This review contains spoilers.

6.4 To Have and to Hold

Remember when Mad Men was all duck-egg blue and split-pea green? When housewives buried their neuroses inside layers of meatloaf, and men clinked 11am whiskies to congratulate one another on being kings of the universe? How things change. Now, it’s all space-station white, go-go boots, and psychedelic neon. The men are repeating themselves, the women are talking about their careers, and two black characters are having a conversation with each other. We’ve come a long way, baby.

Dawn’s character being fleshed out is a welcome and necessary addition to the show, and particularly prized was her summation of SCDP. Like Megan’s season five, “What is wrong with you people? You’re all so cynical. You don’t smile, you smirk”, Don’s latest secretary’s verdict was similarly biting, “Everybody’s scared there. Women crying in the ladies room, men crying in the elevator... It sounds like New Year’s Eve when they empty the garbage, there’s so many bottles”. She may have said she has no ambitions to copywriting, but Dawn certainly has a way with words.

In a canny reflection of the shifting cultural sands, this week’s episode saw Don, Roger, Pete, and co. shuffled off centre-stage, and replaced by a series of conversations between the show’s women. Erin Levy’s To Have and to Hold paired Joan with old friend Kate, Megan with fellow actress Arlene, and the aforementioned Dawn with bride-to-be Nikki. Where was Peggy in all this? Leading the Cutler, Gleason and Chaough charge in the dirty fight for Heinz ketchup, and looking at former colleagues Don, Pete and Stan from across the battle lines.

Not that Peggy was entirely absent from the other women’s scenes. Dawn leaving the office late and Megan’s workplace promotion echoed Olson’s storylines of old, and even Kate’s ‘treat yourself’ make-over advice to Joan’s mother recalled Peggy’s discarded pampering pitch for Pond’s Cold Cream. Miss Olson casts a long shadow over Mad Men’s career women, who this week, were preoccupied with their status.

Joan, the envy of her married-with-kids friend, spent the episode weighing up whether or not her encounter with sweaty Herb from Jaguar had been “worth the risk”. A partner by name, Joan’s ignominious route to the boardroom - now the subject of office gossip - threatens to undermine her already shaky position, as this week’s spat with Harry proved.

Megan too, was left pondering whether her extra scenes at work stemmed from her sex appeal instead of her acting ability after she and hubby “James Garner” were propositioned by a swinging writer/actress couple on the show.

Not that either character need worry. Which of many of Mad Men’s professional starts didn’t originate in either a seedy scheme or a birth right privilege? Peggy, Ginsberg, Harry, Stan perhaps… Don got his chance by feeding Roger too many martinis and lying, Roger by being born a Sterling, Pete by being born a Campbell, Dawn because the firm was publicly shamed into hiring her, Joan thanks to sweaty Herb… It’s Mad Men’s most straightforward treatment of the American Dream perhaps: get to the start line how you will, it’s the way you run the race that counts.

That ethos even seems to extend to company accounts, remembering the circumstances in which Heinz came to the firm in the first place. At the behest of lover Don, Dr Faye abused client confidentiality and was rewarded by being swiftly dumped for a younger, supposedly less complicated model. Don evidently did his double-think trick on those sordid beginnings when he preached folksy loyalty about the account to Ken last week, chiding him that “you have to dance with who brung ya”. Not only didn’t Don dance with who 'brung' him that account, he also went behind Ken’s back to woo a more lucrative slice of the Heinz pie, thus proving that the SCDP boys are every bit as duplicitous with their clients and colleagues as they are with their wives and girlfriends.

(Incidentally, hands up who mouthed the words “change the conversation” along with Peggy at the Heinz pitch? Don found himself peeking in another doorway this week, but it was SCDP, not his step-mother he watched getting screwed.)

Nowhere was Don’s hypocritical,  bare-faced mendacity clearer though, than in his dealings with Megan this week. Mrs Draper’s star was rising on her soap opera, as her character (hopefully not just an excuse for Jessica Paré to swap the bikini for a fetish French maid outfit…) was given a love affair. Don continued a real life dalliance with Sylvia, yet admonished Megan for her fictional bunk-up on set, likening her to a prostitute and undermining her professional success, “You kiss people for money, you know who does that?” We know you do, Don. There are liars, and there are damn liars, and then there’s Don Draper.

Since Anna died and Peggy left, Mad Men has given Don few opportunities to be nice to anyone. We see him bullish at work, hypocritical and reactionary at home, egotistical in his mistress’ maid’s bed (when Sylvia reveals that she prays for him, he asks “For me to come back?”, “No, you arrogant sod, for you to find peace” she half replies). Since he took up with Sylvia – a relationship that seems to be based on little more than the soap opera lust seen between Corinne and her horny boss - the old patterns returned, and what sympathy I had for the character waned. I left this episode preoccupied by a worrying question: am I over Don Draper?

Not yet. Mad Men has proved itself worthy of our trust when it comes to character and season developments. If Don seems to be treading old ground, if his relationship with Sylvia verges on the boring, then there must be something up Matthew Weiner’s sleeve, I reason, some point to Don being this charmless man. You have to hand it to a show that so roundly inspires audience devotion, we’re happy to accept it’s smarter than we are. Let's hope that continues to be so.

Read Frances’ review of the previous episode, The Collaborators, here.

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There's not long to go now until Star Trek Into Darkness arrives, as its global roll-out has begun, with the Australian premiere for the movie. The film heads to the UK on 9th May 2013, with a US release the week after, and Paramount is trying to keep things nicely bubbling along by releasing a collection of character posters for the movie.

We've spread these over two pages, just to try and keep these manageable. But here, for. er, your eyeballs and eyeballs alone, are those aforementioned posters. Lots more on JJ Abrams'Star Trek Into Darkness coming in the week or two ahead...

And here are the final three posters (sorry for having to break them up)....

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We wouldn't usually report on a straight release date delay or otherwise where just a few weeks are involved. However, the two films we're about to talk about are special. It's two features, both being distributed by Universal, that a lot of you - ourselves included - are looking forward to.

So let's do the good news first. Edgar Wright hinted on Twitter yesterday that the release date of The World's End, the final part of the Cornetto trilogy from Simon Pegg and himself, is moving forward. It's now set to be released on July 19th 2013. It was originally scheduled for August 14th.

The bad news? It's done a straight swap with Kick-Ass 2, which is now coming a few weeks later. It's been revealed that Kick-Ass 2's UK release date will indeed be August 14th now, from its earlier July 19th slot.

We figure this is one of those news stories that gives with one hand, and takes with the other. We could speculate behind the reasons for the change - could The World's End be closer to completion? - but the truth is that we've got no bloody idea. Still can't wait to see both.

Kick-Ass 2 is out on August 16th in the US incidentally, with The World's End due on August 23rd. Those dates, to the best of our knowledge, haven't changed.

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Telekinesis. Mind over matter. Distant mental influence. Whatever you care to call the paranormal ability to move chairs, bend spoons and cook ready meals with the power of thought, such phenomena are a common presence in popular culture.

This list is devoted to a few of the weird and sometimes unsettling use of paranormal abilities in movies. These are the unlikely and surprising uses of powers, and some of them could be quite useful in everyday life, if we were lucky enough to possess them - who wouldn't like to be able to do a day's typing without even having to get out of bed? If there are any scientists reading this (who just happen to be working in the field of psychokinetic research), do let us know if you have any breakthroughs in this area.

In the meantime, here's our selection of unnerving powers in the movies - the paranormal abilities that would give that compass-bothering necromancer Uri Geller a moment's pause...

Glowing eyes of manipulation: Village Of The Damned (1960)

"Beware the stare" warned the trailer for this 60s sci-fi classic, adapted from John Wyndham's equally eerie novel, The Midwich Cuckoos. A few days after the population of Midwich suddenly falls asleep, its womenfolk find themselves mysteriously pregnant. Within three years, these unexpected babies have grown - with uncanny speed - into a gang of almost identical blonde-haired kids with paranormal powers.

Fiercely intelligent and apparently emotionless, these Midwich cuckoos begin wrecking havoc among the community: they read minds, cause an aeroplane to fall from the sky, drown a child, force a car into a wall, and coax a man into shooting himself. In spite of their violent abilities, these aren't the most unnerving of the children's powers - rather, it's those horrible glowing  eyes, which still pierce the screen over half a century later. The special effect was so powerful that British censors refused to allow the film's makers to use it in the British release; the glowing eyes only appeared on a later American print.

John Carpenter's 1995 remake had some effective moments - including a great shot of people lying unconscious among a field full of pumpkins - but all the gourds in the world couldn't hold a candle to the economical, black-and-white brilliance of the 1960 version, and those penetrating eyes. "You're thinking of... a brick wall!"

The glower that intimidates animals: The Omen (1976)

If there's one thing worse than discovering that your child's actually an Aryan invader from space, it's probably realising that he's the spawn of Satan. Unfortunately, it takes Gregory Peck and Lee Remick's well-to-do parents far too long to realise the true identity of their son, Damien, and naively assume that the child's Richard Dawkins-like aversion to churchgoing is simply a normal toddler's tantrum.

To be fair, Damien's ability to manipulate and kill those around him is more subtle than the brats in Village Of The Damned. Rather than staring at them until they die, Damien's victims simply meet various accidents, whether it's falling from a great height while tidying up round the house, or being impaled by a falling lightning rod while running through a cemetery.

Damien's best - and most direct - party trick, though, is surely his ability to frighten animals at his local zoo. First, he scowls at a herd of giraffes, causing the poor creatures to flee in terror. Then, with little more than a grin from his wicked little face, Damien succeeds in whipping up a group of baboons into a screeching frenzy. Lee Remick looks slightly baffled throughout the ordeal; she probably thought the baboons had taken exception to her Datsun Cherry estate car.

(Geeky aside: note how the car Damien and his mother are in changes colour between shots - blue from a distance, white in close-ups.)

The Omen's message is obvious: if you're at Windsor safari park, and a car's being attacked by baboons, keep on driving - the Antichrist's up to his old tricks with the local wildlife again.

Causing knives to fly about: Carrie (1976)

While Damien was provoking groups of baboons into wrecking his mother's Datsun in The Omen, luckless teenager Carrie was terrorising her school friends on the other side of the Atlantic. Brian De Palma's low-budget adaptation of Stephen King's novel was distinguished by the director's eye for violent set-pieces, and some fabulous acting from Sissy Spacek in the title role and Piper Laurie as her flame-haired, Bible-bashing mother Margaret.

It's the battle of wits between mother and daughter which, for us, is the film's most compelling aspect, which is why we've included their final showdown here. Carrie's righteous fury after her humiliation at the school prom was wonderful, of course (and you can sense De Palma's glee here, after almost an hour of restraint) but it's surely her ability to send kitchen knives flying through the air that really gets under the audience's skin - not to mention her mother's.

As Margaret's penetrated by no fewer than seven knives (the same number required to slay Damien Thorn, interestingly), she undergoes an almost ecstatic, moan-filled death, as though years of sexual frustration have finally been released in her own kitchen. This is as amusing and as unsettling as it sounds.

Choking underlings: Star Wars (1977)

The ability to choke a man to death by pinching the fingers together would be enough to cool the atmosphere in any boardroom meeting, as Darth Vader proves in Star Wars. "Your sad devotion to that ancient religion has not helped you conjure up the stolen data tapes," sneers the late, great Richard LaParmentier's General Motti, "or given you clairvoyance enough to find the Rebels' hidden fortres..." With his deadly force choke, Vader cuts Motti off before he has a chance to utter the name of an influential Akira Kurosawa movie.

When Vader kills Admiral Ozzel for his repeated incompetence in The Empire Strikes Back, meanwhile, he reveals the true level of his powers: Vader doesn't even have to be in the same room as his victim for the force choke trick to work (Ozzel was on the bridge, Darth in his meditation chamber).

In 21st century terms, this means that a Sith Lord could easily kill you via Skype. If that isn't an unnerving paranormal power, I don't know what is.

Blowing up John Cassavetes: The Fury (1978)

Two years after Sissy Spacek brought the house down in Carrie, Brian De Palma returned with another supernatural movie called The Fury. Although less commonly discussed than Carrie, The Fury's still full of exciting paranormal set-pieces, and may have been a partial inspiration for David Cronenberg's Scanners (1981).

This time, it's Amy Irving who plays a teenager with powers of telekinesis, including the ability to operate a toy train with her mind. In a thriller full of double-crosses, manipulation and intrigue, sinister government type Ben Childress (played by actor and influential filmmaker John Cassavetes) emerges as the villain, and even the strong jaw and towering virility of Kirk Douglas can't put a stop to his murderous antics.

Instead, Amy Irving gets the job done, and in a spectacular finale, uses all her supernatural powers to blow Childress's body into a million gore-splattered pieces. De Palma, never missing an opportunity to milk a horrifying situation for all it's worth, captures every convulsion and quiver in glorious slow-motion, before the body explode several times from different angles - including one where Cassavetes' head spirals directly up to the camera.  

We can only assume that Amy Irving really, really hated indie film directors.

Remote typing: Patrick (1978)

Meanwhile, in Australia, yet another troubled superbeing lies prostrate and apparently unconscious in a hospital bed. Three years after he killed his mother and her lover, 20-something Patrick (Robert Thompson) remains in a weird sort of coma, which involves staring straight ahead and occasionally spitting at passing nurses. Far more conscious than the flippant Dr Roget (Chitty Chitty Bang Bang's Robert Helpmann) realises, Patrick is secretly in love with newly-appointed carer Kathy (Susan Penhaligon), and also happens to be able to control objects with his mind.

It takes a long, long time for director Richard Franklin's movie to get going, but when it does, it's campily effective. Patrick responds to the doctor's prodding of a needle by shorting out an electric fire, causes a horrible nurse's paperweight to move skittishly across her desk, and best of all, operates a typewriter without touching the keys.

In a hilarious scene, Nurse Kathy's typing a letter while Patrick lies staring in the background. Then, all of a sudden, the typewriter begins to operate itself - and one particularly saucy line reads: "Well mum, must go, Patrick's waiting for his hand job..."

"Patrick, I didn't type this, did I?" Kathy says, with a mixture of indignation, anger and confusion. "Patrick, did you wreck my flat?"

And so begins Patrick's odd relationship with his nurse, and the next stage of his psychic rampage. Love rivals are trapped in lifts, and the door to his hospital bedroom is kept shut with an invisible barrier (the bit where Dr Roget tries and fails to smash his way in with a rubber axe is priceless).

Patrick's a slow, odd little movie, which meanders awkwardly to a very funny jump-scare climax. A very rude and unrelated sequel was made in Italy in 1980 (Patrick Still Lives). Back in the Antipodes, filmmaker Mark Hartley's currently putting the finishing touches to the original, which we hope brings the technology seen in the 1978 Patrick right up to date - we can't wait to see what sort of trolling comments the catatonic anti-hero leaves on Twitter and Facebook...

Computer hacking: Scanners (1981)

The exploding heads and ruptured veins were the most obviously unnerving things about David Cronenberg's Scanners, but since we already covered a similar set of visceral powers in The Fury, we thought we'd focus on a less obvious ability from this 1981 sci-fi horror.

In a near future where science has inadvertently created a new breed of telekinetic, telepathic humans called Scanners, supernatural terrorist Darryl Revok (Michael Ironside) is making life hell for shadowy weapons company, ConSec. To stop him, fellow Scanner Cameron Vale (Stephen Lack) is sent into the fray, and a vein-bursting battle ensues.

At one point, Vale displays an ability that's on a  par with Vader's Force choke. From an ordinary 80s payphone, Vale rings up Consec's computer system, and manages to not only establish a psychic link to it, but also hack it remotely and rewrite its security software. "Somebody not only threw away the key, they plugged the keyhole," a computer boffin in a lab coat and glasses explains, rather unscientifically.

Enraged, duplicitous security head Keller (Lawrence Dane) has the boffin initiate a self-destruct sequence, which he hopes will fry Cameron's brain as well as ConSec's computers. The Scanner's subsequent efforts to break the psychic link are illustrated with some fantastic pyrotechnics: burning circuit boards, a melting telephone handset, and an exploding petrol station.

"See? No fireworks!" a ConSec technician says, before the entire computer room explodes in a spectacular shower of sparks and grey plastic.

To put this in 21st century terms, if Cameron Vale kept dying all the time in a Black Ops 2 deathmatch, he'd be able to blow up everyone's PlayStations in a fit of Scanner rage. Beat that, LulzSec.

Summoning forth insects: Phenomena (1985)

Dario Argento's incredibly strange Phenomena featured yet another psychic teenager, this time played by Jennifer Connelly (in one of her first screen appearances). She finds herself in a creepy girls' school somewhere in Switzerland, where a series of gruesome murders are taking place. In tandem with the various slayings (which, in typical Argento style, are excessive), there's Donald Pleasance, who plays a wheelchair-bound scientist with a chimpanzee sidekick, and the apparently detachable plot point that Connelly has a psychic link with insects ("It's perfectly normal for insects to be slightly telepathic," Pleasance says, sagely).

In one of the film's highlights, classroom teasing prompts Connelly to summon forth a buzzing swarm of insects, which proceed to cover the entire school like a black shroud. As the other girls look on in horror, Connelly smiles beatifically. "I love you," she says, like the creepiest Miss World winner ever, "I love you all..."

If we could choose just one paranormal ability, summoning insects would be fairly low down the list, alongside being able to remotely flush toilets or melt Mars bars with our eyes. But Jennifer eventually finds quite a good use for it, as she employs an army of blue bottles to protect her from the school's true predator.

The lingering question, though, is whether Donald Pleasance was right. Is it perfectly normal for insects to be slightly telepathic? If so, you'd think they'd have figured out how patio doors work by now.

Communicating via giant illusory stuffed toys: Akira (1988)

The widespread destruction in Katsuhiro Otomo's animated classic Akira is such that it contains a wealth of unnerving paranormal powers to choose from. Anti-hero Tetsuo has the ability to send the bodies of soldiers splattering up walls in black streaks, tear huge bridges apart, fly into space to destroy an orbiting laser satellite, and even grow a new arm from bits of wire and scrap metal.

For us, the scariest powers on display come not from Tetsuo, but the young espers Takashi, Kiyoko and Masaku. The ghostly results of earlier military experiments, these three child test subjects have psychic abilities of their own, but also eerily wrinkled, blue faces as unfortunate side-effects. In a standout moment, the three appear to Tetsuo as a series of toys come to life - cute and gambolling at first, then monstrous and fierce.

It's a beautifully animated sequence. The toys (a bear, a rabbit, a car) are beguiling in one instant, terrifying the next, before an unexpected glimpse of blood causes the children to revert back to their true forms.

In reality, being able to take on the appearance of a stuffed bear could prove useful. You could make lucrative appearances at children's birthday parties, confound Jehovah's Witnesses or door-to-door salesmen, or at a push, coax Seth MacFarlane into casting you in Ted 2.

Killing spiders: Chronicle (2012)

Like a found-footage, modern American take on Akira, Carrie and most of the other films on this list, Chronicle is all about troubled teens and what happens when telekinetic powers are thrown in with the usual maelstrom of acne, exams and raging hormones. In the case of Andrew Detmer (Dane DeHaan, in a superb performance), his newfound abilities provide him with a vent for years of pent-up anger, mostly directed at his bullying father Richard (Michael Kelly). But as his powers grow, so his ability to control them slips away, and that deterioration is illustrated in a perfectly simple scene where he toys with a spider and then cold-bloodedly tears its legs off - all with the use of his mind.

At one point in Chronicle's production, the scene would have had a potentially gory pay-off, where an enraged Andrew subjects his father to the same limb-rending fate - unfortunately, the scene was considered too excessive, and dropped. With Dane DeHaan set to appear in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 as Harry Osborn, Peter Parker's probably watching a clip of Andrew's arachnid torture on YouTube and shuddering inwardly.

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Although a respected and brilliant filmmaker long before he went to Hollywood in the late 80s, it's likely that Paul Verhoeven will always be associated with the action classics, RoboCop, Total Recall and Starship Troopers. Violent, funny and cuttingly intelligent, these movies were great in ways that the directors of their various remakes and sequels found difficult to recapture.

After the critical and financial disappointment of Hollow Man in 2000, Verhoeven quit Hollywood and returned to his native Netherlands. There, he directed the WWII thriller Black Book, which was widely regarded as a return to form.

More recently, Verhoeven's bravely thrown himself into a relatively untested area of filmmaking: the crowd-sourced (or 'user generated') movie, Tricked. Making its debut at this month's Tribeca Film Festival, Tricked began life as a five-minute opening film snippet written by screenwriter Kim Van Kooten. With this providing the foundation and the inspiration, Tricked was then turned over to the Dutch public, who were asked to submit their own scripts for the rest of the film.

Verhoeven and his crew then faced the unenviable task of taking those scripts and working them into a coherent movie. The resulting story is about a wealthy, double-dealing millionaire whose iniquities in the boardroom and the bedroom come back to haunt him.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Verhoeven talked about the frustrations of working with dozens of story ideas, each attempting to pull the narrative in a different direction ("now we go and we bring in the mafia and suddenly an alien invasion on the house and this and that..."), but also about Hollywood's handling of his material in various remakes.

Last year saw the release of Len Wiseman's Total Recall, which, although not a failure, wasn't the blockbuster hit that Verhoeven's film proved to be, especially once inflation was taken into account.

"That was fun," Verhoeven said of Total Recall's lukewarm reception. "Also because they had been arrogant in interviews. Both the producer and Colin Farrell both had been bashing the old one. Colin Farrell called it kitsch, and people sent it to me immediately of course."

Verhoeven was, however, a little more positive about the chances of Jose Padhilla's forthcoming RoboCop remake. According to THR, Verhoeven's read the script and has "high hopes" for it, but adds that it needs to retain a bit of the 1987 classic's savage humour: " I think if you start to take that completely serious, like this is the reality of life, then I feel that you are really in dangerous territory," he said. " I’m hoping that RoboCop will use a little wink wink once in awhile."

The rest of the interview features Verhoeven's thoughts on most of his Hollywood films, from RoboCop to Hollow Man via Showgirls, and is well worth reading in full. In the meantime, we're looking forward to seeing Tricked, even if it's far from the kind of geek territory he explored in so many of his American films; the trailer hints at a sordid melodrama, but there's at least one surprising jab of violence that's typical Verhoeven.

THR

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21 Jump Street was arguably the best Hollywood comedy of last year by some distance, and given that it left things so nicely poised for a follow-up, we've been keen to hear news on the proposed sequel. This week, we got it, as Sony confirmed that it was looking to have the film in cinemas in 2014.

Chatting to Collider, the film's producer, Neil Moritz, has confirmed where the new movie will pick up. “It leads off where we ended the last film and our guys are going to college. Now, I can't tell you more than that because there's some fun to be had in what college they're going to and what's going to happen. It really just starts there", he said.

So what else will the new film be up to? Well, the relationship between Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum is going to be evolved. "Now they're actual partners, so they're married – what happens once marriage starts?", Moritz said. "In certain ways, it's kind of like The Seven Year Itch of police buddy comedies. What worked so well about the first one was – it was funny, yes, there was good action, yes – but really what worked more than anything was that there was great heart. That's the thing we've been working really hard on, just try and make sure that the heart of the first one is there for the second one".

And here's the best news of all: the directors of the first film, Chris Miller and Phil Lord, are back for the second. They're currently working on the LEGO movie, due out next February, and then they're going to look to start shooting the new 21 Jump Street in September or October this year. Excellent news, and we'll keep you posted as we hear more.

Collider

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Emma Watson, in between having to deny she's anything to do with a 50 Shades Of Grey movie, has been making some interesting choices, post-Harry Potter. She's turning up later this year in Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg's This Is The End, while last year's The Perks Of Being A Wallflower is something of a gem.

But her wisest choice yet might well be teaming up with director Sofia Coppola, for The Bling Ring. Watson leads the cast of the R-rated movie, which follows a bunch of teenagers on a crime spree in the midst of the riches and fame-obsessed surroundings of Hollywood.

It's based on true events, with real life victims of their thefts being the likes of Orlando Bloom and Paris Hilton (a name we never thought we'd write on this site, and never really have the urge to do so again).

The movie is heading to UK cinemas at the start of July, following a US debut in mid-June. And it co-stars Leslie Mann, Taissa Farmiga, Kate Chang and Gavin Rossdale, amongst others. Here's the trailer, so you can get a flavour of what's in store...

It's going to be fascinating to see just what shape the final cut of Marc Forster's World War Z movie takes. The promotional work thus far seems to be playing down the zombie element, and focusing more on the 'World War' bit. Whilst there were also some high profile reshoots earlier in the year, amidst reports that the back end of the movie was being completely rewritten. Internet chatter would lead you to believe that there were problems here.

So: what's actually happened? As the film's PG-13 rating is confirmed in the States, director Marc Forster has been chatting to Empire about the aforementioned reshoot work, clarifying that it was four and a half weeks of extra shooting, rather than the seven that had been suggested.

Forster, not unreasonably, argues that "reshooting was always normal", but then admitted that "our reshoots were a little more exposed in the press because we had a different ending. We felt a different ending would serve the movie better".

He argued that "it's the same if you're buying a house and you roll out a nice Persian carpet for your living room and realise it doesn't really fit".

We can't relate to that, sadly, as we've never owned a Persian carpet. A basic Ikea floor-coverer is as good as the budget gets. But you can sort of see Forster's point here. As always, the proof of it all will lie in the final cut, which we're intrigued to see.

In the chat with Empire, he also talks about how he addressed the movie of the zombies in the movie, which of course stars Brad Pitt. You can read more on that at Empire's website.

Over the past week or two, Sylvester Stallone has been ramping up things on The Expendables 3 via his Twitter account. He's been teasing the casting of Wesley Snipes in the movie for a start, and then he was mooting potential directors for the project. Mel Gibson was one of them, although that's not going to happen.

Furthermore, Stallone took to his Twitter feed yesterday to rule out John Woo, saying that he's working in China, and that "EX3 needs freshness, class and much badass". Instead, he's gone for a relative unknown, and after a bit of toing an froing, he revealed the name of The Expendables 3 director: Patrick Hughes.

Hughes may prove to be the shot in the arm that The Expendables franchise could really use, with low budget movie Red Hill his sole feature directorial outing to date. The fact that he kept it low budget, to a tight schedule, clearly impressed Stallone. But so did the film itself, given that he described it as a "great movie".

Hughes will get cameras moving on the new movie in the summer, and The Expendables 3 is expected to be released in August 2014. More news on it as we get it...

Twitter.

Hollywood's ongoing remakeathon has been showing no shortage of confidence in recent times, and just last week, we reported that work was pressing ahead on a new take on John Hughes'Weird Science. Not long before that, it was the Point Break remake we were talking about. And not too long before that, it was a new attempt to tackle National Lampoon's Vacation.

However, in spite of apparently attracting Chevy Chase back to reprise the role of Griswold Senior, Warner Bros has put the brakes on the project. It doesn't appear that it's been canned, but The Hollywood Reporter is citing "creative differences" as the reason why the pause button has been pressed.

We don't know who the differences are between, but it does seem that the point of disagreement is over whether to go for an R-rated comedy, or a broader PG-13 cut.

The film was set to go before the cameras in July, with John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein set to direct, having penned the screenplay. Ed Helms remains aboard the project, as is Christina Applegate.

How long will the delay be? According to the report, "only a few months" or "later this year". It doesn't sound like the project is going to get shut down, rather that it's going to be retooled a little. More on it as we hear it.

The Hollywood Reporter.

This review contains spoilers.

1.2 Down in the Ground Where the Dead Men Go

The second episode of Defiance tried desperately to fix a major flaw of the pilot story, by providing some not-so-subtle character development for those it's decided are worthy of attention. And squeezed between back story corner, we had some token amounts of larger story arc progression, and a rather tame little morality tale about accepting different cultures. In general it was marginally more attention-grabbing than the first Defiance helping, but not especially gripping or nominally exciting.

The writers went some way to make the Castithans villains from the outset, and much of what went on in this story rammed that home for those who weren't paying attention last time. Part of their culture is honour-based, and by running from battle one of them must be tortured to death in public. Seems entirely reasonable, no?

Well, we're given the line that the town accepts cultural differences, which gives the Castithans the right to do whatever they've decided is right, in the sort of illogical way that only science fiction stories can try to present. I can't recall how many times we've seen this plot, but Star Trek in its various forms must have covered this territory at least ten times, if not more. Aliens do terrible things, humans object to them, they gain greater understanding of the alien culture, and they of ours. Yawn.

The only diversion from that well-trodden path is that in this case, the humans were right to object, because the 'culture' is just dressing for a mafia-like enforcement. What worried me about this was that if the Mayor would go along with this, what else would she sanction to keep the peace? Eventually she's pushed into acting, but I kept on thinking that we're being presented with a series of events that better explains how the old Mayor became so utterly corrupt.

Datak and Stahma scheme away in what can only be interpreted as a homage to Game Of Thrones, and they threw a spa scene with the almost naked Jaime Murray in an attempt to distract us from the almost soap-opera quality dialogue. Given that Game of Thrones is not on Syfy and can push whatever sexual boundaries HBO deems fit, I just don't see the network-friendly version cutting much ice.

Jaime Murray did have a much better scene in the diner, where she talked with Christie about how she got the man she wanted, probably by arranging the untimely death of another. Those that missed the previous hints, she's the real architect of what goes on in Defiance, and Datak is her willing accomplice. She had one great line, "He's kind of a jackass. Most men are. It's a characteristic that transcends species.", which made up a little for the cringingly awful "penny for your thoughts" opening gambit. Datak and Stahma are mildly amusing and interesting, much else of what went on wasn't.

The search for the escaped Ben in an implausibly entombed old St. Louis, placed inexplicably in a giant cave by previous terra-forming. There's something down there that Nicky wants, that she was prepared to bury with a nuclear explosion to keep from being found. The only upside to this rather tedious expedition were a few choice parts where Rafe, i.e. Graham Greene (II), got to show he can act. Having given his best in these parts he was rewarded in the closing sequence by finding his son's secret stash, resplendent with a super piece of alien tech. When I say 'super', what I actually mean is something that looked complicated, but was very easy to make on a 3D printer that the props people then made gold with a can of spray paint.

Overall, Defiance isn't lighting many fires in this reviewer's soul, and they need to work on this being more gripping than it's been so far. After two stories both with the idea that something could happen that will make everyone leave Defiance, and them not leaving, I'll be disappointed if we return to this idea next week. And, surely someone might start asking why they're so keen to get everyone out of there?

Read Billy's review of the previous episode, here.

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This review contains spoilers.

3.2 The Purge

Caterina Sforza, the Great Arachnia of Forli as Rodrigo dubbed her in this episode, is building a conspiracy against the Borgias but oh man, guys. A little bit of tact? Just a pinch? Because the meeting of the families in the ruins of Rome where all the old Roman families got "notes" was like an unfuny version of a sitcom. Wait- if you didnt send the letter than who did? Oh noes! I could've done without it and gotten right to the juicy bit where the Borgias try and track down the wolves in Cardinals' clothing.

However, this is the 1400s so they go hey, I know what we should do? Lets drag Cardinal Deluca off to be tortured! Torture always works except, according to Micheletto, who appears out of the darkness like the death he carries, for the fact that it doesn't. During the course of their conversation, Micheletto tells Deluca that he is familiar with instruments of torture from both sides, and that they are teachers - of how to lie. It makes me wonder even more about what Micheletto was and did before Cesare. So many clues, so few answers.

Deluca does confess, though, as we all knew he would. He puts on the show the Pope needs and points fingers at all the major family heads in opposition to the Borgia pope. So the Pope begins solving his Caterina problem by defrocking Cardinals at about the same time Lucrezia's trouble with her fiancé Alfonso begins. His relative, the king of Naples, is not going to let her bring her son with her when she marries because little Giovanni is a bastard. To say that's a huge problem is an understatement and Lucrezia goes to Cesare with it. He promises to fix it because Cesare will allow no one to get in the way of her happiness. "We are the Unholy Family," he declares, taking her chin in hand and dropping his face to hers. I don't know that I'd call the way they meet but it was definitely far more than a mere exchange of sibling affection. It felt too much like kissing, the open mouthed kind made of shared breath that is better suited for a love scene than a conversation about dowries and bastard children between a brother and a sister.

Now, we could pretend that there is something else more scintillating going on, story-wise, or we can embrace the fact that the Lucrezia and Cesare romance/incest arc is one of the most interesting and longest awaited arcs the show has ever seen. I didn't even imagine they'd go there before I saw the season three trailer and then I was afraid that it'd be a disaster. It is, after all, incest.

If it stays on the current course, I'm going to be proved so wonderfully wrong because oh sweet sainted sexy sister, it feels like the Borgia siblings have gone from 15mph on a residential street to 120mph on the Autobahn. Of course that isn't the case. Lucrezia and Cesare have been simmering in their own incest juices since the Pilot. Despite the innocence and untempered devotion their love is born from, we're approaching a boiling point that seems completely unavoidable, just like Lucrezia's upcoming second marriage to an already frustrating Alfonso. She sprawls in bed, naked but for a sheet, and invites Cesare in to see her "wedding gown". She beckons him to her and makes him touch and praise her starting with her feet and work his way up. Lucrezia could be the gutsiest broad on TV this week (except maybe for Daenerys Targaryen but she's the Mother of Dragons so that's not a fair comparison) because honestly, who has the nerve to do that? Lucrezia Borgia that's who.

Their conversation is all innuendo wrapped in metaphor and breathless anticipation coating their genuine affection. Even before the door opens Lucrezia asks if he is "My brother who loves me?" and Cesare replies "The same". Lucrezia draws Cesare in by wrapping the spider-silk rope of his love for her around his neck and pulling him into the tangled web of her gold sheets. The giggling girl peeking in at her brother's trysts from the pilot has been replaced by a powerful, strong, self-aware woman who seems to have realized, finally, that there is a way for her to meet all of her needs - emotional and sexual - at once in her beloved brother. She has made her choice, right or wrong; now Cesare is the one to be corrupted. He asks if she is playing a game with him, clearly confused by desire and lost as I doubt he never has been before in his life.

Yes I know incest is wrong in real life. I do not condone it any shape or form. However, on The Borgias, they're killing it. Ugh, every scene with Holliday and Francois so much as in the same room is crackling with chemistry, where before it was merely buzzing. Now if only that pesky Cardinal hadn't tried to kill Pope Alexander we could've stayed focused on those two. Oh well. Next week looks promising.

Read Rachael's review of the previous episode, The Face of Death, here.

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Bethesda's Shinji Mikami survival horror title, The Evil Within, was announced a few days ago, and already it's surging to the upper echelons of many most wanted lists. Billed as a 'pure survival horror' by the publisher, with Mikami stating he intends to return to the roots of the genre, it could give ailing Capcom and Konami series, Resident Evil and Silent Hill something to worry about.

The new game, as we previously reported, will run on id Tech 5 and will star protagonist Detective Sebastian Castellanos. He and some fellow law enforcers are dragging into a freakish, monster inhabited world after they arrive at the scene of a grizzly murder, and have to fight to survive the nightmare.

Using an over the shoulder view, much like Resident Evil's approach since Resi 4, the game will feature a number of locations, including the already depicted asylum, and players will not only have to fight off all sorts of creatures, but also avoid and use traps.

Following classic survival horror themes, players will also have a limited inventory, so managing important items, ammo and other supplies will play a big role. It's not entirely clear how, but the game world will also change as you play, in real time.

With the mind that created Resident Evil behind it, and a hell-bent determination to create a truly scary survival horror, The Evil Within is definitely one to watch. For now, take a look at the screens here.

The Evil Within will arrive on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC, as well as next gen platforms in 2014.

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Coming from the same Kotaku sources that, apparently, also nailed the new title of the next Batman game, along with its setting, is a new rumour that Batman: Arkahm Origins will feature multiplayer modes alongside the single player story.

The rumour isn't all that in-depth, but states that the new title will, in one section, feature a multiplayer mode that pits members of the Joker and Bane's gang against Batman and Robin.

The same source also said that villains included will feature Deadshot, Firefly, Deathstroke, Killer Croc and Black Mask (who is also the main antagonist this time 'round). All characters will be playable and customisable.

At this time, nothing is confirmed or set in stone, but many, initially single player only big name series have received multiplayer bolt-ons in the past, especially when a new developer gets involved, so it not unlikely. Let's just hope it doesn't detract from the series' excellent solo story.

Kotaku

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According to eyewitness reports, Rockstar is busy filming a new, live action commercial for the upcoming Grand Theft Auto 5 in Mexico.

A resident of Mexico City, Marco Donjuan, talked to Polygon about his discovery. He says he stumbled upon the film set on his way home this past Saturday night, witnessing a crashed car sticking out of the side of a building, and he proceeded to take pictures of the scene over two days.

He said,"Once I parked my car, I went out to ask about it, [and] one of the staff members told me it was an ad for Grand Theft Auto 5."

The following day the scene was dressed with a couple of cars and a load of washing machines, ready for another scene shoot. Both times, a GTA V banner was clearly visible.

Rockstar has since disputed claims that the shoot was for GTA, and insists that it was actually a Sony advert, with the GTA V logo being used without its knowledge. Polygon has also removed images by the request of Rockstar.

However, it's clear that GTA's steam is picking up, as it's been noted that the Epsilon Program twitter feed has been resurrected. The program, which pokes fun at various funded religious schemes, has featured in GTA before The new post, which revived the feed read, “Finally won the court case! We are innocent, we are back and we are not a cult!”

GTA V is due for release on September 17 on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

Polygon

Epsilon Program Twitter

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Now, this is certainly an interesting one. Shimizu Takashi, director of The Grudge and Ju-On, is reportedly set to direct a live action adaptation of Kiki's Delivery Service. Perhaps best known as a film by Studio Ghibli, the original source is a novel by Kadono Eiko which has also inspired a musical stage adaptation as well as a manga series.

Given the previous adaptations, a live action movie shouldn't come as too much of a surprise. But when the project was initially suggested, rumours were dismissed, particularly when Studio Ghibli distanced itself from the film. However, given that Ghibli doesn't own the property, it doesn't appear to have any say as to what is done with it.

Sixteen-year old figure skater Koshiba Fukuoka has been cast as the lead, and Shimizu is reportedly keen to delve deeper into the source material than the Ghibli version. As such, the film will use the first two novels of the series as the basis rather than the just the first.

Twitch

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Bryan Singer has posted a new video on Vine showing that every mutant has a place to sit on the set of X-Men: Days Of Future Past. And amongst the returning cast from previous films that we were already well aware of. there appears to be a couple of names who at this point were rumoured but not confirmed.

The mutants in question are Bishop and Warpath, French actor Omar Sy has been linked to Bishop previously but his role was never officially confirmed. Meanwhile,  Booboo Stewart is another cast member whose exact role wasn't announced, but given that he appears to be the only Native American member of the cast it's a decent bet he'll be playing Warpath.

Production continues on the movie, which is due in cinemas on July 18th 2014. We'll keep you posted as we hear more.

Twitter/Vine.

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The big screen take on The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (which remains a sod to type out every time, almost making is pine for typing out Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.) is finally gathering pace, it seems. Once mooted as a project for Steven Soderbergh (with George Clooney once set to star), the film has landed into the directorial hands of Guy Ritchie.

It was revealed a month or two back that Tom Cruise was looking to commit to the project, and certainly the recent box office performance of Oblivion won't have done that idea any harm. Given that casting is continuing too, we suspect that The Man From U.N.C.L.E. may finally get started this year.

The latest addition to the cast is Armie Hammer, who's taking the title role in this summer's The Lone Ranger movie. He will star alongside Cruise as an agent of U.N.C.L.E., with the pair playing versions of the roles originally realised by Robert Vaughan and David McCallum.

There's still some way to go on this one, so we'll keep you posted. But it does finally look like it's happening.

Source.

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It may have had a bit of a critical mauling, but G.I. Joe: Retaliation has nonetheless gone on to be a healthy hit for Paramount Pictures. As things stands, the film has taken over $110m in the US, and a further $211m elsewhere. That running total of over $320m and counting has seen it take more money that the first film already.

So then: G.I. Joe 3? A week or two back, that was indeed suggested. And now it's been revealed by the writers of G.I. Joe: Retaliation, Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese, that they're "actively in the process of breaking the story for the third film". There's no formal deal in place for it yet, it seems, although inevitably it's in the early stages anyway. But the pair seem certain a new film is on the way, arguing with good reason of Retaliation that "it was made for $50m less and is projected to make $100m more".

So who can be expect in the next film? Dwayne Johnson's Roadblock is a certainly, but Reese and Wernick are also looking to include Snake Eyes, Storm and Shadow.

As we hear more on the film, we'll let you know. In the meantime, the full interview is over at IGN here.

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Many are lamenting the lack of serialised television on modern telly, with so many stand-alone reality bore fests filling the schedules, but there’s a series that’s already combining smart, serialised writing with massive audience figures: Pretty Little Liars. You might not have heard of it; you might have dismissed it a long time ago, but I’m here to encourage you to give it another chance.

The story of four former mean girls who, after the leader of the group is killed mysteriously, are tormented by an unseen group calling themselves ‘A’ - Pretty Little Liars is addictive television that has so far woven together a mystery that seems to have no end. While never really making an impact in the UK (the first two seasons have aired on VIVA), it’s incredibly popular in the US and probably has more geek fans than you’d think.

Here are few reasons why the rest of us shouldn’t be so quick to turn our noses up: 

It’s fun to get addicted 

Missing Lost, or the season-long crime-solving missions of Veronica Mars? Well then I have some good news for you. While I wouldn’t compare the weekly adventures here to anything that happened to the passengers of Oceanic 815 or other high-concept genre shows, it is incredibly pleasing to find a serialised drama of this kind not apologising for its complex mysteries or active dismissal of casual viewers. No episode is a standalone adventure, and it demands that fans watch every week.

Personally, I haven’t found myself trawling forums and wikis for clues since that ruddy plane crashed on the island, and I never thought it would be a silly teen drama that got me back there at two in the morning. I don’t know when it happened, either. I found the first season pretty naff, so much so that I thought about binning it all together, but now I wouldn’t even consider erasing it from my weekly watch list. There’s something about long-form mystery that sucks you in, and I won’t rest until I know the answers to all of these questions.

The many horror/noir elements 

It’s always nice to watch a series made by fans of film and television, and while Pretty Little Liars won’t ever redefine the horror genre like The Walking Dead or other respected cable shows emerging over the last few years, there’s a nostalgic quality to the way it uses horror tropes and homage. Even more prominent are the overt literary references, with characters named after famous authors and characters, and famous quotes used both in passing and as taunts from ‘A’ to the girls.

Each finale has been a tribute to Alfred Hitchcock, too, with the plots, tropes and iconic scenes from Vertigo, Psycho etc. used liberally to tell their own stories. There’s a chance that younger viewers won’t understand the references as readily as their older siblings or parents, and this just proves that Pretty Little Liars is covering all of its bases. It also adds colour and depth to a series that would otherwise seem a little self-indulgent or shallow, and is a weekly treat for film and book boffins.

They have the answers vs. questions ratio down 

What’s our biggest complaint over mystery shows? There aren’t enough answers, and the ratio of unanswered questions to big reveals become unbalanced and irritating around the second season. There have been a few wobbles, but Pretty Little Liars has largely sidestepped this problem where it counts. With so many shows with nowhere to go after their initial mystery is solved, it’s impressive how much Pretty Little Liars has grown and evolved.

Immediately before fans start to get frustrated over an unrevealed bit of information, the show plans a big reveal episode and, ever since the identity of ‘A’ was finally let out of the bag in the season two finale, there’s been no stopping them. Around half of the questions posed at the beginning of the show have been answered now, and big slices of juicy clues and information are offered up on a weekly basis. 

There’s some real darkness to it 

With all of the soap opera plotlines going on, not to mention the fact that we’re meant to like these girls, it’s always surprising when something genuinely grim comes along to shock us out of our happy stupor. The characters on this show are not nice people – before we meet them in the pilot, they’ve accidently blinded someone and covered it up. We’re meant to be surprised when said person is implicated in ‘A’ plot but, really, they deserve everything they get.

There’s also the sense that what we see in flashbacks and hear in whispered bathroom conversations isn’t the whole story but a product of group selective memory, and we know deep down that the people torturing these girls have, or once had, a valid point to prove. Add that to the murder, sexual assault and other nasty things going on in and around Rosewood, and you’ve got a dark, gritty noir stuck inside a light-hearted tween drama on a family network. 

It’s the future of television 

Like it or not, watching television is no longer an solely individual experience. You can ignore the internet if you want, but everyone knows that there’s a whole universe of chat and theorising just waiting to be explored. Pretty Little Liars has used and abused this new world in as many ways as possible, and has become the most social show across all of TV on Tuesday nights. It was also the most tweeted cable TV show of 2012, and has used the resources of social media in various other intriguing endeavours.

Many of you will never have watched a show on ABC Family, but those who have will already know about their new on-screen hashtags. They run in the corner of the screen saying things like #poorspencer and #tobyisdead, directly encouraging viewers to talk about the plot while it’s still unfolding. Less irritating are the suspect trackers they launch a couple of weeks before each big reveal, which outlines a particular ‘betrayal’ or death and has fans vote on who the most likely subject is. 

It probably won’t get cancelled 

Not only is there almost no chance of the show being cancelled before we get the answers, but ABC Family’s attempts at seizing their opportunity for ratings and fame mean that the series airs almost year-round. Seriously, it’s never gone for more than a couple of months, and even then we’re offered clips, extras, web series and endless cryptic clues from executive producer Marlene King to keep us going. The season three finale aired last month, but we only have to wait until June for its return.

This removes so much peril from the viewing experience, as people have become increasingly resistant to trying new things just in case their loyalty is punished with a swift cancellation. Instead, we can assume that Pretty Little Liars will be able to tell its story for as long a time as it chooses, and this means that fans aren’t constantly checking the ratings after every air date. We might even get a movie at the end of it, no Kickstarter campaign required.

It’s the guilty pleasure you still can’t admit to 

One day, after ploughing through three seasons of Pretty Little Liars, you might find yourself discussing the show’s various mysteries with the same passion that you usually reserve for things like The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones. That’s what this show does – it makes fourteen-year-old girls out of the best of us. In an age where guilty pleasures don’t really exist anymore, and our viewing habits and taste are so varied, there’s something to be said for having a box-set that you really can’t admit to owning.

The intended audience is obviously young and female, but you’d be surprised by how wide an age-range it really covers. Like with most teen dramas with some kind of twist to them, including critically lauded ones like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, older audiences find themselves watching ironically before genuinely enjoying a series not intended for them. This is camp, fluffy trash at times and unsettlingly dark telly at others, and this is always going to attract a wide and disparate audience. 

So, while the series has broken up for a couple of months, now’s your chance to catch up on the first three seasons. It’s a gem that’s been hidden away on strange channels in the UK and teenagers’ twitter accounts worldwide, but now could be the perfect time for the geek audience to discover their newest guilty pleasure. Who is ‘A’? Who killed Allison? These questions might not mean anything to you now, but I guarantee you’ll be gasping to know before long.

Season four of Pretty Little Liars starts on the 11th of June on ABC Family in the US, and the show has already been renewed for season five.

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