: Yeah, yeah. [Laughs] That's very [Chris] Pine.

JC: Yeah, it's very Pine. It's all Pine. There's a Star Trek mug, a Starfleet mug in there. A coffee mug.

I did notice that.

KU: On sale at K-Mart for $9.99!

JC: Does K-Mart exist anymore?

I don't know!

KU: Yeah, they do.

We don't have K-Mart in this country.

KU: You don't?

No. I'd probably have to buy them at Asda or Londis or something like that. Anyway, so yeah - this film feels like it really evolves your characters - that they've moved on from being the young trainees from the Academy. You're two and a half, three years into your mission. Was that good to get your teeth into as actors?

KU: It was. And that comes across in subtle ways. When the ship's under attack, Spock and I, we leave and I'm doing my job and he's doing his and [snaps fingers] you snap into being a professional. It was nice to have that evolution of character. For me, I felt that this version of McCoy was the most dynamic version that I've had the benefit of playing to date.

JC: It's a Bones picture!

KU: You can see a lot of different aspects to the character, and it was a real treat. 

It's more of an ensemble this one, isn't it?

JC: I think it's interesting too, because the typical set-up for Star Trek is that each character is relating to Kirk and he's the centre of his wheel. And to split us up, I think, it naturally feels more ensemble-y because we're relating to one another in different pairings. Then also, you get different emotional stuff as a result. For me, the emphasis on protecting the family, getting to Yorktown to save them - those personal stakes and so on... there's just some more flavours in there.

Do you have much input into the tone of your characters?

KU: Definitely. Early on, Simon [Pegg] emailed us an early draft and said, "Here it is. Let me know what you think." And, you know, "If there's anything you'd like to see in it, let's work on it."

JC: And we did.

KU: That's exactly what we did. I can look at that picture and see many different beats from that collaboration up on the screen. I'm quite proud of that.

Can you describe any of the bits that got into the film that were yours?

KU: Yeah, well the sequence where Bones finds out that he has to go and fly a space ship and he's not happy about it. That thing about, [huffily] "The next time you need a doctor..." To me, that was a throwback I'd seen DeForest [Kelley] get to do. I was always looking for the opportunity to sprinkle a little bit of that in there.

The themes of Star Trek are very much unity and inclusivity. Do you think it's timely, having a film like this out?

KU: Yeah, and for a multitude of reasons. Not only because it's the 50th anniversary of Star Trek, but also because it's what makes it relevant today. There's the Brexit that's just gone on, the rise of extremism. The constant outbreaks of violence in the States. Star Trek represents a vision of hope, hope for humanity, that we can move beyond these times. We can work together and that we will no longer persecute each other and destroy each other and kill each other. That we will be unified, and I think that's why Star Trek resonates - I think that's why it's important, culturally.

JC:[Star Trek] came about at a similarly tumultuous time in America. It was a time of great optimism, but also marred by great tragedy as well, so it was an interesting portrait of the hope of modernist America. Sadly, there are some parallels that are happening right now. We're dealing with some... [trails off] incidents that are striking at the very heart of what we believe right now, at least in America. And it's testing our values as a society. Not to read too deeply into it, but I just feel like Star Trek is a nice answer culturally speaking. It's not a political answer, it's just a cultural answer. The theme of this one is that family bends but doesn't break, you know? There's something beautiful about it. I hope people have an appetite for that message. 

As you said, when Gene Roddenberry created Star Trek 50 years ago, it was a utopian vision of the future. Now we're in the 21st century, do you think we're any closer to that vision?

KU: Personally, no. I don't believe we are. It's pretty disheartening to see what's going on in the world, not only the way we treat each other as human beings, but also the way we treat this planet. We were flying over here, and we passed over a country and it was pointed out to us that they were burning the forests. It's sad, but I think that's part of why Star Trek's important. It's a beacon, it's a lighthouse, as it were, a vision of humanity. It shows how we can operate at the highest level and be the best that we can be. And in some ways, because it is about earthlings, it resonates more on that level than say, something like Star Wars.

JC: Careful! [Laughs]

KU: I love them both. I'm not...you know.

JC: I don't know. I think I disagree. I think the Earth may be in bad shape, [but] it does seem like there's an assumption... we're more in agreement that there should be equality amongst genders. That's an assumption. In the 60s, there was not consensus on that. There was a debate about the superiority of the races or something, but that was still a debate. Now, at least, maybe culturally we're policing that more. There are dissenters, but generally, there seems to be an agreement that one life is worth one life. Now, in practice, that's not happening, but at least there's not that debate. I don't know.

KU: Alright, look... the ideology's always been there. It was present in the 60s, that's why Star Trek was created. But you asked whether we're closer to this utopian vision? I just don't think we are.

But like you say, John, the sense of inclusivity is much more clear and present. Like your character - it's a tiny moment in the film, where it emerges that Sulu has a husband. But that doesn't define your character, it's just a part of who he is, and nobody bats an eyelid...

JC: Yeah. And listen, George [Takei] was saying that he had a discussion with Gene Roddenberry about Sulu's sexuality back then, and Roddenberry was frank and said, "You can't do that. Not at this time." But now we can. And ironically, George is the one who's objecting, but that doesn't seem to be the case worldwide. So it seems there is some marker...

KU: I know what you're saying. There is some progression, yeah. In terms of certain microcosmic changes in society, for sure. But still, globally? We're a mess. [pauses]

What a downer.

JC: What a downer! Yeah! [Laughs] Star Trek Beyond - in theatres July 22nd!

KU: Go check it out! [Laughs]

JC: Go check it out, so much action! From the director of Fast & The Furious!

I'm sorry. It's my fault. I've brought everything down haven't I? No, but this is why it's such an interesting franchise, because you can have these conversations within an action-packed movie.

KU: That's always been the point of Star Trek.

JC: That's its lasting power. Roddenberry developed a really delicious set-up. It can hold so much. You can do so much to it, you can discuss so much with it. It's a big bowl into which you can put just about anything. It's fascinating.

You probably wouldn't tell me if you knew, but where would you like to see the franchise go next?

KU: It's very difficult to gaze into a crystal ball at this juncture and hypothesise about what might be. Obviously, they're doing a new television series - Alex Kurtzman's a producer on that, and he was involved in the writing of the first two films, so there's a great brain trust there. But for us, we don't know. We love working together, that's definitely a fact. It's just a question of us getting this film out there and we hope that people enjoy it and have fun.

What about the things you've been working on separately? Karl, you've been trying to get Dredd 2 off the ground, and that's been difficult, but how about an extended version of the first Dredd, on DVD, perhaps?

KU: No. We literally used every scrap of footage that we had to make that. But I'm constantly blown away by the fan response to that film, and here we are years later still talking about it. It's really wonderful to see how it's become this cult classic. 

How about you, John? Do you think there'll be another Harold & Kumar any time soon?

JC: I didn't think so. But I thought of a really great idea, and I pitched it out to the director when we happened to be having dinner one night. And I don't know... I think we're gonna get this made.

KU: I think you should make it. Those films were so much fun.

JC: We kept saying, "What's the idea?" And I think I've got a good one.

KU: I think I know what it is. [The two exchange a glance, then burst out laughing]

JC: I'll tell you in a minute.

KU: No, I'll tell you and you tell me if it's right.

JC: Okay, go ahead.

KU: Not here! [Motioning to me]

JC: Oh. Okay!

Aw. I thought you might let it slip. [Laughs] But no. Are you surprised at how enduring the [Harold & Kumar] films are? Like Dredd - they've been embraced.

JC: It's so funny that Hollywood has become so entrenched in its formulas. Because what I've experienced is that the good stuff comes from places you don't expect. You can never tell - well, actually, you can - fans really love originality. And that's counter to the thinking that's around right now. But they love things that are fresh and honest and interesting. And if you give them that, they'll come back, I think. Hopefully there's someone else who's dreaming up these things, because if we just keep making films about board games, we're in a bad space for cinema.

We're on another down note! [Laughs]

KU: Dude!

JC: Dude, this interview's gone off the rails, man! [Laughs]

Is the way of getting unusual, different films made to produce them or push them through yourselves. in some way?

KU: A few of us are at that juncture where we're looking to take a more active approach to the material we want to get involved with. I'm certainly investigating avenues of interest - John and Zachary [Quinto] are as well.

JC: Yeah. To some extent it's out of necessity. At the moment I'm producing and starring in a TV series on cable. We haven't made an announcement yet. But to some extent it's necessity, and to some extent it's about being as enmeshed in the process as you can, and to enjoy it to the full extent. But yeah, that's definitely where I'm headed more and more.

Well, it's been a pleasure talking to you both.

KU: It's been uplifting! [Laughs]

I'm sorry! John Cho and Karl Urban, thank you very much.

As John Cho said, Star Trek Beyond arrives in cinemas on the 22nd July. "Go check it out, so much action!"