 |  May the Force, and Fourth, be with you! Just ahead of this weekend's pun-tastic date came the first piece of concrete Star Wars news we've had in a sarlaac's age. There have been rumours, speculation and honest-guv revelations from some bloke down the pub, but all that is over now: the principal cast for Star Wars: Episode VII have been announced , and it's an eclectic, high-quality line-up that has taken our anticipation up a further few levels into the stratosphere. We profiled all the newcomers, which should be helpful for anyone wondering who Daisy Ridley is, so head on over and indulge in some wild speculation about who they might all play - we certainly will be. Who's Sith? Who'll be Jedi? Who will prefer a good blaster by their side? Also this week, we publish our interviews with the cast of Cool Runnings, looking back on the cult comedy favourite. In addition to some great republished magazine features (our Al Pacino Gods Among Us piece, for instance), a look back at British sitcoms inspired by the news of a Dad's Army film and a whole lot more, you have plenty to keep you going for the entire Bank Holiday weekend even if (or when, inevitably) it rains. Helen O'Hara
Deputy Online Editor, Empire
 
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  New International Godzilla Trailer
There are those of you out there keen to see as little of Godzilla as possible in the run-up to release, particularly in the case of the monster himself (even Empire's awesome cover was accused by some of being a spoiler). That being the case, think carefully about whether you want to watch this latest trailer. Where previous promos have been all about building the dread and keeping the threat as offscreen as possible, this one's all-out war, with new footage offering glimpses of what look like significant action sequences. It only lasts a minute and a half, but still, we warned ya. More: Check Out A Star Wars Rebels Teaser Trailer Get a taste of what we're in for with the new Disney XD TV show. New Trailer For Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Now with added Turtle power. New Trailer For Jemaine Clement's What We Do In The Shadows 'Vampire meeting!' New Clip From Benny & Jolene Clark Gregg is an agent... but not Coulson. First Trailer For As Above, So Below A new look at the British comedy. First Featurette For The Water Diviner AKA Russell Crowe's directorial debut. First Trailer For They Came Together Check out David Wain's new rom-com spoof. New Trailers For Love, Rosie And his & hers prophylactic posters, to boot. New Promo For The Fault In Our Stars Sugar-free sad story time. Full Trailer For The Leftovers HBO's new Damon Lindelof drama. First Trailer For Richard Linklater's Boyhood Two minutes, 12 years in the making.
  A classy selection of Anchorman: The Legend Continues goodies to mark the film's home entertainment release. If only this place smelled of rich mahogany, we'd be fully Burgundy'ed.
 Phil, can we go to this pre-Cannes lunch? It sounds fun! Oh, it's in Cannes.  Ally realises the fatal flaw in her socialising plans.
Cheat Sheet - Meet The Cast Of Star Wars: Episode VII
After what seems like eons of waiting and wading through rumours, speculation, wish lists, open casting calls and more, we finally have a confirmed list of people who will be headed to that galaxy far, far away for J. J. Abrams' Star Wars: Episode VII. You likely already know who Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Anthony Daniels, Kenny Baker and Peter Mayhew are (Luke, Han, Leia, C-3PO, R2-D2 and Chewbacca respectively), but what of the new arrivals? Here's our guide... | |
|  | | The Empire Podcast #109
Game Of Thrones' very own Arya Stark, Maisie Williams, dropped by the Empire Podcast studio this week to talk about 'The Cinnamon Challenge', that Vine she made for The Red Wedding and how Charles Dance introduces himself. Then there's Domhnall Gleeson, here in honour of Frank (out next week), who happily chats about... well, you're best off finding out for yourself. |
|  | | Classic British Sitcoms: Would They Make Good Movies?
With the announcement that a feature-length Dad's Army reboot may actually be going ahead, Empire got to reminiscing about some of the other '70s British sitcoms gathering dust. In fact, a lot of them got a big-screen makeover back when they were on TV. Do they hold up today? In some cases! And would any of them benefit from being polished, re-cast, and dragged into cinemas? Perhaps! Read on for a trip down memory lane - or, for non-Brits, a whistlestop tour of some of our greatest cultural exports since Shakespeare. |
|  | | RZA Talks Brick Mansions
RZA has long been a hip hop legend for his work with the Wu-Tang Clan and others, but in the past few years he's broadened his scope and worked in filmmaking as well. After directing his own film, The Man With The Iron Fists, he's playing the bad guy in Brick Mansions, the remake of French hit District B13. We talked to him recently about returning to acting after his experience of directing and whether he'll produce a tie-in cookbook... |
|  | | A Brief History Of Roald Dahl On Film
Plenty of Dahl's finest children's stories are yet to make it to the big screen - notably The Twits, Esio Trot, George's Marvellous Medicine and The Giraffe And The Pelly And Me - but it's The BFG that Steven Spielberg has chosen as his next directorial gig . He'll be walking in the rather large footsteps of 1989's animated TV movie, and will have to cast someone at least as impressive as Helen Mirren to play The Queen, as well as finding the perfect amiable colossus. But Dahl's tales have long been an inspiration for Hollywood, his dark children's stories producing feature length films both good and bad. Here is the compendium of what's been made so far... |
|  | | Kit Harington Takes Empire's IMDbunker Quiz
His Game Of Thrones character may be famed for knowing nothing, but the real-life Jon Snow is pretty on the button with his internet trivia (except when it comes to his supposed royal lineage, mind). So to discover whether Empire once had a fight with Kit Harington in Charing Cross McDonald's, click play below, and afterwards check out his Pompeii co-star Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje talking about his many and varied on-screen deaths. |
|  | | Classic Feature: Gods Among Us - Al Pacino
The movie is Heat. In a dingy office suite somewhere in Vegas, Detective Vincent Hanna makes his entrance by banging the door open with the palms of his hands. He's found his stool-pigeon, in the slick, sleazy shape of Alan Marciano, who's been dipping his wick in a suspect's wife. In ten seconds flat he's browbeaten the cocky SOB into submission, pinning him to the desk and booming his lines as if he's stashed a Marshall stack in his suit pocket. Marciano isn't just cowed, he looks on the verge of blubbing like a baby. Hanna grins, sending deranged ripples across a face so furrowed with character it seems to have experienced a period of glacial erosion: "Ferocious, aren't I?" |
|  | | Long Walk To Wherever: Cinema's Most Epic Journeys
Mia Wasikowska heads into the Australian desert for a true-life walking story in this week's Tracks, so we thought we'd kick off a quest to look at some of the other long journeys that have inspired cinema, whether it was critters trying to get home or hobbits trying to visit a volcano. You may need blister ointment after reading, and do remember to hydrate. |
|  | | Win A Film Download, Takeaway Every Sunday With Fox Searchlight!
Throughout 2014, Empire will be giving readers the chance to win a Digital HD copy of a Fox Searchlight film, plus a £25 hungryhouse.co.uk voucher to order their favourite takeaway online. Just head to Twitter each Sunday (make sure you're following @empiremagazine ) and answer the quiz question posed, tagging your tweet with #SearchlightSundays. In addition, there will be a chance to win flights to Utah and hotel accommodation during the 2015 Sundance Film Festival! Click here for full details |
|  | | How Edible Cinema Finally Allows You To Eat A Movie
There are a few moviegoing "experiences" out there - some requiring you to dress up, others involving a jacuzzi - but I don't think I'll keep any of their literature in my memory drawer. Here's a scan of my lovingly crumpled menu from Edible Cinema's Trading Places screening from back in December 2013, which I bring up now because a new Edible Cinema event is coming up soon, and it's important you know about it. |
|  | | Where Are They Now: Cool Runnings Special
Inspired by Jamaica's bobsledding team making a welcome return to the Winter Olympics this year, Empire got in touch with all four of Cool Runnings' stars to see what they've been up to in the two decades since the family favourite sports comedy first hit cinemas. The resulting interviews were so entertaining, they have leapt out of the 299th issue of Empire and now appear online in super-sized forms. Here is Sanka Coffie, Doug E. Doug, and for the others, click the appropriate link below. |
|  | | Kellan Lutz Talks Tarzan 3D
With Hercules, Tarzan and a place in The Expendables 3 under his belt, Kellan Lutz is a man making a career of muscles. Empire sat down with him last week to talk through his latest conquest, the motion-capture animation Tarzan, about how it felt to let loose his inner-Gorilla. Safe among the fronds across from his new-found brethren, Lutz talked apes, He-Man and which of The Expendables he could take in a fist fight... |
|  | | From The Archive: Bob Hoskins Q&A
This week, the film world was shocked by the sad news that Bob Hoskins had passed away . Having retired from acting in 2012 following a diagnosis of Parkinson's, Hoskins left behind an impressive and much loved body of work. He was an actor enormously in demand, working for the likes of Spielberg, Coppola, Gilliam and Zemeckis. He was nominated for an Oscar for Mona Lisa back in 1986, and two years later took on his most famous role as the lead human in Who Framed Roger Rabbit?. Back in 2002, Hoskins sat down for a Public Access Q&A with Empire. Having conquered Hollywood, the Gangster No. 1 found the time to answer readers' questions about plumbing, Herman Munster and pink tutus... |
|  | | The Dad's Army Movie: Our Dream Recruits
Move over The Expendables and Frank Moses's Red cohorts because an even more elite venerable unit is assembling in the centre of Walmington-on-Sea . If you can find them (try the church hall) and they've taken their meds, maybe you can hire... Dad's Army. Yes, according to the latest wireless communiques, the BBC sitcom, an 18 million-viewer phenomenon over 80 episodes and a bajillion reruns since the late '60s, is returning for another big screen spin-off. So far, Toby Jones and Bill Nighy have reportedly been conscripted to play blustering martinet Captain Mainwaring and his laconic adjutant Sergeant Wilson respectively. But who should fill the boots of Pike, Jones, Frazer and the other members of the Hitler-defying platoon? We've pointed our bendy arrows at the following corners of IMDb. Don't even thank us. |
|  | | Empire Presents the New York Film Academy
New York Film Academy has built a reputation as one of the premier film schools in the world. With its innovative hands-on approach to teaching, students find themselves completely immersed in their course of study, surrounded by award-winning faculty and working with state-of-the-art equipment and facilities. Learn Filmmaking, Acting for Film, Photography, Musical Theatre, Game Design, Animation and more. |
 
Jean-Pierre Jeunet keeps mementos from all his films, even unmade ones like Life Of Pi. 
Kit Harington visited the Royal Academy last weekend. 
The golden idol from the start of Raiders Of The Lost Ark was originally designed with moving eyes to follow Indy around the room. 
Lupita Nyong'o is a massive Game Of Thrones fan. 
Charles Dance likes his friends to call him "Charlie". We recommend asking permission first if you are not a close friend.
 |  | |  | |  | |  |  | | Cuties of University Challenge? Sure, OK. | | Flaws only a protagonist can have. | | Gorgeous stop-motion / CG film. | | Dumb And Dumber: The Epic Drama. |
If you have any timewasters to share, then e-mail them in to us. |
 
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