JJ Abrams Directing Star Wars VII? Arnie On The New Terminator, Jessica Chastain Video, Mark Strong Podcast, What You Need To Know Before You See Lincoln

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This Week... What a week! The news arrived that Star Wars: Episode VII may finally have found a director in JJ Abrams, a move greeted with glee punctuated by jokes about lens flare. In cinemas, not one but two five-star Oscar nominees hit screens this week in the shape of Lincoln and Zero Dark Thirty, which is a treat by anyone's standards. Both films come from Best Director winners; both manage to make people-talking-in-rooms into riveting drama and both are among the year's best films. If you're trying to choose between them, there's only one way to choose: do you prefer helicopters or interesting facial hair? The answer to that question will determine which way to go. You're welcome! Helen O'Hara Deputy Online Editor, Empire

Star Trek Into Darkness - Two Covers To Collect! The planet's only access to the year's biggest sequel. Leading our sci-fi preview issue, we boldly go where no one has gone before this month. Editor Mark Dinning hung out with J.J. Abrams and cast on the Enterprise itself, and spills at least a few beans on the trek Into Darkness. Plus: Oblivion, Sharlto Copley, Cloud Atlas, Trance, Wreck-It Ralph and more. Subscribe today! Get Far Cry 3 plus 12 issues of Empire for only £39.99! Download the iPad Edition today 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!

JJ Abrams Directing Star Wars VII? Star Trek man negotiating for the job Arnie Talks Up The New Terminator He may well be back... Bruce Willis Confirmed For Sin City 2 He knows A Dame To Kill For

Exclusive Trailer For The Liability Tim Roth plays a take-no-prisoners, happy-to-tie-corpses-to-trees hit man in the upcoming British gangster flick The Liability, and here's the exclusive trailer to prove it. Telling the tale of a 19 year old desperately trying to earn a few quid to pay back his unforgiving dad (played by Peter Mullan), it sees relative newcomer Jack O'Connell as unlucky teen Adam and Tim Roth as the hit man who takes him under his wing. More new videos to watch: New Upside Down Trailer Lands Jim Sturgess finds love above. First Trailer For Inside Llewyn Davis The Coens get folky. New Top Gun 3D Trailer Holy shit, it's Maverick and Goose. Reign Of Assassins UK Trailer Online Yeoh, Woo, wuxia. New Trailer For The Heat Bullock & McCarthy swear by it. New Warm Bodies Clip Surfaces And you can sample the prequel book. Olympus Has Fallen Trailer Lands Gerard Butler must save the President. The East Trailer Arrives Brit Marling's torn between two worlds. New Stoker Trailer Online Cool look at Park Chan-wook's latest. Green Band Evil Dead Trailer Arrives All the evil, none of the blood.

Adorable pugs Yoda and Bundy visited on Monday for the DVD release of The Campaign, but disappointingly we didn't get to keep them.

Just because he does mind-magic doesn't mean he can ignore embargoes. Phil is incensed to see on twitter that Derren Brown has written about Trance.

Sundance Film Festival 2013 If you crave the crossover of film and cold climates, this is your lucky week, because the Sundance Film Festival is in full swing and our Damon Wise is there in Park City to bring you all the first reactions of the Festival. He's got the first word on Steve Coogan in The Look Of Love, Joseph Gordon-Levitt's directorial debut in Don Jon's Addiction and much more - check it out.

Eight Reasons Why JJ Abrams Is A Great Choice To Direct Star Wars Despite claiming - to this magazine's editor's face - that he wasn't going to be directing Star Wars, JJ Abrams is reportedly in negotiations to do just that. And we're happy he is. Here's why... The Empire Podcast #45 In a week where two five star movies hit cinemas - namely Zero Dark Thirty and Lincoln - the Empire podcast is bumper-sized, boasting lengthy reviews of both films, as well as a discussion of the J.J. Abrams / Star Wars: Episode VII rumours, your always-slightly-bonkers questions answered and news of Steven Spielberg's return to TV with Masters Of The Air. He's Back: The Arnold Schwarzenegger Interview Towards the end of last year, our James Dyer embarked on a series of interviews with Arnold Schwarzenegger in order to write the definitive piece on the Austrian Oak. From his early life and introduction to body building to his return to cinema after the end of his tenure as Governor of California, they covered the lot, and now it's online for your reading enjoyment. Get to the browser! Jessica Chastain On Zero Dark Thirty Talented, smart and Oscar-nominated, Jessica Chastain is definitely having a moment. The Help, Lawless, The Debt, The Tree Of Life, Take Shelter... she's been a stand-out in every film she's appeared in. It's a McTiernan Run that, with Zero Dark Thirty, has brought her to the attention of the world. But as she explains to Empire, it hasn't been an easy ride. The demands of its subject matter, including scenes of torture and the controversy that has enveloped the movie like an acrid fog, have made this the toughest project to date for the Californian actress. Luckily, she and her director had a cunning means of getting it away from it all: YouTube. Mark Strong: My Movie Life Who doesn't love Mark Strong? Certainly not us. The great man has been bringing happiness to our moviegoing lives since his earliest days on the big screen - the days of Fever Pitch and Sunshine - and when he's got the handbreak off and the bad guy on, there's few actors that are more fun to watch. But which cinematic villains have inspired him down the years? Who is his acting icon? And which movies first wooed him with the magic of cinema? We thought we'd ask him. Cheat Sheet: What You Need To Know Before You See Steven Spielberg's Lincoln Lincoln, like Zero Dark Thirty or The West Wing, doesn't waste a whole lot of time on exposition before throwing you into its plot. That's fine, assuming you've spent years in American history classes and/or recently read Team Of Rivals: The Political Genius Of Abraham Lincoln, the book that inspired Steven Spielberg's film. But just in case that isn't the case, here are a few pointers to help you through the film... The Tech Biopics Hollywood Needs To Make The utterly bonkers life of anti-virus software pioneer John McAfee is now the subject of two movies in development - and we started wondering which other figures of tech would make for good biopic fodder. After all, once you've got their exciting story all you need to finish the movie is your mum's permission to shoot in the garage, a tiny budget for outdated computers and a bunch of ratty hoodies. We take a look at the fascinating stories behind some of the tech world's biggest names... Spotify Playlist: Now That's What I Call... Quentin Tarantino! Quentin Tarantino is not what anyone would call a musical ignoramus. Littering his films with unearthed pop gems, every movie he directs is an opportunity to hear which soon-to-be-classics have made the cinephile's favourite audiophile's iPod of late. So to celebrate another flick through Mr. Tarantino's record collection in the form of Django Unchained, here's a 33 track-strong playlist of the choicest QT cuts, from Little Green Bag to, well... you'll have to find out for yourself. Comic-Book Costumes From Page To Screen, Ranked By Fidelity To Source The first picture of Jim Carrey as Colonel Stars And Stripes is now online, and it got us thinking about comparisons between film characters and their comic-book sources. Which ones most closely resemble their origins? And who's gone waaay off-book? We look at the evidence here... James Purefoy Talks The Following The latest Brit to take on a show-stealing role in a behemoth American TV show, Empire favourite James Purefoy stars in The Following as serial-killing smoothie Joe Carroll. We caught up with him to hear what it's like to get paid to terrorise Kevin Bacon, as well as the best story ever about scaring a burglar away with a sword.

A heavily secured box arrived for the DVD release of Chained on Monday, which luckily didn't contain any serial-killer grue but instead a light-up taxi cab. Phew!

In Las Vegas, there is an Anchorman Way near to Ferrell Street. There's also a Tarkin Avenue, named after Grand Moff Tarkin. Porsche makes sleds. Joe Carnahan directed that Skyfall ad for Sony. Vincent Cassel is a notorious on-set blagger of cigarettes. Atari was named after a move in the classic oriental game Go.

One at a time, ladies. Woman freezes herself in hope of a brain cancer cure. The world's most adventurous dog. Soldiers grow boobs? If you have any timewasters to share, then e-mail them in to us.

Zero Dark Thirty Gripping throughout, with an impressive central performance, this is like a Dogme 95 redo of a Chuck Norris film - by heroic effort, the good guys find and kill a bad guy. How you feel about that is something Bigelow leaves you to decide. Also Out The Last Stand The Alamo? Try the Arniemo. Lincoln Aka The Spielberg Address. Hollow If you go down to haunted woods... The King Of Pigs Brutal, brilliant Korean anime. 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.

The Campaign The Campaign gets by on its stars' comic compatibility and a relentless stream of jokes, many of which are laugh-out-loud funny. The only real downer is the ending, which feels tacked on like a hanging chad. Also Out Now Is Good Dying Young II: Die Younger. Django The Man With A Name. The Sweeney You're Nick(ed) Love.

Win A Good Day To Die Hard Premiere Tickets And Merch Vote Yes For Freebies! Click here to enter Win A Signed McCullin Poster And Blu-rays Click here to enter Win Chained On Blu-ray 5 Copies Up For Grabs! Click here to enter Win Holy Motors On Blu-ray! Out to own on January 28. Click here to enter

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