The Avengers Issue, 2012 Oscar Nominations, The Ones That Should Have Been Nominated, First Look At Ben Wheatley's Latest, George Clooney Viewers Guide

Subscribe To Empire Get 3 issues of Empire magazine for only £1

This Week... This week saw Nicolas freakin' Cage visit the Empire office. There was, needless to say, mass hysteria, occasional hyperventilation and at least three fainting spells - and that was just our staff. As it turned out, Cage was every bit as eloquent, eccentric and entertaining as we'd hoped, explaining in depth his preparation on Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance and his "shamanic" approach to acting. But that wasn't the only excitement: Tuesday also brought this year's Oscar nominations, which we followed with a look at what (and who) missed out; and we talked to a wolf expert to get to grips with Liam Neeson's new film The Grey, and Oscar-nominee Alexander Payne on The Descendants, also out this week. Frankly, we might need a bit of a sit-down now and a nice cup of tea. Helen O'Hara Deputy Editor, Empire

The Avengers Exclusive! Four Covers To Choose From! The Avengers Everyone, assemble! We have exclusive on-set access to the stars and filmmakers of our superhero crossover cover movie. Turns out they even geek out over each other, which is sort of adorable. The Girls Of Skyfall Another Bond film, another pair of stunningly gorgeous actresses set to romance Bond and/or try to kill him. Naomie Harris and Berenice Marlohe explain why their characters are women to be reckoned with. Plus: Wrath Of The Titans, The Hunger Games, American Pie: Reunion, Woody Harrelson, This Means War and much, much more. Subscribe today! Only £25 for 12 issues! or pick it up in shops now! Empire Magazine iPad Edition Get the latest issue of Empire magazine on your iPad now - plus every single iPad back issue! Featuring exclusive interactive content, movie trailers for every film reviewed and unseen material that we couldn't fit into the magazine, make sure you download Empire's iPad edition every month! Get the latest issue or subscribe now!

The 2012 Oscar Nominations Are Here The Artist leads the pack Exclusive: First Look At Sightseers The latest from Kill List's Ben Wheatley The Woman In Black Premiere Report Ghostly goings-on in London West End

New Clip From Man On A Ledge The title aside, this is one of those thrillers which will be more enjoyable the less you know about it, as the plot unfolds into something rather unexpected (this clip is relatively spoiler-free, don't worry). We can tell you that Ed Burns and Anthony Mackie play police officers, that Elizabeth Banks is a hostage negotiator brought in to talk Worthington down, and that Jamie Bell is Worthington's brother, who's up to something across the way. More new videos to watch: New Mirror Mirror Trailer Online Tarsem Singh's take has a new promo Another Lock-Out Trailer Escapes A simple thank you is enough Trailer For The Blind Man Online A Besson mystery starring Lambert Wilson Spanish Trailer For Red Lights Online Weaver! De Niro! Murphy! Excelente!

A Game Of Thrones writing set, with actual sealing wax and everything. Now we can write letters House Stark-style.

Isn't an infrared relaxation treatment essentially what happens in Predator? Phil is not a regular spa visitor.

The Difficulty Of Defining Modern Animation There's been a bit of back-and-forth online over the last couple of days about whether or not The Adventures Of Tintin qualifies as animation. It appeared on the BAFTA nominations list in the Animated category, but was absent from the Oscar list so we can't be sure whether it qualified there or not, or simply didn't win the votes. So is the entirely-performance-captured film real animation? Do we need to redefine our categories? What's going on?

The 2012 Oscar Injustices OK, now that the excitement over the actual nominations is dying down a little, let's talk about the holes in the list. Who should have been there and isn't? Who was robbed or denied by the voters this year? Now of course we know that not everyone can get a place, and much as we love Fast Five, some cherished nominations were never going to happen, but it's still fun to consider the Oscars that might have been. We've profiled some of the most glaring omissions and possible candidates here - have a read and see who you would add... Exclusive Nicolas Cage Webchat Nic Cage is the man that brought us The Rock, Con Air, Face/Off, Adaptation, Leaving Las Vegas, Raising Arizona, Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, Kick-Ass, and, as they say, many, many more. So it was a great honour having him round the Empire office for a webchat - where he was posed such important questions as "Would you like to appear in Expendables 3?", "What's the best line you've ever said on screen?" and, perhaps most importantly of all, "What's your favourite sandwich?" Check out all his answers to all your questions here below, and just in case you were wondering, Ghost Rider: Spirit Of Vengeance is out on February 17. Are Wolves Really As Bad As The Grey Suggests? The Grey, out this week, follows a group of oil-rig workers based in the far north of Alaska whose plane crashes in the middle of the Arctic wastes. The survivors band together to travel back towards civilisation - but are stalked and hunted by huge, hungry and remarkably savage wolves as they go. Now director Joe Carnahan has pretty much said that it's all a metaphor for a man vs. nature conflict - but with the poor wolves coming out of it rather badly, we called up Cliff Tack, the Team Leader on the Northern Region at ZSL Whipsnade Zoo, to find out how close the film is to the truth. Very mild spoilers follow, but we've avoided anything that's too plot- or character-specific... George Clooney: A Viewer's Guide Is George Clooney the 'Current Cary Grant' or was Cary Grant the 'Earlier George Clooney'? Commentators and columnists have engaged in a decades-long hunt to fill the debonair-but-sometimes-daffy void left by the great Archie Leach, and Clooney is the closest the world has produced. In truth, the tag has been a burden, albeit one lightly worn, for a man who's played the studio system with the skill of a grandmaster and the versatility of a Swiss Army knife. Empire Meets Alexander Payne Hotly tipped to make a big impact at this year's Oscars, Alexander Payne's The Descendants should make the Nebraskan a household name among a much wider audience. For film lovers of the kind that hang out at art house cinemas munching Japanese rice crackers, Payne is a god-like figure - and rightly so. His CV is wall-to-wall indie goodness, with Election, About Schmidt, Sideways and now The Descendants marking a trajectory towards warmer, less splenetic humour. Fewer noses are getting broken. Empire caught up with the man to talk about the film and find out whether he's softening in his middle age. How To Upset PETA, The Cinema Way In The Grey, Liam Neeson defends himself against a legion of evil wolves, armed with only his mind and a very particular set of skills. But as the good people of ZSL Whipsnade Zoo explain in this interview, wolves aren't anywhere near as nasty as Neeson and co. would have us believe. In so doing, The Grey joins the long list of movies that seem designed to wind up the RSPCA - and here, to prove the point, are some of our "favourites". Warning: contains videos of animals exploding. You have been warned...

Ali occasionally eats pasta in the cinema to avoid making any noise, or eating anything smelly, during the film. Professional autograph hunters are AWFUL people - at least the ones who mobbed Nic Cage on Thursday are. Nicolas Cage drinks green tea in the early afternoon. You are very unlikely to be killed or eaten by wolves. Avoid polar bears and rogue elephants though. Randy Newman was robbed of an Oscar nomination for his We Need To Talk About Kevin theme. What's that? It's not real? Well, still.

Some cool movie art. Mind-blowing Beyonce / Downton mash. Scalextrix like you've never seen. Great questions of our time. If you have any timewasters to share, then e-mail them in to us.

I received a Helen Hester Hope Hannah T-shirt, to celebrate the release of Martha Marcy May Marlene next week. See what they did there?

The Descendants A marvellous follow-up to 2004's Sideways - well worth the wait. Also Out Intruders Is this the way for Fresnadillo? House of Tolerance Several nights in Paris. Acts Of Godfrey Rhymes with 'bload of flap'. Patience (After Sebald) Documentary look at a literary giant. A Monster In Paris Aka City of Frights. Mercenaries Medal of dishonour. This week's video trailers and clips. Every week, our video player will update to show trailers and clips from the week's movie releases listed above.

Two-Lane Blacktop Underrated road movie. Also Out Punishment Park Intriguing and provocative docu-drama. Troll Hunter Move over vampires, werewolves... Zatoichi Takeshi Kitano stars and directs. Cell 211 This year's A Prophet... Arrietty A miniature of epic proportions.

Win 30 Minutes Or Less On Blu-ray Out now! Click here to enter Win A Blu-Ray Copy Of Abduction DVD and Download to Own and Rent February 13, 2012. Click here to enter Win A DVD Bundle With Carnage! In Cinemas February 3. Click here to enter Win Ben Hur On DVD Yours To Own January 30. Click here to enter Win Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Next Level On Blu-ray Out to own on January 30. Click here to enter

Subscribe to Empire for only £25! Sign up to a subscription to the world's biggest movie magazine and get 12 issues for just £25!

If you wish to unsubscribe to Empire Online newsletter, please click here. If you need to get hold of us for any reason or have any problems, please visit http://www.empireonline.com/faq/. Bauer Consumer Media Limited Registered number / 01176085 (England). Registered Office / 1 Lincoln Court , Lincoln Road, Peterborough, PE1 2RF