The new project follows a young boy who slowly starts to unravel family secrets involving his mother and the desperate efforts made to keep her true nature away from the rest of the world. JT Mollner, who made an impressive turn with 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Strange Darling, will direct the film, while Brian Duffield, who penned Love and Monsters and No One Will Save You, will handle script duties. 💟The tale itself is based on a short story written by Philip Fracassi.

Abrams told Deadline, “With Fail-Safe, Brian Duffield has written an absolute powerhouse of a script. It’s a horror film that is a🐼s sweet and moving as it is terrifying. To have JT Mollner in the direct𒊎or’s chair — his Strange Darling blew me away — is a dream come true."

Of course, Larson is no stranger to creature features, having battled an arr🎶ay of aliens in the MCU and getting a close encounter with King Kong in 2017's Kong: Skull Island, directed by Jordan Vogt-Roඣberts. "Finally, having the limitlessly talented Brie Larson as our star sets up Fail-Safe to be that rare horror film that makes you laugh, feel, and care, before taking you on an absolutely wild ride.”

The film is currently doing the rounds at Cannes with no confirmed dates in line for production. For now, Larson's schedule looks pretty clear, and there's no confirmation if she'll be appearing alongside other Avengers: Doomsday, which Marvel Studios head, Kevin Feige, 澳洲幸运5开♑奖号码历史查询:promises has more ಞcast names yet to be announced.

For now, to get your creature 🎶feature fix, why not check out our list of the best monster movies here.

Part of the beauty of geekdom is how it encompasses so many things, so many perspectives and ideas. If only one person is guiding the sci-fi films and TV getting made…well, you’re essentially telling those legions of other people to shut it. The current status quo, where it’s a small cabal of talents whose bylines seem to be on every single new sci-fi project (Ridley Scott, Guillermo Del Toro, Joss Whedon, I’m looking at you gents), makes it harder to see the full breadth of what the nerd world has to offer.

The second issue is that once Abrams’ mere presence is being used to sell projects of more middling quality, his name and credibility lose any meaning they might have once had. You also don’t want people to start calling you “the Michael Bay of sci-fi.”

I get that science fiction has a mainstream following, and thus is subject to the pressures of major studios’ rules and standards for success. Hollywood wants that well-known, well-established name emblazoned in the trailer. And this isn’t about some hipster concept of “selling out.” I do think that you can be a financial success while still presenting an artistic vision that pleases mainstream and hardcore sci-fi fans alike. The problem is a reliance on remakes as the way to hit that sweet spot.

And that’s why the Valve projects have got me on edge. Abrams’ penchant for filming existing properties is a more recent trend in his career and it’s decidedly more worrying. Because on one hand you’ve got a gem like Star Wars: The Force Awakens. And on the o💞ther, you have the sacrilege that was Star Trek Into Darkness.

From his interviews leading up to the release of his first Star Trek movie, Abrams made it clear that he wasn’t a Trekkie. Yet he still decided it was a totally reasonable thing to dive headlong into the existing canon and muck it around. Abrams’ take on the Trek world dismissed so much of what made that property special – its philosophy, its characters, its idealized representation of the future – and turned it into a run-of-the-mill action movie set in space. It was a blatant disregard for the original concepts underpinning the TV shows and felt like a slap in the face to many fans.

Now Abrams turning his remake attention to games with the pair of beloved and critically acclaimed Valve titles. He’s been talking the talk about how much he loves Half-Life and Portal, so maybe he really has some vision for how to make them into a cinemat🧔ic experience. But the trust has been broken once; who’s to say he won’t hurt us again?

So, JJ, I ask you why? Why must it be you to shoulder the responsibility of all the geek adaptations? I think you’re too creative to fall into the remake machine. Even your latest producer project, Westworld, is a redo of an old concept. An excellent one, yes, but it’s still treading old ground.

I’m glad you want to put your considerable clout and finances behind other people, other equally creative but undiscovered people, who are trying to tell their own sci-fi stories. Keep racking up those producer credits on projects you really believe in. But quite frankly, I want to see you come up with your own new thing. So take a nice long nap. Get whatever weird and wild ideas are bouncing around in your brain down on paper and then onto the screen. And sleep on it before you move into yet more projects with existing worlds and passionate existing fan bases, and make sure that you really, really, REALLY think that’s a good idea.
 
And don’t you dare screw up Portal for me.

"I would say there’s no replacing him. There’s no recasting", Abrams♍ confirmed to . "I can’t possibly imagine that, and I think Anton deser🅠ves better".

When asked whether Chekov would be killed off, Abrams added "I have thought about i༒t, we’re working on it, and it’s t🍎oo early to talk about it". 

This feels like the right decision; Star Trek 4 will likely be warping its way into cinemaꦗs in just a couple years, and you need a lot more time - and possibly another iteration entirely - to recast Chekov. It does beg the question of how Abrams and co plan to deal with the character's absence on screen, but with Star Trek 4 only in the early script stages it'll be a while before we find out. 

Directed by Justin Lin and starring Idris Elba, Chris Pine, Simon Pegg, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, and Anton Yelchin, Star Trek Beyond♏ hits UK🅘 and US cinemas on July 22, 2016.

Images: Paramount

"I gotta sa🌌y Kathy Kennedy, who's running it all, she seems to be pushing all the right buttons" Abrams revealed to . "There isn't something that I'd love to see---I guess the one thing I would say is there's a Knights of Ren story that I think would be pretty cool to tell". 

While this should not be taken as a tease for something that's going to happen in the Star Wars universe, Abrams' answer is interesting to think about. Despite it being easily one of, if not the most talked about moment in The Force Awakens trailer we were only afforded a brief glimpse at the Knights of Ren in the film, and Abrams' quote makes it sound like we won't get much more info on them in Episode 8 (although there's a chance we'll at least be treated to an 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:amazing battle scene). 

It's definitely a story many Star Wars fans (myself inclꦺuded) would love to see told at some point though, so here's hoping we see it come to fruition. 

Directed by Gareth Edwards and starring Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Ben Mendelsohn, Forest Whitaker, and Alan Tudyꦑk, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is scheduled to open in UK and US cinemas on Decemb꧃er 16, 2016.

Images: Disney/LucasFilm

"Y𝓡es, and there’s something that hopefully we’re figurative minutes away from talking about. Bu⛦t the answer is 100 percent yes, and it’s incredibly exciting".

Abrams' comment speaks to the confidence Paramount have in the film, and it sounds like Star Trek 4 will come down to how much money Star Trek Beyond makes. Should it come to pass, it'll be interesting to see what happens personnel-wise; Abrams is clearly still very invested and involved in the franchise so a return to the helm wouldn't be out of𒊎 the question, and the filmmakers would also have to make a decision about what to do with Chekov after the tragic passing of Anton Yelchin. For now though, all we can do is wait and see how Star Trek Beyond performs at the box office. 

Directed by Justin Lin and starring Idris Elb🍨a, Chris Pine, Simon Pegg, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, and Anton Yelchin🍌, Star Trek Beyond warps into UK and US cinemas on July 22, 2016.

Images: Paramount

In conversation with at the BAFTA Awards Season Tea Party, Star Wars: Episode IX director, Colin Trevorrow promised that the answers are worth waiting for. "I've seen all of t🥂he theories. We’re going to make sure that that answer is deeply and profoundly satisfying.

"Rey is a character that is important in this universe, not just in the context of The Force Awakens, but in the en🍰tire galaxy. She deserves it. We’ll make sure that that answer is something that feels like it was🌠 something that happened a long time ago, far away, and we’re just telling you what happened."

Some lucky people like Episode VII director, JJ Abrams already know the true identity of Star Wars' newest heroine, but unsurprisingly the master of mystery wasn't telling. "Obviously, it’s not for me to talk about in t🦋his moment because this is Rian’s story to continue now and the last thing🍷 I’m going to do is reveal something that he would be upset about," he told reporters at the press tour. "I want to make sure that Rian gets the courtesy". Are you open to a bribe JJ?

Directed by JJ Abrams and starring Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Andy Serkis, Oscar Isaac and Gwendoline Christie, Star Wars: The Force Awakens is out in cinemas now.

Images: Disney

Courtesy of , new information about the popular buckethead has come to light. His name is FN-2199, but to his friends he is known as 'Nines'. The article goes on to say that "as detailed in Greg Rucka’s excellent book Before the Awakening, Nine🙈s trained and serve𒁏d on a squad with Finn (then FN-2187) in the First Order. That explains why he seems just a little extra angry upon seeing Finn during the attack on Maz’s Castle".

FN-2199 was voiced by Skywalker Sound sound editor David Acord - who absolutely nailed the "Traitor!" line delivery - and played by Liang Yang who has done stuntwork on films such as Kingsman: The Secret Service and Edge of Tomorrow. Although Nines may not hav🔯e s🦩urvived the film, at least he will never be forgotten.

Directed by JJ Abrams and starring Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Andy Serkis, Oscar Isaac and Gwendoline Christie, Star Wars: The Force Awakens is out in cinemas now.

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If you're still with us, you'll know that Han Solo is killed by his son Kylo Ren in The Force Awakens. It's a gut-wrenching scene that's phenomenally executed and acted by both Harrison Ford and Adam Driver, and the ramifications will surely be felt in future Star Wars instalments. At a screening and Q&A of the film at the Writers Guild of America rᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚecently, director J.J. Abrams spoke about why the scene had to happen.

"Star Wars had the greatest villain in cinema history. So, how you bring a new villain into that world is a very tricky thing", Abrams said. "We knew we needed to do something fucking bold. The only reason why Kylo Ren has any hope of being a worthy successor ꦡis because we lose one of the most beloved characters. “It’s this massive tradeoff. How can we possibly do that!? But… if we hadn’t done that, the movie wouldn’t have any guts at all. It felt very dangerous".

Abrams' comments make a lot of sense, and Solo's death also serves the added purpose of making Ren a much more complex character. It will be very interesting to see where Ren ranks in the Star Wars villain hierarchy by the time the new trilogy is complete, but h﷽e's off to a great start.

Directed by JJ Abrams and starring Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Andy Serkis, Oscar Isaac and Gwendoline Christie, Star Wars: The Force Awakens is out in cinemas now.

Images: Disney

Speaking with , The Force Awakens actor Greg Gunberg revealed that when Abrams read the script for Episode VIII he "said something he never, ever sꦛays. ‘It’s so good, I wish I were making it.’ He may have said something oneꦜ time on ‘Lost,’ with Damon [Lindelof, the co-creator], but I never hear him express regret like that".

Although Abrams would have undoubtedly been a safe pair of hands were he to have helmed Episode VIII, it will be both intriguing and exciting to see what Rian Johnson and Colin Trevorrow bring to Episodes 8 and 9 respectively, and Abr🔥ams' vote of approval fo𝕴r the former's script has only increased our anticipation.

Directed by JJ Abrams and starring Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Andy Serkis, Oscar Isaac and Gwendoline Christie, Star Wars: The Force Awakens is out in cinemas now.

Images: Disney

If you're still with us, you will know that one of the new characters we get introduced to in The Force Awakens is Oscar Isaac's X-Wing Pilot and Resistance fighter Poe Dameron. Isaac is predictably fantastic in the role, but in an interview with he has revealed that he was init🌼ially reluctant to sign on as Dameron originally wasn't even going to make it to the film's second act:

"I went b🦄ack home [to New York], and I thought about it", Isaac says. "Then I wrote him [Abrams] and said, ‘Okay. I’ll do it!’ I figured it would be a cam💙eo: I’ll come in, do my thing, and maybe it’s actually better not to have to sign myself up for three movies". Abrams' reply? "Never mind. I’ve figured it out. You’re in the whole movie now".

This news actually makes a lot of sense; during the film, Dameron at one point is presumed dead and disappears for a considerable part of the movie before reappearing with little explanation. In any case, we're glad we get to see more of Isaac's expert pilot in future Star Wars instalments.

Directed by JJ Abrams and starring Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Andy Serkis, Oscar Isaac and Gwendoline Christie, Star Wars: The Force Awakens is out in cinemas now.

Images: Disney/LucasFilm

Speaking with at the European premiere for Star Wars: The Force Awakens earlier 🐈this week, the actor and writer stated that he "didn't love" the trailer. Check out th⛄e interview below...

Pegg is obviously doing his best to be as honest as possible without throwing too much shade at the Paramount marketing team, and he only half succeeds. While complementing the trailer for being "surprising" and "action-packed", he knowingly reassures fans that there's "a lot more of what I would call Star Trek stuff" in the film.

In any case, it was always going to be difficult to distill the essence of a two hour plus film into a 90 second trailer. There will be lots more footage unveiled before the film's release, and hopefully that will do a better job of convincing hard core trekkies that the film is worth checking out. So🅺 like the man said, "hanꦛg in there", and "be patient".

Directed by Justin Lin and starring Idris Elba, Chris Pine, Pegg, Zachary Quinto and Zoe Saldana, Star Trek Beyond warps into UK and US cinemas on July 22, 2016.

Images: Paramount

For top sci-fi news, features and reviews, now, and get 3 issues for just £3.

"Any movie, any story has a fundamental con🍷versation happening during it. There’s a fundamental argument; there’s a central question. And I didn’t have it," he said. "While I agree with Damon Lindelof that withholding the Khan thing ended up seeming like we were lying to people, I was trying to preserve the fun for the audience, and not just tell t♕hem something that the characters don’t learn for 45 minutes into the movie."

"I felt like, in a weird way, it was a little bit of a collection of scenes that were written by my friends - brilliantly talented writers - who I somehow misled in trying to do certain 🐭things," Abrams continued. "And yet, I found myself frustrated by my choices, and unable to hang my hat on an undeniable thread of the main story. So then I found myself on that movie basically tap-dancing as well as I could to try and make the sequences as entertaining as possible."

Even though the approach to Khan didn't work out too well, Benedict Cumberbatch's performance was still excellent and there were a lot of things that worked well in Into Darkness. It's certainly admirable for Abrams to take responsibility here though, and if The Force Awakens is any indication he's learnt from his mistakes.

Directed by Justin Lin and starring Idris Elba, Chris Pine, Simon Pegg, Zachary Quinto and Zoe Saldana, Star Trek Beyond warps into UK and US cinemas on July 22, 2016.

Images: Paramount

Speaking with , Abrams said: "We don’t write a treatment, but there are countless times we came up with something and said 'Oh, this would be so great for Episode VIII!' or 'thats what we could get to in IX!' It was just that kind of forward-moving story.

"But we knew this [The Force Awakens] had to neither be a backwards-moving nostalgic trip only, nor a beginning of a movie without a satisfying conclusion, and that was part of the balancing act — embracing what we have inherited and using that where and whenever possible to tell a story that hasn’t been seen yet," Abrams continued. "We also knew that certain things were inevitable in our minds, but that didn’t mean it would be inevitable for whoever came in next. I tried to be as accommodating as I could. An꧃d it’s so cool to see what happens next in a way that only someone as talented as Rian could do."

The regular conversations between Abrams and Johnson makes sense given the amount of setup likely to be inherent in The Force Awakens, but Abrams will probably have less involvement by the time IX rolls around in 2019. In any case, it will doubtless be very interesting to compare and contrast the di🔯fferent styles each director𒆙 brings to their respective films.

Directed by Abrams and starring Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Andy Serkis, Oscar Isaac and Gwendoline Christie, Star Wars: The Force Awakens is released in🐟 UK cinemas on December 17, 2015 before opening in US theatres a day later.

Images: Disney

Speaking to ahead of the impending release of The Force Awakens, director JJ Abrams weighed in on who he'd like to see take the reins of a future Star Wars movie: "The knee-jerk reaction, if I had to, is Ava D🅺uVernay, who I think would jus🐷t kill it".

"She is as much a fan of genre movies, and hearing her talk about not just Star Wars, but hearing her talk about those kinds of films is evidence that she would just kill it," Abrams continued. "When you look at her work in Selma, which was as well-told and as sophisticated and humane a film as I think has come out in the last decade, if she can do that story t♛hat well, there’s no question she would kill this movie𝔍."

For her part, DuVernay responded to Abrams' comments on Twitter with a familiar Star Wars idiom...

The big question mark here is less about DuVernay's ability than it is about the studio machine. It's well known that DuVernay recently turned down an opportunity to direct Marvel's Black Panther because "澳洲幸运5开奖号🔯码历史查询:it really wasn’t going to be an Ava DuVernay film". It's likely that the Star Wars franchise would have similar constraints, but if they were able to come to an ag✱reement it would be a win for all parties.

Directed by Abrams and starring Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Andy Serkis, Oscar Isaac and Gwendoline Christie, Star Wars: The Force Awakens is released in UK cinemas on December 17, 2015 before opening in US th﷽eatres a day later.

Ren's creepy mask and cross-shaped lightsaber are already familiar toꦫ all but the most dedicated spoiler-dodgers, because hes front and centre of pretty much every poster, trailer and lunchbox released so far. But beyond looks, what do we actually know about👍 him? We've scoured all the trailers, merchandise, official and fan sites, and heres what we've found out.

The fact that hes not called Darth Ren might've been a tip off, but just in case, director JJ A𝓰brams says, "Kylo Ren is not a Sith." He's clearly a Dark Side user, though. And like 'Darth', it turns out 'Ren' is a kind of title. "He is a character who came to the name of Kylo Ren when he joined a group called the Knights Of Ren," Abrams expanded, though he wouldn't be pressed on who, exactly, the Knights might be.

It's possible that theyre associated with the Acolytes Of The Beyond, a kind of Dark Side cult who appear in Chuck Wendig's Star Wars novel Aftermath, which bridges the gap between Return Of The Jedi and The Force Awakens. Ren definitely is associated with the First Order, a militar🤪y organisation that takes its cue from the fallen Galactic Empire, using Stormtroopers, TIE fighters, and other Empire-style weapons to fight for control of the galaxy.

Basically, Kylo and the other Knights Of Ren are bad news for anyone who thought there might be lasting peace after Jedi's celebratory knees-up.

The trailers gave this one away. In the final Episode VII trailer, we saw Ren gazing lovingly at Vader's decayed helmet, saying: "I will finish what you start🐽ed."

As role models go, Vader's a pretty terrifying one to choose. "That a𒊎ll came out of conversations about what would have happened if the Nazis all went to Argentina but then started working together again?" Abrams explains. "What could be born of that? Couཧld the First Order exist as a group that actually admired the Empire? Could the work of the Empire be seen as unfulfilled? And could Vader be a martyr? Could there be a need to see through what didn't get done?"

Even Ren's choice of mask is meant to be an homage to Vader, and it seems like he might've invested in a voice-changer to make h🅺imself sound like the fallen Lord too.

Kylo Ren might be the most recognisable face of the First Order, but hes not the boss. "He works under Supreme Leader Snoke, who ꧒is a powerful figure on the Dark Side of the Force," says Abrams. And while theyꦕ aren't Sith Lords, it sounds like there might be a similar master/student relationship going on here.

At the moment, even less is known about Supreme Leader Snoke than about Kylo Ren. He's a CGI character, created using motion capture technology b♒ased on the movements, expressions and gestures of mo-cap superstar Andy Serkis.

Though the final design of the character changed several times throughout production, Serkis has said that Snoke was a character who could only have been created using CG, for several reasons: "He is large. He appears tall. And also the facial design you couldn't have gotten there with 𓃲prosthetics. Its too extreme. He has a very distinctive, idiosyncratic bone structure."

We've heard his voic🅰e he was the voiceover in the very first teaser trailer but Abrams is keeping Snoke off screen until the film actually comes out, so we're just going to have to wait.

That awesome-but-impractical-looking lightsaber has been the subject of frenzied speculation ever since it was first revealed in the teaser trailer. Why did it seem to have♓ two extra mini-blades? Wouldn't Ren just cut his own hands off if he tried to fight someone with it? And was the cross-shape significant?

Abrams has talked about it a little bit, saying that the unusual weapon was "something that [Ren] built himself, and is as dangerous and as fierce and as ragged as the character," which sounds cool but doesn't really tell us why its differไent from the standard-issue lightsaber.

A Star Wars exhibit at Disneyland revealed a bit more; the label on a model of the lightsaber said: "Kylo Ren's💞 unusual lightsaber is an ancient design, although the one he carries is recently constructed. The crossguard blades, or quillons, are raw power vented from the primary central blade." Which still sounds like theres a very real d🎃anger of taking the users fingers off to us.

Every would-be galactic tyrant needs a spaceship. Kylo Ren has his command shuttle, which made a brief appearance in the second teaser trailer and was also profiled in Star Wars: Ships Of The Galaxy, a reference book released on Force Friday.

Thanks to the blueprints in that book, we know that its an Upsilon-class shuttle, with a loading ramp on its nose, and two ion engines. And as you can see in the trailer, it's got enormous, pointy black wings that make it unmistakeably ඣthe ship of a serious badas🌳s.

One thing it hasn't got? A name anywhere near as cool as 'Millennium Falcon'. Clearly the First Order's PR team droꦬpped the ball.

All of the best baddies think theyre actually the hero of their own st🐼ory, and Kylo Ren is no d♔ifferent. Despite having chosen the Dark Side, which is a pretty reliable indicator that youre not a good guy, Abrams reckons Ren thinks he's on a righteous mission.

"I think that there are two sides to the Force," he says. "Both sides, arguably, would see themselves as the hero o🅰f their story, and I think that applies here. He is not your prototypical moustache-twirling bad guy. He is a little bit more complex than that."

Itll be interesting to see how that plays out, and how Ren can justify his crusade to himself. Fingers crossed for some proper character development, and maybe a bit more insight into what wo❀uld push someone to go to the Dark Side than we got in the prequels.

Speaking of heroes, the obvious Luke Skywalker analogue in the new film is Rey. Shes an orphan growing up on a junk planet whos going🐭 to come into conflict with the Dark Side so, yeah, pretty Lukesque.

But Kylo Ren also has some things in common with Luke, if you squint a bit. They both came from humble beginnings, they both set out in search of mentors to help them harness their powers they even both crafted their own lightsabers. And like Luke in A New Hope, Ren's story will just be beginning when we meet him in The Force Awakens.

"As you see in the best storytelling, and no doubt the best of Star Wars, these are tales in which an every person has to step up," says Abrams. "I think what makes Ren so unique is that he isn't as fully formed as when we meet a chaཧracter such as Darth Vader." Could Ren be the anti-Luke, someone who finds his true calling in the Dark Side?

Some speculation has suggested that Ren might actually be Luke. After all, we haven't seen Mark Hamill in any of the trailers yet. Now that we know Adam Driver is playing Ren, that theory doesn't seem terribly convi꧂ncing, but there are plenty of other fan theories about🐻 who Ren might turn out to be.

One popular theory is that he'🐬s actually Han and Leia's child. The timeline seems about right, and it'd explain where he got his Force powers and his temper. Itd also make sense that Ren feels so strongly about Vader, if it turns out hes his grandson.

Other theories concern Expanded Universe characters. Although most of the Star Wars Expanded Universe has been declared non-canonical, some people still reckon Ren might turn out to be connected with Darth Revan or Plagueis, or even Jedi Knight's Kyle Katarn or Star Wars: Jedi Academy's Kyp Durron.

At this point, the only thing we know for sure is that Kylo Ren isnt his real name, which does🎃 seem to suggest his real name might turn 🐎out to be significant.

The final thing we know about Kylo Ren is that everyone involved in the new movie thinks he's pretty special. Screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan says, "I've written four Star Wars movies now,𒁏 and there's never been a character quite like the one that Adam [Driver] plays. I think youre going to see something thats brand new to the saga."

And the thing that s𝔍ets him apart? Emotion. "No matter how we express ourselves in the world, whether we hide it and act very calm or whether were v𓂃ery out there and demonstrative, everybodys roiling with emotion," Kasdan explains. "And you want your characters to be that way, too. Then they have to deal with their emotions as best they can, with what they are."

“No one forgot about him!" JJ Abrams told . "We were hoping peopl💧e would care, but there are a lot of things that are not on the poster, as busy as the poster is. Certainly Luke is a very important aspect of the story."

It's long been rumoured that the plot of The Force Awakens will focus on Rey (Daisy Ridley) and 𝔉Finn's (John Boyega) search for Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) once they retrieve his ligཧhtsaber, and that could be what Abrams is alluding to here.

Of course, it won't deter fans from 𒊎hunting for specifics, although Hamill would rather we stop asking questions... "There should be no questions. You go in and it’s a brand new fresh approach at a franchise that we’ve known all our liv༒es." Hear, hear!

Directed by Abrams and starring Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, Mark Hamill, Oscar Isaac and Gwendoline Christie, Star Wars: The Force Awakens is released in UK cinemas on December 17 2015 befo🐓re opening in US theatres a day later. Check out our analysis of the international trailer below...

Speaking with ahead of next month's release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Abrams revealed there were some storytelling issues with the most recent Star Trek movie. "I didn’t want to enter into making a movie where we didn’t really own our story," the director explained. "I feel like I’ve done that a couple of times in my career. That’s not to say I’m not proud of my work, but the fact is I remember starting to shoot Super 8 and Star Trek Into Darkness and feeling like I ⛄hadn’t really solved some funda🉐mental story problems."

The level of secrecy is once again high for Abrams' next film, but hopefully only good and unpredictable surprises await this time round. "There’s a really positive side to keeping quiet," Abrams said. "You can protect the audience from spoilers or certain moments that, in a way, obviate the movie experience. But on the other hand, you risk being seen as coy or as a withholding shithead. That’s never my intent." Here's hoping fans are more appreciative of his efforts once The Force Awakens is released.

Directed by Justin Lin and starring Idris Elba, Chris Pine, Simon Pegg, Zachary Quinto and Zoe Saldana, Star Trek Beyond warps into UK and US cinemas on July 22 2016.

Speaking with , Abrams explained how his Episode VII will transition into Rian Johnson's Episode VIII: "The script for 8 is written. I’m sure rewrites are going to be endless, like t🦋hey always are. But what [Lawrence Kasdan] and🧜 I did was set up certain key relationships, certain key questions, conflicts. And we knew where certain things were going.

"We had meetings with Rian and Ram Bergman, the producer of 8. They were watching dailies when we were shooting our movie. We wanted them to be part of the process, to make the transition to their film as seamless as possible. I showed Rian an🍸 early cut of the movie, because I knew he was doing his rewrite and prepping. And as executive producer of 8, I need that movie to be really good. Withholding serves no one and certainly not the fans. So we’ve been as transparent as possible."

The director also gave some rather encouraging details about his thinking for The Force Awakens: "We wanted to tell a story that had its own self-contained beginning, middle and end, but at the same time, like A New Hope, implied a history that preceded it and also 🤪hin🍌ted at a future to follow".

Abrams added: "When Star Wars first came out, it was a film that both allowed the audience to understand a new story, but also to infer all sorts of exciting things that might be. In that first movie, Luke wasn’t necessarily the son of Vader, he wasn’t necessarily the brother of Leia, but it was all possible. The Force Awakens has this incredible advantage, not just of a passionate fan base, but also of a backstory that is familiar to a🐓 lot of people.

"We’ve been able to use what came before in a very organic way, because we didn’t have to reboot anything. We didn’t have to come up with a backstory that would make sense; it’s all there. But these new characters, which Force is very much about, find themselves in new situations - so even if you don’t know anything about Star Wars, you’re right there with them. If you are a fan of Star Wars, w🌳hat they experience will have added meaning." It 𝓡all sounds very promising!

Directed by Abrams and starring Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Mark Hamill, Oscar Isaac and Gwendoline Christie, Star Wars: The Force Awakens is released in UK cinemas on December 17 2015 before 🦹opening in US theatres a day later. Check out our analysis of the international trailer below...

Verdict:

After a confident take-off, Abrams keeps the franchise flying with a faster, faster, FASTER sequel that makes for the most thrilling Star Trek since .

Seen and loved Star Trek Into Darkness ? Get involved with our spoiler-filled discussion video below, or watch the gang talk about the movie's key bromance - and the possibility of a Star Trek 3 !

Valve and J.J. Abrams' studio Bad Robot want to make beautiful interactiꩲve narratives together. Gabe Newell and Abrams revealed in their D.I.C.E. summit opening keynote that the two studios have been in talks to adap🧸t Half-Life and Portal for the silver screen, and to collaborate on a video game, reports.

"We're going to find out if there's a way we can work with you on a Portal and Half-Life movie," Newell said. We can't imagine he'd just toss that out there without significant discussion beforehanಞd.

Talk of the game was equally casual, with Abrams saying ⭕Bad Robot has an idea for a game it wouꦺld like to collaborate with Valve on. Note that this wouldn't be the first time the two worked together--remember that odd little that shipped as an extra with Portal 2?

When the two weren't busy dropping hints about potential c👍ollaborations, they discussed the differing strengths of films and games as storytelling mediums.

Super 8 , the old charmer, returns to such innocent times, assuredly delivering bang for buck but – first and foremost – respecting old-fashioned concepts like, y’know, character, emotion, storytelling…

Super 8 ’s creator is, of course, Jeffrey Jacob Abrams, or plain old JJ to the millions of people who think of him warmly after Mission: Impossible III , Star Trek , Cloverfield and Lost.

This is his “personal project”, much as E.T. was Steven Spielberg’s, who here co-produces.

Set in 1979, when JJ, aged 13, was holed up in his cluttered bedroom making models to blow up on film, Super 8 tells of movie-obsessed Charles (Riley Griffiths) and best frie🤪nd Joe (Joel Courtney), the leaders of a group of pre-teen kids who run about town shooting a zombie epic on an Emuig Super 8 camera.

Sneaking from their beds to film a night scene at the local train station, they continue to roll as a US Air Force freight charges past (“Production values!”) and crashes explosively.

Then things get really weird. Genera෴tors and car engines burn out, power cables and microwaves disappear. The town’s dogs hightail it to neighbouring counties.

And the military roll in under the stern command of Colonel Nelec (Noah Emmerich), a man who dost protest too much when questioned by Deputy Lamb (Kyle Chandler), AKA Joe’s dad: “If you’re asking me if we had any dangerous property on board this train,” glowers Nelec, “I can assure you the answer is no.”

If Super 8 is JJ’s own childhood spliced with a rambunctious monster movie, it is inevitable it should look and feel like an early Spielberg picture, for Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, E.T., Poltergeist, Gremlins, The Goonies and Back To The Future shaped a generation.

The film’s overrun setting, a small Ohio town, population 11,200, is pure Spielburbia – acknowledged by the E.T. -doffing shot of the twinkling burg spread out below, a beacon to attract the trouble that’😼s arrived in the night.

The kids’ bedrooms, like Elliott’s, are jumbled dens, and the town’s rolling topography, all slopes and ridges, recalls E.T. ’s famous bike chase while allowing Super 8 ’s climactic, panoramic action to play out at various vertical and horizontal depths without recourse to crane shots or focus pulls.

Like Spielberg, Abrams has an eye for awe, his deft orchestration of indelible images 🃏– a tank trundling through a children’s playground, a plot-pivotal landmark framed in the distance through a small hole⛄ in a bedroom wall – marking him as a born storyteller.

He’s no slouch when it comes to suspense either, and it’s this skill as much as the kids’ goofing that marks the film’s first half, when the creature remains cloaked, as the superior segment.

Standout sequence? A classic bit of shadow play in🔴volving a gas station, a teen attendant listening to Blondie’s ‘Heart Of Glass’ on his Walkman, a cop filling his cruiser to the plaintive ting-ting-ting of the gas pump, some rustling treetops and, finally, an out-of-focus attack.

If the monster-reveal to come and the increasingly close-up close-ups that follow never quite match the early frisson generated by shooting empty spaces filled with the viewers’ imagination, then it is, perhaps, inevitable.

JJ’s monster is a good ’un, perhaps too good giv🌼en its 2011 CGI threatens to jar in a movie that’s not just set in 1979 but could, for the most part, have been made in 1979.

But it’s no match for the Alien Queen or The Thing. Or, indeed, the amorphous terrors of Lost and Cloverfield .

The kids, mind, are faultless. Unlike the silicon-soul LA brats who inhabit most modern movies (though Elle Fanning, terrific as the cool older girl who Joe and Charles moon over, is exactly that), this terrific troupe recall not just early Spielberg but ’80s favourites Stand By Me and The Monster Squad .

It’s there in the gap-toothed grins, fleshy frames, oversized spectacles and bowl haircuts, and it’s there also in the insouciant banter spiked with colourful lingo (“Holy shit, that’s mint!”; “Dude, that’s bitchin’!”; “This is insane !”).

Maybe the kids feel real because JJ had friends just like them, or maybe it’s because the🤪y’re borrowed from movies where they felt real theꦡ first time round, and are here presented with sincerity.

Whatever the reason, they’re a riot to hang out with, and their heartache – Joe’s mom has just died, all of them are outsiders – feels genuine, though it never wrenches like Elliott’s absent father or Gordie LaChance’s dead older brother.

Too much thick-throated emotion is stirred into the wondrous, mꦉawkish finale.

The blend of sentiment and spectacle here evokes Spielberg at his worst as well as his best, and the film’s subtext is heavily underlined in ca꧒se we missed it.

But even this bum note at the end of a too-frantic third act won’t stop Super 8 from being, hands down, the film of the summer.

Only 🌄a young Spielberg at 🌱the top of his game could beat it.

Boy, did Paramount pick the right director for the job. The nothing if not reliable Abrams has hit it out of the park, through the clouds and somewhere into hyperspace, deliverin🙈g the first genuine blockbuster of the year and setting the benchmark for what’s to come.

An exhilarating, breathless, lavishly mounted adventure, it will appease all three pertinent parties (No me🐎an feat – just ask Joss Whedon…).

Phasers are set to stunning in the pre-credit sequence, as we witness the birth of James Tiberꦯius Kirk in the most dramatic of circumstances.

It’s a strikingly powerful opening and leaves you in no doubt: ass is goi💖ng to be kicked. In quick succession, we see the young Kirk, all rebel without a cause; the student Spock, an angsty mix of conflicting human and Vulcan values; the Starfleet Academy; the Enterprise crew coming together; the Kobayashi Maru test and the first mission… and we’re not even a third in.

The warp-drive pace never lets up, but the excitement is💞 always resolutely accessible. For the first time on the big screen, Trek has some of that𒐪 original-trilogy Star Wars sparkle.

Like the ’60s TV show, the relationship between Kirk and Spock is pivotal. Spock’s the meatier of the two♑ roles and Zachary Quinto is perfect, his youth perhaps offering a degree or two less gravitas than Leonard Nimoy (along for the ride in a time-bending twist) but his energy brings something new and compelling to the table – you feel the human/Vulcan, emotion/logic battle that rages within him more vividly than ever before.

Pine is also good in a pleasingly un-PC turn. He has the heavy-drinking, skirt-chasing hothead charm down to a tee, plus a young Shatner-esque (in a good way) com🎃ic charisma. If Quinto is the soul, Pine is the motor of the movie, his unabashed brashness propelling the story forward.

Again, his youthful demeanour may make him a tad more Luke than Han, but by sequel time, he should be just right. The ไdynamic between the two leads ebbs and flows precisely where it should: credit where it’s due to writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman (who seem to be having even more fun with Gene Roddenberry’s characters than they did with their Transformers script).

All the main crew get their turns. Zoe Saldana is a pleasingly-fleshed out Uhura (with🙈 maybe a touch of the Sydney Bristows about her) while Karl Urban is an instantly likeable, reassuringly g💖rouchy Bones.

John Cho’s blade-wielding Sulu and Anton Yelchin’s thickly-accented Chekov a🔯re given brief moments to shine 𓆏while Simon Pegg’s Scotty is knowingly calibrated to please the fanboys and offer comic relief.

Though he’s not the only one bringing the funny, Spock (both incarnations), McCoy, Uhura and co all dispens𝔍ing decent quips that help warm up the sci-fi palette for a broader p🌳opcorn-munching audience.

Compare this with, say, the recent Bond and Trek’s light touch is particularly welcome. Again, not since Star Wars IV-VI has a sci-fi flick had such a, well, likeable tone.

Visually theﷺ film has a flair (and indeed flares) that give a hitherto unseen sheen to the Trek universe. When it needs to hit warp speed, it does, with an almost balletic Enterprise pirouetting through battle debris in one scene and plenty of firepower in the space skirmishes.

In general, the design is slick but on the right side of flashy, and Abra🅘ms wisely keeps geek-🦂pleasing elements in the frame, but never in the foreground.

Stylistically, short skirts areꦜ a few inches less short than their ’60s counterparts, phasers not as clunky, teleportation a tad less synthy. All minor but telling adjustme🐽nts in this measured, confident reboot.

If there are flaws, they are relatively minor. The young, vibrant cast generate a lot of heat but perhap🧸s not a great deal of smarts (Quinto excepted). Eric Bana’s nefarious Nero – a time-hopper out for bitter revenge – gets the job done but hardly looms as large as a Vader or Khan, depriving the drama of the heft and emotional wrench a more compelling ‘big bad’ could provide.

You could also argue that the overarching reach and soulful optimism of Gene Roddenℱberry’s vision is not quite there (although with sequels, it should come), leaving the ‘message’ of the film a slightly garbled one about seizing your destiny a🐟nd fulfilling your potential.

No꧂netheless, make no mistake: this really is Star Trek: The Movie, the biggest, boldest cinematic outing the franchise has yet seen. Hardcore fans may suggest it’s “not as good as Khan” but the rest of us (and the box office) will tell a different story.

Abrams’ no-flab style - honed from US TV’s strict ad-break rhythms - meshes thrillingly with Cruise’s twitchy stamina. Pummelling pace, dead-on action-to-chat ratio, kissy-kissy limited to a quick one up the wall in a hospital store-room… Sure, the ending’s a bit syrupy and there’s maybe too much of the Parkinson’s-cam and 🍸Rhames/Cruise mid-mission banter, but Abrams clearly has no intention of just trousering his cheque as jobbing franchise director. He’s blazed into contention by making the series hi💮s own - stirring clarity into De Palma’s murky blueprint, stiffening up Woo’s flaccid sequel with flickers of sex, clatters of close-up violence.

But despite the city-hopping, chopper-chopping, missile-dodging, bullet-ducking and explosion-surviving, nothing in the film is bigger than Cruise himself. The posters feature his name almost as big as the title. That’s because he is the movie. Support - particularly from Fishburne, Pegg and Monaghan - is solid, but they’re basically there to bask in the glow of Tom’s mighty star. His st▨ark, staring, blaring screen charisma simply doesn’t spare anyone acting oxygen. He runs, leaps, jumps, shoots, fights and acts ‘em all into next year.

Here he is, reverse-abseiling up a wall… taking on an oncoming fig🎶hter plane with a machine-gun… bound and weaponless, biting and elbowing and head-buttinꦦg his way through four burly guys - in a lift.

There he goes, shinning up an elevator cable… base-jumping off a skyscraper… skittering down a slope… scampering over rooftops… running, running, running - arms pumpi﷽ng, face a rictus gurn of feral resolve. A pack of adrenaline-addled cheဣetahs couldn’t catch the bastard.

And he does🅠n’t skimp on the quiet, still stuff. Look out for the wonderful sequence with Monaghan, where he has the acting audacity to hold ten seconds of screen-time with absolute sil✱ence.

Naturally, Oscar Boy Hoffman runs him close. In the Bin Laden age, bad guys have to be both bad and 💃elusive (“He’s the invisible man!” bleats Fishburne. “We can’t find him!”๊). Hoffman’s Owen Davian is indeed, always one step ahead, and a very, very, very bad man. “I’m gonna make her bleed and call out your name,” he informs Ethan, of his wife. He’s like a Bond villain without the cartoon distancing. More Satanic than psychotic.

Inspired by Bourne (crunchy punching), Bond♐ (check the Q-style tech) and Bauer (Ethan vs Jack dust-up, anyone?), M:I:III re-sets the bar for all of the upstarts. Cruise is still the daddy.