Exclusive new look at Martin Scorsese's Silence

Thirty years in the making, Martin Scorsese's latest film Silence has been getting rave reviews all over the place – including your friendly neighbourhood Empire. Our reviewer described it as "beautifully made, staggeringly ambitious and utterly compelling". We've now managed to get our hands on some world exclusive stills.

Set in the seventeenth century, Silence follows two Jesuit missionaries (played by Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver) who attempt to find an older priest (played by Liam Neeson) accused of abandoning his faith.

Silence arrives in the US on limited release from 23 December, before a wider release in both the UK and US from 1 January 2017.

• Watch the first trailer for Silence..
• First look image at Liam Neeson in Silence.
• Listen to Liam Neeson on the Empire Podcast.

Actress Debbie Reynolds Dies, Aged 84

Born Mary Francis Reynolds in 1932, she was raised in Texas, and moved to Burbank, California with her family when she was 16. After winning the Miss Burbank beauty contest she soon found herself with a screen contract at the nearby Warner Brothers studio, and it was the mogul Jack Warner who re-christened her with the stage-name Debbie. Her first film role was an uncredited walk-on in 1948's June Bride, and her first speaking role was in The Daughter Of Rosie O'Grady two years later.

Throughout the rest of the 1950s she was a staple player in Hollywood musicals like Two Weeks With Love and Tammy And The Bachelor (with Leslie Neilsen), both of which gave her hit records (Reynolds was the best-selling recording artist in the US in 1957). Greatest of them all, of course, was 1952's Singin' In The Rain, in which she played the ingenue with the wonderful voice, who wows the film industry just as it's panicking about the arrival of talking pictures, and wins the heart of Gene Kelly.

Her roles afterwards tended to be variations on that plucky innocent in films like The Affairs of Dobie Gillis (1953), Susan Slept Here (1954), Bundle of Joy (1956), The Catered Affair (1956) and How The West Was Won (1962). Occasional attempts to cast her against type, like The Rat Race (1960, with Tony Curtis) and Divorce American Style (1967, with Dick Van Dyke) were less successful, although she received an Oscar nomination for the bumptious title role in the unlikely Titanic-based musical The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964).

As the film roles began to dry up towards the end of the 1960s, she moved more towards television and the stage. She revived the musical Irene on Broadway in 1973 (giving her daughter Carrie her stage debut into the bargain), and followed it with the self-titled revue Debbie and the Western musical Annie Get Your Gun in subsequent years. There was also a US stage tour of The Unsinkable Molly Brown in 1989. As recently as 2008 she played Irene again in Australia, and had another one-woman show, Debbie Reynolds: Alive And Fabulous in London's West End in 2010.

Her TV work, meanwhile, included the short-lived NBC sit-com The Debbie Reynolds Show from 1969-70, which Reynolds herself pulled the plug on in a row with the network over cigarette advertising. She made appearances in Perry Mason, Roseanne and The Golden Girls, and won an Emmy for her recurring role as Grace's mother Bobbie on the sit-com Will & Grace.

Away from the spotlight she at various points owned a dance studio, a hotel and casino, and wrote a column for tabloid Globe. She was also an enthusiastic collector of movie memorabilia, for a time even operating museums in LA and Las Vegas.

She married three times: to singer Eddie Fisher in 1955; to businessman Harry Karl in 1960; and to real estate developer Richard Hamlett in 1984. Her two children were Todd and Carrie Fisher, and her fractious relationship with Carrie formed part of the basis of the latter's Postcards From The Edge. Shirley MacLaine played the fictionalised Reynolds in the 1990 film version.

Todd Fisher released a statement yesterday, saying "The last thing [Debbie] said this morning was that she was very, very sad about losing Carrie and that she would like to be with her again."

First trailer for Alien: Covenant brings some festive chills

Ho-ho-ho! Arriving on Christmas morn, frosty and bleak, the first trailer for Ridley Scott's Alien: Covenant arrived today as a surprise Christmas present. And it's likely to be the most terrifying Christmas present in your stocking today – even moreso than the Boots voucher you got from your aunt that you can't exchange because she forgot the receipt. Watch the trailer here. First look at Katherine Waterston in Alien: Covenant Danny McBride talks Alien: Covenant Noomi Rapace will star in Alien: Covenant after all

Alien: Covenant finds director Ridley Scott heading back to the Alien universe after Prometheus, and following a colony ship called the Covenant headed for a remote planet, a place that the crew initially thinks is an uncharted paradise but turns out to be dark and full of terrors. And the only inhabitant is synthetic life form David (Michael Fassbender), who claims to be the lone survivor of the Prometheus mission.

Katherine Waterston, Demián Bichir, Amy Seimetz, Carmen Ejogo, Callie Hernandez, Billy Crudup and Danny McBride make up the ship's crew, and it appears we'll catch up with Noomi Rapace's Dr. Elizabeth Shaw. Plus we'll be getting a double dose of Fassbender, as he's also playing another synthetic, this one named Walter.

Be sure to pick up a copy of the new Empire, on sale from December 29, for more on Alien: Covenant, including this exclusive image at Katherine Waterston. Alien: Covenant, meanwhile, arrives in May next year. Merry Christmas, everybody!

New trailer for Alice Lowe's Prevenge

As is becoming traditional for the season, we've seen plenty of blockbuster trailers over the last week or so. But a quality British microbudget indie is always welcome too, and with that, here's the first promo for Alice Lowe's psychological horror comedy Prevenge.

Lowe wrote, directed and stars in Prevenge. She shot it around this time last year, when she was genuinely heavily pregnant (that baby bump you see in the trailer is real). Somewhat disturbingly, what she came up with is a violent black comedy about a rage-fuelled pregnant woman with a kill list. She believes her unborn baby is prompting her to murder – and perhaps it really is.

"You’re basically working out why this woman’s doing what she’s doing and killing these particular people," Lowe told Empire. "It’s a sort of psychedelic Jekyll & Hyde mystery where Hyde is an unborn baby..."

Jo Hartley, Tom Davis, Dan Renton Skinner, Tom Meeten, Eilieen Davis, Mike Wozniak, Kate Dickie, Kayvan Novak and Gemma Whelan are among the rest of the cast, and Prevenge is out in the UK in February.

• Sightseers' Alice Lowe prepares for Prevenge

New trailer for historical adventure The Lost City Of Z

Not to be confused with the lost city of Zinj that Tim Curry discovered, The Lost City Of Z is the upcoming true-life historical adventure by director James Gray. Gray also wrote the adaptation of David Grann's book, and the film stars Charlie Hunnam, Robert Pattinson, Edward Ashley, Sienna Miller and Tom Holland. Check out the latest trailer below.

Hunnam plays Percy Fawcett, who headed into the Amazon on a mapping quest in 1925. There, suffering from a nasty case of malaria, he claimed to have discovered a mythical city he called the Lost City of Z. When his adventurer peers roundly mocked the idea as a fantasy or fraud, Fawcett gathered up his son and one other companion and headed back into the jungle to prove his point. And that’s the last anyone saw of all three...

Ashley is Arthur Manley, a young corporal who accompanied Fawcett on his apparantly doomed expedition. Pattinson is Henry Costin, another bored corporal who answered Fawcett's advertisement. Holland is Fawcett's son Jack. And Miller is Fawcett's wife Nina.

The Lost City Of Z is out in the spring, and you can read much more about it in the next issue of Empire.

Empire Issue Preview: T2 Trainspotting, John Wick 2, 2017 Preview

And the reasons? There are no reasons. Who needs reasons when you've got Empire?

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T2 Trainspotting

Taking centre stage on our four covers and that explosively colourful subscriber-only cover is Danny Boyle’s hugely-anticipated follow-up to the classic ‘90s Brit hit. Empire was on set to witness toilet antics and fisticuffs – and interview all the key cast and crew to see if they still have a lust for life.

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The big 2017 preview

It’s time we showed 2016 the exit and tell it to close the door behind it. This issue, we beckon 2017 in with open arms, and our outrageously massive 18-page (!) annual preview includes exclusive looks at the likes of (deep breath) Kong: Skull Island, Fast & Furious 8, Alien: Covenant, Logan, Dunkirk, Wonder Woman, War For The Planet Of The Apes, Mute, and many many more.

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John Wick Chapter 2

People keep asking Keanu Reeves if he’s back...yeah, he’s thinking he’s back. Empire pops along to the set of John Wick: Chapter 2 and attempts not to get in the way of a thousand bullets flying every which way. We also learn that Wick will kill “more people than the bubonic plague”.

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A Monster Calls

Liam Neeson plays a Treebeard-on-steroids-esque monster in epic new tear-jerking fantasy A Monster Calls – and we have some exclusive early concept art of the monster, from original illustrations for the Patrick Ness novel to VFX designs. Plus, an unforgettable photo of Neeson in some very fetching mo-cap pyjamas.

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Preview: A Cure For Wellness

Gore Verbinski’s art-deco creeper A Cure For Wellness leads up the front section of the mag this month, which also has exclusive sneak-peeks of The Lost City Of Z, Certain Women, Ghost In The Shell, and some little indie series called Star Wars which has a new movie about some guy called Han Solo. No idea what that’s about.

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On Screen: Manchester By The Sea

The Oscar-tipped Manchester By The Sea leads up our reviews section, which also includes trusty Empire critiques on films like Silence, La La Land and A Monster Calls; TV shows like The Man In The High Castle and Sherlock; and games like The Last Guardian and Dead Rising 4.

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Empire Interview: Viola Davis

Annalise Keating in How To Get Away With Murder; Aibileen Clark in The Help; Amanda Waller in Suicide Squad; and now Rose Maxon in the awards-likely Fences. The queen-like Viola Davis is the subject of our big interview this month.

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Re.View: Brotherhood

Noel Clarke’s Brotherhood gets the Viewing Guide treatment this month, leading up a bumper Re.View section that includes looks back on Kubo And The Two Strings, Hell Or High Water, Akira, Jerry Maguire, and The Seven Year Itch.

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Edgar Wright interviews Walter Hill

In a previous issue, we had Christopher McQuarrie quiz William Friedkin on The French Connection. This issue, we have Edgar Wright (director of the upcoming Baby Driver) interview Walter Hill (director of The Driver), the latest in our loose series of director-on-director profiles.

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All that, and a substantial amount more, can be found in the shiny new issue of Empire, arriving in all good and evil newsagents from December 29. You can buy the issue online here. Want to get exclusive subscriber-only covers delivered days before everyone else? You’ll want to subscribe to Empire.

Denis Villeneuve in talks to direct Dune

Paramount were trying to get a new Dune off the ground for years, with names like Peter Berg and Pierre Morel attached before moving on again. Paramount's Dune rights lapsed in 2011, and Legendary were finally confirmed as the new kids on the Arrakis block last month. Their deal with the Frank Herbert estate allows the development of both movie ideas and TV shows based on the struggles of the Atreides family and the war for control of the desert planet Arrakis, home to both a valuable "Spice" that allows interstellar travel and deadly sandworms.

Dune is, of course, the novel that defeated both David Lynch and Alejandro Jodorowsky. And that's just the first novel in a series of six. The Sci-Fi Channel went a bit further with a pair of mini-series a decade or so ago (green-screen CGI affairs that were fine at the time but dated horribly in about five minutes). But giving the dense, philosophical nature of Dune any sort of blockbuster franchise treatment is going to present a challenge...

Still, on the evidence of his previous work like Arrival, Incendies, Enemy and Sicario and what we've seen so far of Blade Runner 2049, if anyone's up to that challenge it's Villeneuve. Early days yet though, with no signatures on any dotted lines at this point. Watch this space.

Blade Runner 2049 is out in October, 2017.

The Joker is the focus of a new Lego Batman Movie TV spot

So far, the trailers for The Lego Batman Movie have, somewhat naturally, focused on the plastic version of the Caped Crusader, as voiced by Will Arnett. This latest TV spot still has plenty of Bat-action, but shifts the spotlight a little to Zach Galifianakis' Joker. Check it out... See the latest Lego Batman trailer Director Chris McKay's trailer breakdown Watch the first trailer The Lego Batman Movie: First glimpse of The Joker and Robin

Turns out, this Joker is a little less self-confident than some of his cinematic predecessors. He's not happy to learn that Batman is "fighting other people" and doesn't consider the Clown Prince of Crime to be his primary villain. So what does the Joker do? Gathers a whole posse of baddies together to threaten our hero. And yes, that includes Condiment King. Who is really real, honest.

And from the looks of it, he's able to invade the Batcave, proceeding to, er, rub his arse on the various Bat-vehicles. Charming.

There's plenty from the likes of Barbara Gordon (Rosario Dawson), Robin (Michael Cera) and Alfred (Ralph Fiennes) to be found in the latest look at what is shaping up to be one of 2017's most entertainingly mad films. The Lego Batman Movie arrives on 10 February.

Gru gets into a dance fight in the first Despicable Me 3 trailer

Despicable Me, its sequel and spin-off Minions have all been huge box offices surprises, so no one should be shocked that a third outing for Gru (voiced as ever by Steve Carell) and the little yellow troublemakers is on the way. The first trailer for the new movie has arrived, so dance battle your way to the screen and watch it below. Chris Meledandri talks Despicable Me 3 and more Read Empire's Despicable Me review Our review of Despicable Me 2

While not much of the plot is revealed in this first look, we do know that it'll see Gru and wife Lucy (Kristen Wiig) still working for the Anti Villain League. And this time, the threat comes from weird supervillain Balthazar Bratt (Trey Parker), a former child star gone rogue who is obsessed with the 1980s, when his fame was at its peak. Cue a lot of '80s references, which seems fitting in our nostalgia-loving times.

Not featured (though they are referenced) are Gru's kids, Margo, Edith and Agnes, but the trailer naturally finds room for some Minions.

With Pierre Coffin, Kyle Balda and Eric Guillon on directing duty, Despicable Me 3 is set for release on 30 June.

David Ayer directing Margot Robbie's Gotham City Sirens

Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn will be the focus of a spin-off Christina Hodson writing Harley Quinn film Sebastian Stan joins I, Tonya

The project has been in the works for a while, spearheaded partly by Robbie, who became interested in Harley's backstory and the comics in general as she did her research to play Quinn in Squad.

While Christina Hodson had been writing the script, The Hollywood Reporter's update on the project has Geneva Robertson-Dworet now taking it over, and adapting Paul Dini and Guillem March's Sirens comic book, which featured characters such as Catwoman, Poison Ivy and others, with the main trio forming a team.

While there is a Suicide Squad follow-up and other potential spin-offs in development, the Quinn and co. film appears to be the one with the most traction. So Ayer will start developing it once he finishes up Bright for Netflix.

The Lost Boys: Empire presents a special screening at Glasgow Film Festival

If you ever wanted to feel old, you could be reminded of the fact that The Lost Boys celebrates its 30th anniversary in 2017. Ageing might not be an issue for vampires, but for us mere mortals, Glasgow Film Festival – in association with Empire – are marking the occasion by putting on a special screening of Joel Schumacher’s horror-comedy cult classic.

Having previously hosted a “secret location” screening of Con Air in an airplane hangar, this special one-off screening will bus audiences to an unknown location of particular relevance to the film. Vampire fangs will be provided – but patrons are advised to bring their own garlic.

“We are excited about this year's special events programme, and thrilled to be able to announce these events in advance,” says Allison Gardner, co-director of Glasgow Film Festival. “We can honestly say that GFF is continuing to create unique cinemas events around some of our audiences best-loved films in terms of events venues, content and reach.”

The Lost Boys special screening takes place on 17 Feburary, with the first bus departing from Glasgow Film Theatre at 6.10pm. More details and tickets (on sale now) can be found on the Glasgow Film Festival website.

First poster for Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk

The first teaser – though it was really more of a tone piece than actually exploring the movie – for Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk arrived back in August. Since then, the promotional guns have fallen silent, but the poster has now arrived for your staring needs. Watch the Dunkirk teaser Mark Rylance talks Dunkirk Cillian Murphy enlists for Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk

Dunkirk is set at a precarious time for the allied forces in the conflict: with hundreds of thousands of troops surrounded on the continent by enemy forces, their backs to the sea, they're faced with a seemingly impossible situation as their foes close in. But that's not the end of the story...

Yes, while the poster utilises one of the most common tropes of recent times – character with their backs to us stares out at something – it's still a striking image.

Nolan's cast for this one includes a blend of veterans and new recruits, including Tom Hardy, Cillian Murphy, Kenneth Branagh and Mark Rylance. The movie itself arrives on 21 July next year, but audiences going to see Rogue One in IMAX will also watch a seven-minute prologue of Dunkirk shot in IMAX 65mm. And we'd be surprised if the first full trailer didn't show its face sometime in the coming days.

Brit Marling brings mystery series The OA to Netflix

Though the series was announced last year, filmmakers Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij have been working under the radar on their new project for Netflix, The OA. With the show set to debut on the streaming service this Friday, the trailer has arrived, but is likely to spark more questions than answers... Empire's review of The East Read the review of Sound Of My Voice

Yes, beating the likes of J.J. Abrams at their own mysterious game, the duo behind films such as The East and Sound Of My Voice are keeping most of the details about The OA quiet for now.

What we do know is that Marling (who co-created the show and is one of the executive producers), stars as Prairie Johnson, who is returned to her family seven years after she was kidnapped. Thing is, when she was taken, Prairie was blind, and is now able to see perfectly. And some very strange things happened while she was away, even if Prairie is refusing to talk about it.

Batmanglij directed all eight episodes of the first run, which also features Emory Cohen, Alice Krige, Phyllis Smith and Jason Isaacs. The mystery continues with the show's puzzling, creative Instagram feed.

First poster for The Book Of Henry

The Book Of Henry finds director Colin Trevorrow swapping the big scale and dino-action of Jurassic World for something more akin to his breakout movie, Safety Not Guaranteed. The first poster for the movie has arrived, and can seen below. Get a first look at The Book Of Henry Colin Trevorrow to direct The Book Of Henry Naomi Watts starring in The Book Of Henry

The movie finds Room's Jacob Tremblay as Peter Carpenter, younger brother to the titular genius, Henry (Jaeden Lieberher). When the boys learn that their neighbour – Henry's crush object – Christina (Maddie Ziegler), is being harmed by her father Glenn (Dean Norris), Henry writes up a plan to rescue her. But he'll need a little help...

This one has had to wait to finds its way to the screen, with writer Gregg Hurwitz first trying to sell the script back in 1998, and Trevorrow didn't get involved until just before he was hired to make his dino-adventure.

The Book Of Henry will be out in the US via Focus Features on 16 June, but the UK release has yet to be announced.

John Rogers will run the Kingkiller Chronicle TV series

Lionsgate adapting The Kingkiller Chronicle for movies and more Lin-Manuel Miranda to help adapt The Kingkiller Chronicle John Rogers creating Magnum PI sequel series

Rothfuss’ series, which kicked off in 2007, includes an anchor trilogy (with the third book still to come) and three novellas set in the same world. The focus is told in three time streams: the present, in which the protagonist, Kvothe, is dictating his life’s story to a historian of sorts; the past, a first-person account of Kvothe’s life, and lastly, in chronologically cloudy parables and stories peppered throughout the books.

Right now, the plan is to kick off with the first movie and any subsequent films adapting the main novels, with the TV series filling out the wider world. And we'd expect there to be some crossover, in the way that Marvel has its movies and TV ventures set in the same universe. That doesn't always work as successfully as it might, but with Rothfuss and Miranda also having input into the TV version, hopefully the links will be stronger.

Rogers is a veteran of shows such as The Librarians and Leverage and feels like the right person to not only adapt the series but work well alongside the others. He's also currently developing a new take on Magnum P.I., but will focus on that as the Kingkiller series develops in the background.

The Transformers: The Last Knight poster wants you to rethink your heroes

Leaving aside the obvious joke of "you're supposed to THINK while watching a Transformers movie?", the new poster for the latest entry, The Last Knight clearly wants us to reconsider Optimus Prime, which goes along with the hints he might not be as heroic this time as seen in the first trailer. Watch the trailer See behind the scenes of The Last Knight Liam Garrigan is The Last Knight's King Arthur

But because this is a Michael Bay film, there are lots of the usual elements – stuff crashing, other things on fire, huge structures in trouble. Quite what it all means will have to wait, but it does appear that time travel is involved and that Optimus will once again be wielding a bloomin' great sword.

For Last Knight, we have the usual assortment of Autobots and Decepticons (and is that Unicron in the trailer?), plus the human likes of Mark Wahlberg, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson, Stanley Tucci, Isabela Moner and Anthony Hopkins. Who you think would know better to hang around intelligent robots after his recent TV gig...

Transformers: The Last Knight arrives on 23 June next year, and don't forget there are plenty more raging robot movies in development from this universe...

Ruben Fleischer to direct Chris Evans in Jekyll

Chris Evans wanted as Lionsgate's Jekyll Russell Crowe to join Tom Cruise in The Mummy

This take is based on Steven Moffat's 2007 BBC series, which didn't go for the basic Jekyll and Hyde story, but rather took the form of a sequel. Anthony Bagarozzi and Charles Mondry are at work on a script that would focus on Tom Jackman, a modern-day descendent of Jekyll who has inherited his condition through genetics. So he sets up a secure basement in which he can be stepped into a chair and monitored by a nurse as he changes. The Mr. Hyde in this case has enhanced strength and a raging personality that can also be a charming devil. Neither man remembers what the other one does while inhabiting Jackman's body, and they communicate using recordings. Of course, Hyde manages to get out one night and goes in search of Jackman's family...

Evans' name was touted in July, and while he's still involved, he has a busy schedule coming up. And Fleischer is also developing the Zombieland sequel, which according to Deadline is still tied up with negotiating deals for a cast (including Emma Stone and Jesse Eisenberg) that is considerably pricier since the 2009 original came out. But he'll work with Bagarozzi and Mondry on the script and we'll wait to see which movie gets moving first. Universal, meanwhile, has Russell Crowe kicking off a stint as the character(s) in The Mummy, due here on 9 June before a planned stand-alone.

Pitch Perfect 3 adds Ruby Rose

Anna Kendrick and Rebel Wilson back for Pitch Perfect 3 Trish Sie to direct Pitch Perfect 3 Anna Camp returning for Pitch Perfect 3

Director Trish Sie is taking over the baton from Elizabeth Banks (who will return to produce and play commentator Gail), but the film's story, as written by Kay Cannon, Mike White and Dana Fox is still shrouded in mystery. Still, it'll need to find a way to bring back Beca and the rest, since they graduated at the end of the second movie.

The movie is gearing up to shoot ready for a planned December release date next year. 2017 will be a packed one for Rose, as she's in xXx: Return Of Xander Cage (19 January), Resident Evil: The Final Chapter (3 February) and John Wick: Chapter Two (17 February). Plus she's part of the cast of giant shark thriller Meg, which will swim in during 2018.

Ben Mendelsohn will be Robin Hood: Origins' Sheriff of Nottingham

Lionsgate developing Robin Hood: Origins Jamie Foxx is playing Little John in Robin Hood: Origins Read Empire's Rogue One review

Taron Egerton is Robin in the new movie, leading a cast that so far includes Jamie Foxx as Little John, Eve Hewson as Maid Marian and Jamie Dornan as Will Scarlett.

With Otto Bathurst in the director's chair and Joby Harold on script duty, the new movie is being touted as a dark and gritty take on the oft-adapted legend, though it'll include familiar elements such as the main man as a Crusades veteran who takes up arms against corrupt English lords. And the Sheriff is the man he has to defeat. "There’s no singing and riding through the glen in this; it’s a real war movie," Egerton told Collider recently. "Quite an anti-establishment war movie, I would say... It’s dark. And Robin’s not perfect in it, either, which is what I like about it. He’s not a classic hero, he makes mistakes."

Mendelsohn faces a challenge in defining a Sheriff after Alan Rickman set the screen on fire back in 1991's Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves. Origins will be on our screens in 2018. Rogue One, meanwhile arrives in the UK on Thursday.

Katherine Heigl hates Rosario Dawson in the Unforgettable trailer

The "former lover loathes and stalks their ex's new partner" can be a tricky genre to pull off: a few twists and turns one way and you've a silly, straight-to-video cheesefest. Katherine Heigl and Rosario Dawson will be hoping to avoid that fate for Unforgettable, which has put its first trailer online. Kerry Washington set for Amma Asante's Unforgettable Rosario Dawson on for Unforgettable

Unforgettable finds producer Denise Di Novi slipping into the director's chair for the first time, and bringing to life the story of Tessa Connover, who is having a tough time of it. Not only has her marriage to David (Geoff Stults) ended, but now she has to contend with him moving on happily to Julia Banks (Dawson). Soon, he's engaged, and living with Julia in the house he once shared with Tessa, alongside their daughter Lilly (Isabella Rice).

Tessa's jealousy curdles into pathological issues, and soon... well, you can probably guess, and the trailer spells it out a little too clearly. The film itself was once going to be an Amma Asante project, but though she got to the casting stage, she's no longer involved. Unforgettable will stalk into UK cinemas on April 21.

The Walking Dead's Sonequa Martin-Green is Star Trek: Discovery's lead

Star Trek: Discovery casts its Klingons Michelle Yeoh confirmed for Star Trek: Discovery Bryan Fuller jumps ship from Discovery

As envisioned by original showrunner Bryan Fuller (who has since stepped aside to focus on other projects), she's purposefully not a captain, as all the Trek stories so far have focused (with the exception of early Deep Space Nine seasons, though Sisko was in command even before he became a captain) on a commanding officer. The rank offers the chance to explore other facets of ship life.

And it's not as if won't be captains around: we already have Michelle Yeoh as Captain Georgiou of fellow Starfleet vessel Shenzhou, plus Doug Jones as Lt. Saru, a Starfleet Science Officer from a previously unseen alien race and Anthony Rapp playing Lt. Stamets, an “astromycologist,” or fungus expert. Outside of the fleet, there are three Klingons: Chris Obi as T’Kuvma, a leader seeking to unite the Klingon houses, Shazad Latif playing Kol, a Klingon Commanding Officer, and protege of T’Kuvma; and Mary Chieffo as L’Rell, the Battle Deck Commander of a Klingon ship.

But before you start assuming that this means Martin-Green's character Sasha will soon be snuffing it in The Walking Dead, Entertainment Weekly's report says that she's continuing to appear on the show, so Sasha should be around for a while. Of course, no one is ever truly safe...

Star Trek: Discovery should be kicking off shooting soon under current bosses Gretchen J. Berg and Aaron Harberts, and should be on screens (via CBS All Access in the States and Netflix in the UK) next May.

Empire Podcast #239: Robert Zemeckis

Robert Zemeckis – the man behind Back To The Future, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Forrest Gump, and this week's romantic wartime thriller Allied – is this week's guest on the Empire Podcast, where we talk about mo-cap, rewriting, the abandoned Yellow Submarine project, and his 30-year collaboration with composer Alan Silvestri.

You can listen to the Empire Podcast via our iTunes page, our SoundCloud page, this RSS feed (please note – we've switched to a new feed) or by pressing play below.

New Fences trailer finds Denzel Washington living with regret

Looking to win over the hearts of award voters and audiences in general, the second trailer for Denzel Washington's adaptation of August Wilson's play Fences has arrived online.

Wilson himself adapted the play, which tackles the story of Troy Maxon (Washington), a Pittsburgh sanitation employee who once dreamed of a baseball career only to be left facing down daily discrimination in a more menial line of work, while grappling with his lost ambitions. Viola Davis, who won a Tony alongside Washington for her performance in the play, is Troy's wife, Rose. She supports her husband, but is painfully aware of what she also gave up.

As well as the actors' stage success, the play took the Tony and Drama Desk Awards for Revival, and from the looks of the footage, we can expect typically powerful performances from the leads and the supporting cast, which includes Russell Hornsby, Jovan Adepo and Mykelti Williamson. Fences will arrive in the UK in February following a Christmas Day release in the US.

First Fences trailer

See Denzel Washington, Viola Davis and more in the first Fences images

Star Trek Discovery: Doug Jones and Anthony Rapp join Michelle Yeoh

While confirming that Michelle Yeoh is indeed a part of Star Trek: Discovery's cast, CBS has also announced that Doug Jones and Anthony Rapp have signed aboard. The series' lead, Number One, is a role that an announcement is expected on shortly.

Jones, not surprisingly given his many creature credits, is playing a member of a previously unseen alien species, Lt. Saru, who serves aboard the starship as a Starfleet science officer. Rapp (A Beautiful Mind), is also a science officer as well as astromycologist and fungus expert (!) named Lt. Stamets. As previously reported, Yeoh will be portraying Captain Han Bo of the U.S.S. Shenzhou.

Every Star Trek series has had its share of growing pains from conception through production, and Discovery is no different. Bryan Fuller had originaly been made showrunner alongside Alex Kurtzman, but recently left the project due to an overwhelming workload that includes Starz' forthcoming adaptation of American Gods. Now guiding the show are Gretchen J. Berg and Aaron Harberts, with a staff that includes Nicholas Meyer, Jesse Alexander and Joe Menosky.

Michelle Yeoh confirmed for Star Trek: Discovery

Star Trek: Discovery — Bryan Fuller jumps ship

10 new Star Trek: Discovery reveals

Moana takes the top spot at the US box office

Read Empire's review of Moana Empire's Allied review Check out our Bad Santa 2 review

That figure means Moana enters the charts as Disney's second-highest opening in the Thanksgiving period, behind just Frozen, and seems likely to have the same longevity – adding in its overseas totals, the movie is sailing towards $100 million after just a few days. With the all-powerful 'toon sweeping into the top spot, Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them had to vacate its throne after just one week, but still earned a healthy $45.1 million across the three-day weekend. And Doctor Strange slipped to third with $13.3 million after four weeks in the charts, but has something of its own to celebrate, becoming Marvel's most successful character introduction movie with more than $600 million worldwide.

Fourth place went to Robert Zemeckis' World War II tale Allied, which didn't manage to perform despite being targeted as something for grownups who didn't want to watch family films or superheroes. The new drama earned $13 million for the three days, and $18 million taking its pre-Thanksgiving release. Fifth was Arrival, as the sci-fi film continued to do well. It's now up to $62.3 million in the States after adding $11.2 million this weekend.

Trolls, hit by the new animated arrival, fell from third to sixth, earning $10.3 million. Family comedy drama Almost Christmas took in $7.6 million. A slightly less charming festive offering landed with a thud, as Bad Santa 2 received coal in its stocking from both critics and audiences, opening on Wednesday and ending up in eighth with $9 million.

Hacksaw Ridge fell to ninth, adding $5.4 million and The Edge Of Seventeen slipped to 10th with $2.9 million. And we have to voyage outside of the top 10 for a moment to report on Warren Beatty's latest, Rules Don't Apply. The comedy drama failed to catch the audience's attention and opened 12th with $2.1 million. It's a sorry end for a film that Beatty has long wanted to make.

Tom Holland to join Daisy Ridley in Chaos Walking

Doug Liman to direct Chaos Walking New screenwriter for Chaos Walking Daisy Ridley starring in Chaos Walking

The film based on A Monster Calls writer Patrick Ness' dystopian novels has been in the works for a while now, going through at least one other director and seeing script drafts from Charlie Kaufman and Money Monster's Jamie Linden.

Ness’ trilogy – The Knife Of Never Letting Go, The Ask And The Answer and Monsters Of Men – finds humankind in a dark future, colonising a distant planet after the Earth has been ruined. When an infection called the Noise strikes, all thoughts become audible and chaos follows.

A corrupt autocrat takes the chance to seize control of the human settlements in order to launch a strike on native alien race the Spackles, blaming them for the infection that's apparently killing human women. Young Todd Hewitt (Holland, assuming he signs on), the only boy in a town solely comprised of men, rebels to stop the oncoming destruction. Going on the run with his dog, he teams up with a mysterious girl (Ridley), who is the source of a precious patch of silence.

With the casting finally falling into place, it would seem that Chaos Walking is finally ready to get moving itself. Holland, of course, is the current Spider-Man, having made his debut in Captain America: Civil War. He'll be back on our screens as the web-slinger in Spider-Man: Homecoming, due on our screens 7 July next year.

Anne Rice working on a Vampire Chronicles TV series

Universal buys Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles Empire's Interview With The Vampire review

This comes after Universal, which picked up the rights to the characters and their stories up for a new planned movies series in 2014, decided to let them lapse. Rice explained the updated situation on her Facebook page. "The theatrical rights to the Vampire Chronicles are once again in my hands, free and clear! As many of you know, Universal Studios and Imagine Entertainment had optioned the series to develop motion pictures from it, and though we had the pleasure of working with many fine people in connection with this plan, it did not work out. It is, more than ever, abundantly clear that television is where the vampires belong.

"I could not be more excited about this! A television series of the highest quality is now my dream for Lestat, Louis, Armand, Marius and the entire tribe. In this the new Golden Age of television, such a series is THE way to let the entire story of the vampires unfold. My son Christopher Rice and I will be developing a pilot script and a detailed outline for an open ended series, faithfully presenting Lestat’s story as it is told in the books, complete with the many situations that readers expect to see. We will likely begin with The Vampire Lestat and move on from there."

Rice and her son are apparently aiming for a Game Of Thrones-style sprawling series that would be a faithful rendering of the series. Rice's latest book Prince Lestat And The Realms Of Atlantis is just the most recent entry in the series, which comprises 13 main books and several spin-offs. The most famous adaptation of her work remains 1994's Interview With The Vampire, starring Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt, though Rice will be hoping that the new series – wherever it ends up – will enjoy the same long-lasting success.

Trust the Force in a new Rogue One trailer

At this point in the build-up to a big movie's release, there have often been so many trailers that you run the risk of seeing most of the film before entering the cinema. Still, despite labelling a previous release as the "final" trailer, a new extended TV spot ad for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story has arrived. Watch the "final" trailer for Rogue One Everything you need to know about Rogue One New exclusive Rogue One imagery

Blending moments we've seen in previous promotional footage (including young Jyn Erso receiving a very Star Wars universe-familiar crystal from her mother) and lots of battle scenes, there are new chances to see Imperial droid K-2SO (brought to robotically sarcastic life by Alan Tudyk) in action, and little interactions between the grown Jyn (Felicity Jones) and the band of heroes gathered to track down the plans to the Death Star.

You can, of course, learn a lot more about the movie in Empire's latest issue, out now in all good and outlying star system newsagents. And Rogue One itself arrives in the UK on 15 December, so there's a little more than two weeks wait now.

Joaquin Phoenix attached to star in a long-gestating Gus Van Sant film

Matthew McConaughey voyaging to The Sea Of Trees Joaquin Phoenix wanted as Jesus for the new Mary Magdalene

The artist's story is one seemingly tailor-made for the biopic treatment: diving into drink and drugs before he turned 18, an alcohol-fueled car accident left him a quadriplegic at 21. He met the challenges of his life and became a cartoonist unafraid to tackle tough subjects such as race and disability – even if meant calls to boycott him. His work was published in the New Yorker, Penthouse and Playboy among others, and he died in 2010.

Callahan published an autobiography, Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far On Foot (named for one of his famous pieces) in 1989 and filmmakers have been trying to make a movie of it since then. Robin Williams was a particular fan, and had been trying to get the film version made for several years, with Van Sant first approached about directing it in the early 2000s. But it never came together. Now, though, Anonymous Content and Iconoclast Films are trying to put the pieces together at last and seems closer than ever. It's not the first time that the actor and director have tried to reunite, though – Phoenix was to play the lead in Van Sant's The Sea Of Trees before dropping out, and given the savage critical and poor commercial reception of that one, he might be happy he never ended up starring.

Michael Huisman heads for The Guernsey Literary And Potato Peel Pie Society

Lily James to star in The Guernsey Literary And Potato Peel Pie Society Kenneth Branagh heads to Guernsey

Adapted by writer/director Don Roos from the 2009 tome with a more recent draft by Tom Bezucha, the film will see James play journalist Juliet Ashton, who wrote magazine columns during World War II. In the aftermath of the conflict, she’s contacted by Channel Islander Dawsey Adams (Huisman), who tells her the intriguing tale of the book society formed to help undercut the Nazi presence on Guernsey. Ashton decides to investigate, starts communicating with Adams and romance blossoms… At least until Adams agrees to a fight with a towering, muscle-laden brute, who promptly crushes his sk... No, that's something else.

There's no sign yet of when the movie will kick off shooting, but Huisman has been keeping himself busy with several new acting gigs, including Janusz Kaminski's American Dream.

Stephen Root is The Man In The High Castle — plus new clip

Stephen Root is portraying the much discussed, but previously unseen, title character in Amazon's The Man In The High Castle. A collector of spools of film showing alternate Earths in which the Nazis and Japanese did not prove victorious in World War II — the opposite to the history unfolding on the show — he's been at the center of, and a motivating force for, a lot of what's been going on.

The "Man" has connections with the growing resistance movement, though his actual role in it hasn't been made clear yet. What is, is that the current government wants those films confiscated before the flames of resistance grow stronger.

Picking up where season one left off, the show's focus is on growing tensions between Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan, and the continuing journeys of the various characters who are dealing with what's happened and using those events to propel them into the future.

The second season of The Man In The High Castle will be available for streaming beginning 16 December.

TV News: Man In The High Castle, Stranger Things, Arrow and more

The Man In The High Castle gets a Season 2 trailer

A Wrinkle In Time's cast announces April 2018 release date

Some movies are content to announce their release dates with a dry press releases loaded down with corporate speak. Not so director Ava DuVernay and the cast and crew busy making A Wrinkle In Time for Disney. They've gone ahead and used the medium of the Mannequin Challenge to confirm an April 2018 slot for the movie. Check it out below.

Using the current interwebs fad to make an announcement feels in keeping with Wrinkle, which has an eclectic cast and source material that plays with space and time. A Wrinkle In Time has Jennifer Lee adapting Madeleine L'Engle's 1962 children's tale, the start of her Time Quartet series of novels. The story follows the Murry family; especially teenager Meg (Storm Reid) and her genius 5-year-old brother Charles Wallace (Deric McCabe), and Meg's classmate Calvin O'Keefe. Their scientist father has gone missing, but after the visit of a mysterious woman called Mrs. Whatsit, they learn that their father's research may have been more successful than they guessed and that he may have travelled in space and time. The kids end up following his footsteps to a planet called Camazotz, ruled by a giant evil brain called The Black Thing.

The likes of Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon, Mindy Kaling, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Chris Pine and Zach Galifianakis help fill out the cast. In the States, at least, we now know the movie will be out on 6 April, 2018, and we'd expect the UK release to be either day and date or close to it.

Zach Galifianakis ready to join A Wrinkle In Time

Ava DuVernay makes history with A Wrinkle In Time

Reese Witherspoon and Mindy Kaling join A Wrinkle In Time

Clint Mansell to score Ghost In The Shell

This is certainly a positive step for a movie that has had go up against complaints about its casting (particularly Scarlett Johansson in a role many thought should be played by an Asian actor) and is paddling upstream against the usual torrent of misgivings about remakes. Mansell is known for haunting, evocative music and is a regular collaborator for some great directors, so we're interested to see what he brings to the tech-noir world of The Major (Johansson) and her fight against a terrorist out to take down Hanka Robotics.

With Pilou Asbæk, Michael Pitt and Takeshi Kitano also in the cast, Ghost In The Shell has taken aim at a 31 March release date next year.

As for Mansell, he recently provided the music for one of the latest Black Mirror episodes and will reunite with Moon director Duncan Jones for Mute.

Here's what you need to know about Ghost In the Shell's history

See the making-of featurette

First look at Scarlett Johansson in Ghost In The Shell

Samuel L Jackson joins Brie Larson's directorial debut Unicorn Store

Jackson is joining Joan Cusack and Bradley Whitford in the movie, which was written by Samantha McIntyre. In addition to making her full-length directorial debut (she's worked on shorts in the past), Larson will play a young woman named Kit whose life issues means she has to move back in with her parents. But then she receives a mysterious invitation to a strange-sounding store that will challenge her ideas about what it means to grow up.

Larson is cranking the cameras now in Los Angeles and the film should be out next year. As for Skull Island, that will arrive on our screens on 10 March next year. Larson has also worked on The Glass Castle, which has yet to lock in a confirmed release date, but she'll be back on our screens in Ben Wheatley's Free Fire, due 31 March.

Brie Larson directing new comedy Unicorn Store

Take a fresh look at Kong: Skull Island's ape in action

Taraji P Henson and more make history in the new Hidden Figures trailer

Space race (and race relations) drama Hidden Figures has been drawing plenty of notice as a potential awards contender. Now the latest trailer for the movie has arrived.

Referring not only to people that the history books have a tendency to sidestep, but also to the many calculations required to send people in space, Hidden Figures chronicles Katherine Johnson (Taraji P. Henson), the brilliant mathematician who worked with Dorothy Vaughn (Octavia Spencer) and Mary Jackson (Janelle Monáe) as some of the main brains behind John Glenn's first trip into space and back in 1962. People remember his being the first American orbit of the Earth, now we'll properly learn who helped get him there. Kevin Costner, meanwhile, is the boss of the space programme.

Ted Melfi's the director here, with writer Allison Schroeder adapting Margot Lee Shetterly's book Hidden Figures: The Story Of The African-American Women Who Helped Win The Space Race. Kirsten Dunst, Mahershala Ali and Jim Parsons (hold the Big Bang Theory jokes, please) are also all in the cast. The film will land in UK cinemas on 24 February.

Exclusive image from Hidden Figures

Janelle Monáe joins Hidden Figures

Watch the previous trailer for Hidden Figures

Gavin O'Connor making a new Green Hornet movie

Deadline reports that Paramount and Chernin Entertainment have bought up the rights to the character now that Sony has let them go. And O'Connor is aboard to realise a long-held dream to bring Reid and sidekick Kato to life in a movie that sounds more akin to Batman Begins than Rogen's laugh-grabbing attempt.

"I’ve been wanting to make this movie – and create this franchise – since I’ve wanted to make movies,” O’Connor tells Deadline. "As a kid, when most of my friends were into Superman and Batman, there was only one superhero who held my interest: The Green Hornet. I always thought he was the baddest badass because he had no superpowers. The Green Hornet was a human superhero. And he didn’t wear a clown costume. And he was a criminal – in the eyes of the law – and in the eyes of the criminal world. So all this felt real to me. Imagine climbing to the top of the Himalayas, or Mount Everest, or K2 over and over again and no one ever knew? You can never tell anybody. That’s the life of Britt and Kato. What they do, they can never say. They don’t take credit for anything."

And O'Connor clearly has a vision for this thing that goes beyond other super heroic attempts to bring classic characters to life. "The Green Hornet is ultimately a film about self-discovery,” O’Connor adds. "When we meet Britt Reid he’s lost faith in the system. Lost faith in service. In institutions. If that’s the way the world works, that’s what the world’s going to get. He’s a man at war with himself. A secret war of self that’s connected to the absence of his father. It’s the dragon that’s lived with him that he needs to slay. And the journey he goes on to become The Green Hornet is the dramatization of it, and becomes Britt’s true self. I think of this film as Batman upside down meets Bourne inside out by way of (American Sniper subject) Chris Kyle. He’s the anti-Bruce Wayne. His struggle: Is he a savior or a destroyer? Britt made money doing bad things, but moving forward he’s making no money doing good things. He must realize his destiny as a protector and force of justice by becoming the last thing he thought he’d ever become: his father’s son. Which makes him a modern Hamlet. By uncovering his past, and the truth of his father, Britt unlocks the future." For more from O'Connor, head to Deadline's site.

Sean O'Keefe is aboard to write the script under O'Connor's supervision, and it certainly sounds like the director has some interesting ideas for the future of the Hornet. Now we'll see whether a clean slate is what this hero needed.

Read Empire's review of the 2011 Green Hornet

Neil Gaiman producing fantasy TV series The Building

The plot for the potential new show, in development at 20th Century Fox TV, sounds an awful lot like 1990s parallel realities series Sliders. In The Building, a group of young urban explorers are rooting through an old skyscraper when it suddenly shifts into a different version of Earth, one where Ronald Reagan didn't become president and Russia dropped the bomb. They have a limited amount of time to figure out the situation and rescue members of their team from new threats when the building moves again... leaving them to wonder if they'll ever get back to their own reality.

For all its Sliders-like qualities, the series will actually be based on a film called Parallels, directed by Chris Leone from a story he wrote with Laura Harkom. While Gaiman and Angry Films duo Don Murphy and Susan Montford are producers, Leone was involved in the development with Gaiman and Albert Kim. And it's Kim who will be running the show if it scores a home on US TV.

Listen to Neil Gaiman's visit to the Empire Podcast booth

Trailer for American Gods on TV

Neil Gaiman's Interworld heads for TV

Marvel working on an Inhumans TV series

Ben Sherwood, co-chairman, Disney Media Networks and president, Disney-ABC Television Group, offered in PR speak, “This unprecedented alliance represents a bold, innovative approach to launching great TV content for a worldwide audience. It highlights Disney-ABC’s unrelenting commitment to finding new and creative ways to showcasing our best programming and increasing global engagement and reach.” The idea is that the first two hours of the series will play in IMAX, and then will debut on television with additional footage not shown theatrically.

The Inhumans have become a significant part of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., having been introduced in full force last season. In fact, it was the use of them on the small screen that many believed diminished the possibilities for the big (denied by producer Kevin Feige). At the same time, The Inhumans series is not intended to be a spin-off from S.H.I.E.LD.

Created in 1965 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, The Inhumans are described by Marvel as “a race of superhumans with diverse and singularly unique powers.” The focus of the television series is going to be on the character of Black Bolt and the royal family. He is the ruler of his people, which consists of a race of genetically altered superhumans.

First discussion of an Inhumans film began in 2011, though little more was said until three years when word came out that the script was being written by Joe Robert Cole. Then, in 2014, Marvel Studios announced that the film version would be released in November of 2018, which was later pushed back to July of 2019 before the project was pulled off the schedule in April 2016.

On television, they appeared in 1978 and 1994 animated series based on The Fantastic Four, and more recently in Marvel’s new wave of animated shows, including Hulk And The Agents Of S.M.A.S.H., Ultimate Spider-Man, Guardians Of The Galaxy and Avengers Assemble.

The Inhumans joins an ever-growing roster of Marvel live action series, including S.H.I.E.L.D., Daredevil, Jessica Jones, and Luke Cage, as well as the forthcoming Iron Fist, The Defenders, Legion and Runaways. It's too early to tell whether UK audiences will get the full IMAX package, or which channel here will carry the eventual show. But who knows? Maybe it'll follow the MCU's cinematic habit and screen here first...

Who the heck are The Inhumans?

Stan Lee says Marvel will make The Inhumans

Marvel removes The Inhumans from release schedule