War hits the streets in a new Luke Cage trailer

Marvel's latest Netflix-based series, Luke Cage is almost upon us. But to give you another quick flavour of what the show will be all about, here's a new trailer.

Luke Cage finds Harlem's reluctant hero (Mike Colter) lying low after his bruising experience on Jessica Jones. Checking in on his home neighbourhood, he soon discovers that it won't be that easy to keep his head down and calmly sweep hair in his local barbershop. Not when Cottonmouth – sorry, Mr. Cornell Stokes – (Mahershala Ali) is looking to consolidate his criminal power in the area. And then there's Mariah Stokes (Alfre Woodard) an ambitious politician on the rise with her own connections to the local criminals.

Luke will need help from Simone Missick's Misty Knight, a driven cop with a keen eye for justice and Claire Temple (Rosario Dawson), a woman who has seen her fair share of "special" people like Luke, blessed/cursed with invulnerable skin and incredible strength after a botched prison experiment.

Promising a thumping, well-curated soundtrack and a different vibe again to the other Marvel/Netflix productions, Luke Cage has all the signs of another success. Check it out when it hits the streaming service on 30 September. Oh, and listen below to Colter talk about the show and more as a guest of the Empire Podcast, which this weekend came straight from Empire Live.

Jake Gyllenhaal and Carey Mulligan on for Wildlife

Dano and Zoe Kazan have adapted the script from Richard Ford's 1990 novel. The book's story follows teenager Joe Brinson, whose family moves to Montana when he's 16. The shift in location doesn't help the underlying family tension, as his father, a professional golfer who teaches at a local club, discovers that his wife is having an affair. And there is also the threat of a looming fire...

With indie production companies June Pictures and Nine Stories setting this one up, Dano should have the cameras rolling in November, intending to film in Montana and Oklahoma.

Swiss Army Man is out in the UK on Friday.

Sam Neill will be in Thor: Ragnarok

Talking to ShortList, Neill revealed that he will be appearing in the new Thor film, which Waititi is busy directing. We don't, however, know exactly what he'll be doing? Can we expect Wilderpeople's grump-tastic Hec to show up in Asgard? Unlikely. Perhaps there will be a Jurassic Park reunion, with Neill playing a mysterious, etherial being alongside Jeff Goldblum. Whatever happens, it should be good.

Chris Hemsworth is back, of course, as Thor, with Tom Hiddleston's Loki causing more trouble. The cast also includes Idris Elba, Cate Blanchett, Tessa Thompson, Karl Urban and Anthony Hopkins.

Hunt For The Wilderpeople is on our screens now. Thor: Ragnarok will arrive on October 27 next year. Check out Neill's most recent visit to the Empire Podbooth below.

The Women On Screen panel at Empire Live

It’s been a fairly epic few days of filmy events at Empire Live this weekend, with screenings, quizzes, and Q&As galore. Sunday saw a series of fascinating panels at the Empire Hub in The O2’s Brooklyn Bowl – and one of the hottest tickets of the weekend was the Women On Screen panel, which packed out the venue.

Moderated by Empire’s editor-in-chief, Terri White, the panel featured Belle director Amma Asante, Raised by Wolves producer Kate Crowther, and actors Natalie Dormer, Cara Theobold and Hayley Squires discussing their experiences of being women in film and television, the challenges and barriers they often encounter, and the methods for dealing with an industry which sharply skews towards male audiences and employees (fewer than 20% of major films have film leads, and only 6% of Hollywood blockbusters have female directors).

“I feel like I’ve been having the same conversation for about 15 nears now”, said Crowther wearily, noting that studios still don’t think that women’s stories sell. Asante agreed, observing the trend of male directors “jumping immediately into a blockbuster. There’s a sense that ‘he can fly the plane’. [Female directors] have to do more to earn our stripes.”

Natalie Dormer recounted a story of a male writer friend who struggled with writing female characters. “I said, ‘you don’t need to write about shoes and babies and periods. You need to a write a script, and then write ‘Jane’ instead of ‘John’.’”

Hayley Squires voiced concerns that the industry was still too timid. She pointed out that Lena Dunham’s show Girls, for all its achievements, had the effect of narrowing the boundaries. “Everyone was saying, ‘could this be the English version of Girls?”, she said. “That became the new safe.”

All the panellists agreed that sexism was still an unwelcome presence in the industry. Crowther recounted a story that made the audience laugh with despair: while on the set of Raised By Wolves, she was asked by a daily crew member if she was makeup or costume. Her response: “No. I’m a fucking producer.” (Cue a round of applause from the audience.)

The panel finished by striking an optimistic tone. Squires emphasised the collaborative nature of the medium, and (borrowing a phrase from Ken Loach) encouraged everyone to “educate, agitate, organise”, while Theobold hoped that representation – “whether race, class or gender” – could “inspire a younger generation in a very difficult industry.”

You can watch the Women In Screen panel in its entirety on Empire’s Facebook page.

Annette Bening and Elle Fanning star in the 20th Century Women teaser

Beginners director Mike Mills' latest features several generations of women and some of the best actresses working today. So check out Annette Bening, Elle Fanning and Greta Gerwig in the first teaser trailer for 20th Century Women.

It's 1979, and California's ever-changing seaside town of Santa Barbara is a complicated place to grow up in for the teen son of Dorothea (Bening), whose world is changed forever by the arrival of Billy Crudup's former-hippy-cum-handyman.

As the boarder living in the bungalow outside single Dorothea's home, he attracts the attention of not only Bening, but also Fanning, playing Julie, a provocative friend of the teen lad, and Gerwig's punk photographer Abbue.

“The film is an ode to the women who raised me; my mom, my sisters, the girls I was in love with or looked up to at school and in the punk rock scene where I really learned about the world,” Mills told Variety. The movie hits US screens around Christmas and will be out in the UK early next year.

Sherlock reveals two of series 4's episode titles

In keeping with past titles, they're likely plays on Arthur Conan Doyle stories, even if they don't always directly follow the plot. One of the original tales is called The Six Napoleons, which finds criminals destroying a bust of the man to find a hidden pearl. It And The Six Thatchers is already part of the extended canon of the show, appearing as a blog entry from Watson dated December 19.

Them there's The Lying Detective, which could have links to The Dying Detective, where Holmes pretends to be dying from poisoning in order to track down Culverton Smith. Could that be a clue to the villain that Toby Jones will be playing? We'll have to wait to find out the final title, but then waiting is all part and parcel of being a Sherlock watcher.

The new series will be on screens next year.

Pacific Rim 2 casts Adria Arjona

As with most of the cast so far, we have no idea what Arjona will be doing in the film. The only confirmed character is John Boyega's, since he's playing the son of Idris Elba's deceased Stacker Pentecost.

Arjona joins Boyega, Scott Eastwood, Cailee Spaeny, Levi Meaden and Tian Jing in the film, which Steven S. DeKnight is preparing to direct. Shooting should be kicking off this November in Australia with some of the production planned for China. The movie will be with us on 23 February 2018. Arjona has the lead in Wizard Of Oz-inspired US TV series Emerald City and will be seen in movies such as The Belko Experiment and Life Of The Party.

First trailer for Denzel Washington's Fences

There has been a surprising gap between the arrival of the first images from Denzel Washington's adaptation of August Wilson stage work Fences and the first trailer. But it is now online, and you can see it below.

Wilson's play 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 plays Troy's wife, Rose.

Both actors won Tonys for their performances on stage, while the play took the Tony and Drama Desk Awards for Revival. From the looks of the footage, we can expect typically powerful performances from the leads and the supporting cast, which includes Stephen Henderson, Mykelti Williamson and Jovan Adepo.

Fences arrives in the States on 25 December, but there's no confirmed UK release date yet.

The Tick and Jean-Claude Van Johnson picked up to series

The Tick, of course, represents creator Ben Edlund's latest attempt to take his weird comic book character from page to screen, with Peter Serafinowicz inhabiting the suit to play the confused but upright hero. He'll need all of his abilities, and the help of non-powered Arthur (Griffin Newman) to battle a super-villain everyone else thinks is dead.

Jean-Claude Van Johnson, meanwhile, finds action icon Van Damme spoofing himself again, playing a JCVD who used his film work as cover for actual missions saving the world. Retired from taking out bad guys for years, he's drawn back into the game after a chance encounter with a former flame. That one comes from writer/creator Dave Callaham and producer/director Peter Atencio.

Finally, we have I Love Dick, with Kathryn Hahn and Griffin Dunne as a couple who move to a Texas college town when he accepts a fellowship to help him finish his latest book. There, they meet the title character, played by Kevin Bacon, who has a serious impact on their lives. It's based Chris Kraus' novel and is the work of writer Sarah Gubbins and Transparent creator Jill Soloway, who directed the pilot.

"These pilots were vast in scope, disruptive in tone, challenging in story and sometimes even funny," says Joe Lewis, head of half-Hour series for Amazon Studios. "It’s rewarding to see customers embrace them in such a huge way. We can’t wait to premiere these series next year on Prime Video."

Check our recent, exclusive interview with The Tick himself, Peter Serafinowicz.

Ben Edlund details the creation of the new Tick in this exclusive interview

Woody Harrelson to make directorial debut with Lost In London

Woody Harrelson has been acting for over 30 years, but he’s almost always been in front of the camera. Now, aged 55, he’s stepping behind it for the first time, directing his first feature, entitled Lost In London.

Speaking to Screen Daily, Harrelson offered precisely zero clues about the project, except to say that it would be filmed and set in the UK capital. The actor was speaking at the Zurich Film Festival, promoting Rob Reiner’s new biopic LBJ in which he plays former US president Lyndon B. Johnson.

There’s no word on who has written the script, who will star, or whether Harrelson will appear in front of the camera as well as behind it. He has some pedigree in writing and directing on the stage, including some experience on the West End.

In the shorter-term, Harrelson is starring in another Rob Reiner film, Shock And Awe, about a group of journalists during the George W. Bush presidency. “We’re playing journalists who wrote important articles about the absurdity of associating Saddam Hussein with Osama Bin Laden or trying to connect him to 9/11,” said Harrelson.

In the meantime, we’ll keep our ears close to the ground on this project and report back as soon as we get more than a tiny sliver of information.

Amy Adams and Jake Gyllenhaal star in first Nocturnal Animals trailer

Tom Ford’s long-awaited follow-up to A Single Man is the second movie in recent years to feature two Jake Gyllenhaals. Whereas Enemy had a duo scary Jakes doing doppelgänger stuff and dealing with massive spiders, Nocturnal Animals offers a Jake-within-a-Jake scenario. Take a look at its new trailer below for a better idea of what’s involved.

The thriller’s set-up has Amy Adams’ art gallery owner Susan Morrow thrown for a loop by when she receives an unpublished manuscript by her former husband (Gyllenhaal #1). Reading it, she finds a story of vengeance and gangs set against an arid West Texas landscape.

This tale we see visualised with a dad (Gyllenhaal #2), his wife (Isla Fisher) and daughter (Ellie Bamber) accosted by a gang led by Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s Ray. Things, it’s safe to say, turn sour fast, even with Michael Shannon’s cop circling. Back in the film’s reality, Adam’s Susan muses anxiously over whether this story contains a hidden threat from her ex.

Ford’s film has already screened at TIFF and Venice, where the disgustingly talented designer/director’s sophomore efforts played to rave reviews. Nocturnal Animals debuts in the UK at the BFI London Film Festival next month before opening across the UK on 4 November.

First full trailer for Disney's Moana

We've had a little bit of footage courtesy of Comic-Con, and the poster arrived just the other day – now Moana has earned itself its first full trailer.

The 56th feature from Walt Disney Animation Studios stars Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson as the demigod Maui (with The People's Eyebrow very much on show) and newcomer Auli'i Cravalho as the titular Moana. Together, they embark on a magical journey together to find a mythical island in ancient Oceania.

Also, Alan Tudyk voices a chicken named Hei Hei. And by the looks of the trailer, will be clucking his way towards stealing the show.

There's all sorts of talent behind the metaphorical camera, too, with an initial script from Taika Waititi, direction from The Little Mermaid's Ron Clements and John Musker, and songs from Hamilton's Lin-Manuel Miranda.

Looking very much like another confident Disney effort after an impressive unbroken run of hits, Moana sails into US cinemas on 23 November, ahead of a 2 December UK release.

Fancy catching an exclusive sneak preview of Moana, including a Q&A with producer Osnat Shurer? Come to Empire Live.

Adam Scott and Evangeline Lilly starring in Little Evil

They're at the head of a quality comedy-leaning cast that also includes Donald Faison, Chris D'Elia, Brad Williams, Bridget Everett, Clancy Brown, Marcus Terrell Smith and Tyler Labine. All Craig needs to do now is find something for Alan Tudyk to do in the movie and we'll have a Tucker & Dale reunion on our hands.

Craig wrote and will direct the film for Netflix, which sees Gary (Scott) marrying Samantha Lilly and becoming stepfather to her six-year old son (Owen Atlas). But he soon realises that the typical step-daddy issues are compounded by the fact that the boy is actually the Antichrist. There may be trouble ahead...

The aim is to have the movie ready to hit the streaming service next year. Devilish things are headed our way.

Orlando Bloom and more look for love in the trailer for Joe Swanberg's Easy

Netflix has been luring a lot of filmmakers – Judd Apatow being one of the most recent examples – to create series, especially relationship drama/comedies, for the small screen. The latest creative type tempted from his usual waters is indie auteur Joe Swanberg, and the result is anthology series Easy. Check out the trailer for the show below.

Gathering and impressive, eclectic cast that includes Orlando Bloom, Malin Akerman, Jake Johnson, Marc Maron, Dave Franco, Hannibal Buress, Emily Ratajkowski, Michael Chernus, Gugu Mbatha-Raw and more, Easy tells a series of different stories about characters set in Chicago as they navigate – and fumble – their way through modern marriage, relationships, sex, love, technology and culture. We're promised a look at couples trying to spice up a longterm partnership, the perils of dating in an app-obsessed world and confronting the realities of pregnancy.

Swanberg's been reliable when it comes to small-scale observations of realistic people in films such as Happy Christmas and Digging For fire, and this feels like the right venue for him. Plus, while several of his movies haven't made it to UK screens, Easy has the Netflix advantage and will be on the streaming service from September 22.

Mad Max: Fury Road High Octane Collection announced

What a day! What a lovely day! What a lovely day indeed it is whenever we get any news about the extremely lovely Mad Max: Fury Road. Director George Miller has been mumbling hints about a black-and-white edition of his extraordinary 2015 post-apocalyptic chase-a-thon for some time, and we had effective confirmation a couple of months ago, but now it’s official.

Two new Blu-ray releases are being packaged up. The first, for true Max Rockatansky completists, is entitled the Mad Max High Octane Collection and brings together all four films in the Mad Max series – Mad Max (1979), Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981), Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985), and Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) – into one juicy package.

The collection also includes the “black-and-chrome” edition of Fury Road, which was carefully colour-calibrated by Miller himself (it’s not quite the same effect as turning the contrast down on your telly), plus over five hours of bonus content, including a feature-length doc on the original film.

There’s also the slimmer Fury Road: Two Film Collection which has the latest film and its monochromatic alternate edition, including a special introduction from Miller himself, explaining his vision.

Both Blu-ray packages, shiny and chrome, arrive in the US on 25 October. While there’s no confirmation for those of us on this side of the pond, it’ll surely reach us before we are awaited in Valhalla.

Buy tickets to Empire Live now

Running 23-25 September, Empire Live kicks off with a Daniel Radcliffe double-bill. Swiss Army Man and Imperium will be introduced the one-time boy wizard himself. That’ll be the cue for two solid days of fan-friendly cinematic fun.

"Never mind that," you’re probably thinking, "what are the other highlights?" Well, Mike Colter will be in attendance to unleash his Marvel superhero Luke Cage on the world, as will Ben Wheatley to introduce footage from his new '70s thriller Free Fire and the whole of his soon-to-be-cult-classic High-Rise.

Also on the agenda is a UK-first look at new Disney’s animated short Inner Workings, a Moana Q&A and footage screening, the stars of Shakespeare comedy Bill, a 30th anniversary screening of Aliens and a Frozen singalong. We’ll be at that.

Oh, and there’s a world-first Ghostbusters slime-along to experience. Head to the Empire Live website for single tickets and weekend passes right now.

First look at J.K. Simmons's Commissioner Gordon in Justice League

This past Saturday was Batman Day, so naturally projects featuring the Caped Crusader saw the chance for a little corporate syner... er... celebration. Among them was Justice League, which opted to premiere the first proper look at J.K. Simmons' Commissioner Gordon via director Zack Snyder's Twitter account. Take look below.

It's not exactly the clearest look at Gordon, but at least he's in a familiar place, lighting the Bat Signal. Simmons has said that Gordon won't have a massive amount of screen time in the film, but given the actor's usual abilities, we expect he'll make the most of it.

Justice League finds Ben Affleck's Bruce Wayne and Gal Gadot's Diana Prince trying to gather the other superheroes they've discovered so far, including Ezra Miller's Barry Allen/The Flash, Jason Momoa's Arthur Curry/Aquaman and Ray Fisher's Victor Stone/Cyborg. They'll need the help, as a dangerous threat is on its way, and we don't yet know when and how Henry Cavill's Superman will (spoiler alert) return from the "dead".

Justice League arrives here on November 17 next year, but before it does so there is another Batman project headed our way. The Lego Batman Movie focuses on the Will Arnett-voiced version of the character and his slightly less serious adventures (don't tell him that.) As part of Batman Day, the movie put out a new poster, which reminds you to be yourself... Unless you can be Batman. We'll get to enjoy the further adventures of the blockier Batman on February 10. You can watch the latest trailer for The Lego Batman Movie here.

Owen Wilson and Ed Helms want answers in the Who's Your Daddy? trailer

Questioned parentage is a common theme in stories – Mamma Mia! hinges on the idea, to name just one example – and now the idea is being used to fuel a comedy called Who's Your Daddy? Owen Wilson, Ed Helms and Glenn Close star in the new movie, which has put its first trailer online.

Known in the States by the slightly riskier Bastards, we're introduced to Peter (Helms) and Kyle (Wilson) Reynolds, brothers who for years have had an image of a kind, heroic father in their head. He died when they were both young, inspiring Peter in particular to become a cancer doctor.

But then their mother (Close) reveals the truth: she's not actually sure who their father is. Thrown into confusion and chaos, the brothers set out on a mission to discover the truth. Among the candidates? J.K. Simmons' anger merchant and former American Football player and current pundit/actor Terry Bradshaw. And as they dig deeper into their mother's relationship history, they discover more about her than they truly wanted to...

We'll see how this one pans out as Who's Your Daddy? arrives in the UK on February 3.

Sully still top of the US box office charts

Sully's current domestic total now stands at more than $70.5 million, and it only dipped a little from its launch. None of the new arrivals got close to its figure, with Blair Witch in second performing slightly above the others, especially in terms of box office-to-budget return. The horror sequel, which had been stealthily made under the title The Woods, took in $9.6 million, against a $5 million budget, but is still being seen as something of a disappointment given that it had been predicted to open with more than $20 million.

But that was still better news that Bridget Jones's Baby received, as the long-planned third film in the series took in just $8.2 million. Still, Baby is already performing strongly here in the UK (where it made $11.3 million this weekend) and in other territories, so its overseas earnings might just help it along. Snowden, on the other hand, did even worse, making just $8 million in third. It has a slightly higher budget than Bridget Jones to make back, and seems unlikely to head into profit.

Those new movies shoved horror pic Don't Breathe down to fifth from third, but the film still managed $5.6 million after four weeks in the charts. And given its low, sub-$10 million budget, its current total of $75.3 million is much healthier. Psychological thriller When The Bough Breaks slipped from second to sixth and made $5.5 million.

In Seventh, we find Suicide Squad, staying in the top 10 despite seven weeks in the charts. The villainous take on the comic book genre scarpered with $4.7 million in seventh this weekend. 'Toon adventure The Wild Life was down to eighth on $2.6 million, while Kubo And The Two Strings slipped to ninth from sixth with $2.5 million. And finally in 10th, Pete's Dragon made $2 million as it prepares to leave the charts. With $113 million worldwide, it won't exactly be considered one of Disney's big hits this year, especially since its budget (before advertising costs) was $65 million.

Alicia Silverstone joins Nicole Kidman in The Killing Of A Sacred Deer

With Lanthimos once again sharing script chores with co-writer Efthymis Filippou, Deer finds Farrell as Steven, a charismatic surgeon faced with making an unthinkable sacrifice after his life falls apart. It's all due to him taking a teenage boy under his wing, as the youngster's behaviour turns sinister. As per usual with Lanthimos, we'd expect a blend of offbeat dark comedy and intriguing characters.

The people bringing those characters to life also include Barry Keoghan, Raffey Cassidy, Sunny Suljic and Bill Camp. There's no release date on the books yet, but we'd expect it to show up next year.

Jessica Biel, Richard Schiff and more on for Shock And Awe

Reiner has rounded up funding for this one, which will focus on a group of journalists who dug into the claims made by the Bush administration that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, which were partly used as justification for the invasion of Iraq. With the Chilcott Report that showed glaring intelligence failures now out in public, it's taken on new meaning.

Thanks to Deadline's report, we now know what a few of the cast will be doing – Biel and Marsden will be a couple, while Schiff is making a deal to play a man named "The Usual", who serves as a deep background source for journalists on the intelligence beat. Tennie, making his film debut, will appear as a paralyzed combat veteran who testifies during the US Senate hearings on the circumstances of the war.

Joey Hartstone, who also wrote LBJ, is once again on script duty here. Reiner should have the cameras rolling in September and hopes to drum up distribution deals for the film at the Toronto Film Festival next month.

Exclusive Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 art reveals a new monster

Rogue One is not the only outer-space adventure adorning the pages of Empire’s new issue. Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2, the eagerly-awaited follow-up to Marvel’s most out-there blockbuster to date, shares some exclusive new concept art. This one shows what our heroes are up against this time out. Answer? This horrible-looking critter.

(Click here for a closer look.)

Resembling the product of a particularly successful Tinder date between an exogorth and a sarlacc, this furry-octo-monster is menacing Star-Lord (Chris Pratt), Drax (Dave Bautista), Gamora (Zoe Saldana), baby Groot (Vin Diesel) and Rocket (Bradley Cooper). We defy you not to enjoy the expression on Groot’s face. Everyone’s favourite sprout doesn’t seem to be taking this confrontation quite as seriously as the rest of the gang.

This so-far unnamed space beastie isn’t the only – or, indeed, main – threat the Guardians will be facing in the second volume. Elizabeth Debicki’s alien Ayesha is hungry for vengeance after they stitch her up early in the piece and has an army to help her on that mission. Then there’s Yondu (Michael Rooker) and his Ravagers, still in the picture but, hints director James Gunn, dealing with woes of their own. “There’s a mutiny and Taserface (Chris Sullivan) is a character that leads that,” he reveals.

Head to your nearest newsagent and pick up the new Empire for more on Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2. The movie will be strutting into UK cinemas on April 28, 2017. In the meantime, why not take a tour of the set with that loveable Chris Pratt?

Billy Howle joins Saoirse Ronan in On Chesil Beach

A story of sexual repression and '60s social mores, On Chesil Beach will see its director, Dominic Cooke (The Hollow Crown), overseeing a tale of two young lovers, Florence Ponting (Ronan) and Edward Mayhew (Howle), trying to overcome a particularly ferocious case of the awkwards as they begin their lives together.

“I’m very excited about working with Billy on this brilliantly written role,” says Cooke of his new male lead in a statement. "He has the perfect mix of charisma, intelligence and vulnerability for Edward and is a subtle and intelligent actor. The chemistry between him and Saoirse is electric and I can’t wait to start working with them both.”

Howle will be appearing on movie screens soon in two other literary adaptations, Julian Barnes’ The Sense Of An Ending and Chekov’s The Seagull. The latter also stars Saoirse Ronan, so they should be both firm friends and good with seagulls by the time they head to the seaside for this one.

Elizabeth Karlsen and Stephen ‘Woolley on the Web’ Woolley are producing On Chesil Beach for Number 9 Films.

Photographer: Nick Haddow

Halle Berry has to find her son in the Kidnap trailer

The first trailer for Kidnap finds Halle Berry as a mother taking her adorable moppet Frankie (Sage Correa) to a park, expecting to enjoy a fun time. Instead what happens is... Well, you can pretty much guess.

Berry's character isn't named, but at first she seems like an ordinary sort of mother, doting on her child, playing games at the park and then going into an understandably full-on panic mode when he's suddenly snatched. Losing her phone in the rush to follow the people that took him, she initially tries to alert the authorities, only to be frustrated by the usual promises of filing a report.

Determined not to let Frankie become a statistic, she decides to go Full Neeson and hunt down the criminals responsible. As for what happens next... the trailer, for the most part, smartly doesn't say.

With Pusher's Luis Prieto calling the shots from a script by Knate Gwaltney, Kidnap also features the likes of Chris McGinn and Lew Temple in the cast. As for the release date? That has yet to be decided.

Exclusive: Rogue One’s Gareth Edwards explains the movie's title

"I'd been thinking about it,” he reflects in the new issue of Empire. “What does it mean? 'Rogue One’ is a military call sign to some extent,” he adds, referring to Red Squadron during the Battle of Yavin, "but this is the first film that's gone off-piste and is not part of the saga – or the Anakin story – so it’s the 'rogue' one, you know?”

There’s potentially another meaning to it too, relating to Felicity Jones’ interplanetary guerrilla Jyn Erso. She also has a rogue streak; a touch of the Han Solos in her drive to do what’s right, regardless of how much shit she has to blow up en route. “It's kind of describing her as well in a similar way,” says Edwards. “It has [all] these split, multiple meanings that made it feel like the right choice."

Does the title also, perhaps, apply to Edwards himself? “I don’t know…” he demurs, “I never see myself that way. But, er… that’d be cool! We tried to do things different, for sure.”

For much more from Edwards and unparalleled access to his crew, pick up the Rogue One issue of Empire from Thursday August 25, available in all good and Death Star newsagents. Subscribers will already be receiving theirs – one of many reasons why it's worth subscribing to Empire. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, meanwhile, blasts into cinemas from December 16.

Li Bingbing eyes Jason Statham Shark thriller Meg

Given the slight switch of setting from Steve Alten's original source novel – the movie will take place partly off the coast of China – adding to the Asian contingent was key. Fan Bingbing had in fact already been cast, but has a schedule clash, so Li will be her replacement.

With National Treasure's Jon Turteltaub marshalling the madness, the film will see an underwater observation program led by Chinese scientists (and funded by Rainn Wilson's tech entrepreneur) coming under attack from a giant Megaladon (a huge, prehistoric cousin of the Great white). The creature survived thanks to a barrier of cold water at the bottom of the Mariana Trench and now it's ready to sink its fangs into the Chinese sub. Statham, a former Naval captain who has a haunted history with the beast, is recruited to save the day.

Jessica McNamee, Ruby Rose and Masi Oka are all aboard the film, which has set its sights on a March 2, 2018 release.

Tom Hanks flies in new Sully footage

For his next feat of Everyman awesomeness, Tom Hanks is stepping into the shoes of another American hero – arguably, if you’ll forgive the heresy, an even bigger one. Hanks is playing Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger in Sully: Miracle On The Hudson, the pilot responsible for the Miracle on the Hudson in 2009. Featuring some new, unseen footage, this new featurette from the filmmakers is a handy insight into what was involved.

The pilot was hailed globally when he safely landed a bird-struck, malfunctioning plane full of passengers on the New York waterway, becoming a symbol for old-school guts and professionalism at a moment of crisis. A memoir, Highest Duty: My Search For What Really Matters, followed, as well as a fair amount of soul-searching and a painful civil aviation investigation.

Clint Eastwood will, once again, be chipping away at the veneer of American heroism to find out what lies beneath. Probably, in the case of Sully, more heroism.

Eastwood called the shots based on Todd Komarnicki's script, and the film features Aaron Eckhart as co-pilot Jeff Skiles who helped land the plane, Laura Linney as Lorraine Sullenberger, Anna Gunn as Dr. Elizabeth Davis, and on this evidence, a tonne of awesomely bushy moustaches.

Sully: Miracle On The Hudson arrives in UK cinemas December 2. Head here to watch the latest trailer.

Bruce Campbell flies the flag in new Ash Vs Evil Dead Season 2 poster

‘Glory, Gory, Hallelujah!’ Ash Williams (Bruce Campbell) and his trusty chainsaw will soon be back for a second season of comedy horror Ash Vs Evil Dead. Set three decades after The Evil Dead, those pesky deadites are back, and Ash still hasn’t quite wrapped his head around everything that happened back in that infamous cabin...

Alongside last season’s regulars, this new batch of episodes also ropes in Ash’s high school sweetheart (Michelle Hurd), father (Lee Majors), and franchise favourite Chet Kaminski (Ted Raimi). Our American friends will be able to watch the 10 episodes on Starz, when Season 2 premieres Sunday 2 October. UK fans, you'll have to wait for a confirmed return-to-air date.

Alicia Vikander and Eva Green star in first look at Euphoria

Eva Green and Alicia Vikander, the sister act at the heart of Euphoria, are the centrepiece of this first look at the drama released to mark the start of principal photography. Take a closer look below.

(Click here for a closer look.)

Newly signed-up to join the pair in the film are Charles Dance, Adrian Lester and fast-rising British actor Mark Stanley (Kajaki). There’s no word yet on who they’ll be playing, but we do know that Vikander and Green are playing estranged siblings Ines and Emilie. They reconnect after a number of years apart and, as the synopsis relays, embark on “a profound journey together".

This one is the first English-language film by writer/director Lisa Langseth. The Swede, who cites Jane Campion and Sofia Coppola as influences, has worked with Vikander twice before, on her Swedish language dramas Hotel (2013) and Pure (2009).

Euphoria will be released at some point next year.

The Departed being developed into Amazon TV series

There’s a trend for beloved movies being adapted into TV shows at the moment, with Lethal Weapon, Point Break, Rambo, Uncle Buck all making their way to the small screen. And now a somewhat unexpected entry joins their ranks: Martin Scorsese’s Oscar-winning crime drama The Departed is being developed into a television series for Amazon, according to The Wrap.

The 2006 film, itself adapted from the 2002 Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs, starred Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon and Jack Nicholson, and earned Scorsese his first, long-deserved Best Director Oscar. The twisty sprawling plot detailed an undercover cop (DiCaprio) infiltrating the Boston mafia, just as the mafia infiltrated the Boston police with one of its own (Damon).

The TV show looks to be a fairly loose adaptation of the film rather than a continuation, which should be no surprise given that – spoiler alert for a ten-year-old film – nobody really makes it out alive of the movie. The Boston setting will be transposed to Chicago, and it'll follow two moles on both sides of a Latino drug war.

Jason Richman – best known at this point for writing the screenplay to Bangkok Dangerous – will write and executive produce the show. Amazon Studios and Brad Pitt’s Plan B are among the companies behind the project.

There’s no word on when exactly The Departed will bow on the streaming service, but it’s another addition to a growing catalogue of original content from the retail giant, which includes The Man In The High Castle, Bosch, and Transparent.

Daniel Radcliffe double bill to get American Airlines Presents Empire Live underway

The former has him in the unlikely role of farting corpse alongside Paul Dano, while in the latter he goes undercover in a neo-nazi organisation as an idealist FBI agent. In double-bill form, they'll offer a perfect snapshot of an actor pushing the boundaries in all sorts of thrilling ways.

And that's just the beginning. Radcliffe will be sticking around to kick off three days of Q&As, fan events, exclusive screenings and family movie programming with an on-stage interview of his own to talk both those films – and much more. Ben Wheatley will also be there to introduce footage of his new '70s thriller, Free Fire, along with a screening of his soon-to-be-cult-classic High-Rise, while Belle's Amma Asante will share her experiences on filmmaking from a female perspective.

Between 23-25 September, The O2 will see Empire showcasing recent favourites on the big screen (Hunt For The Wilderpeople! War On Everyone! The Greasy Strangler! Game Of Thrones' Battle Of The Bastards!), cult classics (This Is England! Labyrinth and puppet makers' Q&A! Trainspotting Live Script-Read!) and a unique Ghostbusters Slime-Along that promises to reduce large swathes of Greenwich to ectoplasmic goo.

Movie lovers will find plenty to get their teeth into, as will movie lovers with wee'uns in tow. There's a Frozen Sing-Along, a screening of Bill and the Horrible Histories posse will be in attendence to share the gorier side of the history books. Oh, and we're showing all 17 Pixar shorts. In one go.

Where can you find tickets to this extraordinary feast of movie goodness? Glad you asked. Tickets for American Airlines Presents Empire Live go onsale from 7 September at 10am (for subscribers' pre-sale) and 9 September at 10am (for everyone else) from here. Bigger packages – ooo-er, etc – for the whole weekend are available right now.

HBO's Western sci-fi Westworld gets a new poster

HBO is ramping up the promotion for its much-anticipated adaptation of Michael Crichton’s Westworld, with a new trailer earlier in the week, new images breaking and now a new poster. At this rate we checking our boots for robo-snakes by the weekend.

The poster puts the emphasis on the show’s sci-fi elements, offering up the playful tagline ‘Every hero has a code’. We’re not sure it’s the heroes who have the coding issues in this one: looks likely that the heroes will be the ones frantically calling IT when the A.I.s in Westworld theme park start to go rogue.

Loosely – in terms of basic concept – on Crichton's 1973 sci-fi thriller, the new series explores the moral dilemmas of a massive, entirely convincing theme park realm, one in which in which every human appetite, no matter how noble or depraved, can be indulged via some extremely realistic artificial life forms.

“I’ve always felt in adaptation you have to be a bit of a heretic,” explains co-writer Jonathan Nolan. “What we keep is the brilliant, subversive idea of the set-up: what if there was a place you could go and act out your darkest fantasies with no consequences.” Except, there are consequences. In Western terms, the robots soon want to drink the human's milkshakes.

The ten-episode first season, which stars Evan Rachel Wood, Anthony Hopkins, Jeffrey Wright, James Marsden, Thandie Newton and more, debuts across the pond on October 2, and should be making its way here via Sky Atlantic shortly after that.

Stranger Things Season 2 announced with a teaser trailer

We’re heading back to the Upside Down. Netflix has announced a second season of Stranger Things with a teaser trailer that’s as exciting as it is expected. After the rapturous reception the show has received, it always seemed more a case of ‘when’ not ‘if’ a second run would be commissioned. Take a look below.

What we can glean from this is that the kids will be back in Hawkins, Indiana – well, maybe not Barb – and facing some of the same demons, both actual and metaphoric. The show’s creators, Matt and Ross Duffer, have already gone on record to say that the second instalment will follow directly on from the first.

“If Netflix want to do [another run],” hinted Matt Duffer, "Season 2 would function almost more like a sequel than it would ‘Season 2’. We're leaving that door open if people like the show.” That’s borne out by the teaser’s revelation that the sequel will be set in the fall of 1984. Season 1, of course, began on 6 November, 1983.

People liked the show quite a bit, and the Duffers are promising to expand on the back story of the Demogorgon, the Department of Energy and all the other sinister forces at work. "There’s a mythology in terms of the evil that’s happening in the town that we dip our toes into this season,” added Matt Duffer, "but it isn’t actually explored: it’s only scratching the surface of what this thing is.”

Head here for the full interview with the Duffers.

Bruce Lee: new series, lost adventures

According to Deadline, the show will be “set against the backdrop of San Francisco’s Chinatown in the aftermath of the Civil War [and] tells the story of a young martial arts prodigy, newly arrived from China, who finds himself caught up in the bloody Chinatown Tong wars.”

Lee died in 1973 of a cerebral edema. At the time he was wrapping up post-production on his most famous film, Enter The Dragon, and in the midst of directing Game Of Death. The latter was nonetheless finished (despite the loss of Lee) and released in 1978 as a bastardized version of what he had created, though the existing footage, more accurately reflecting his intention, was edited together for the 2000 documentary Bruce Lee: A Warrior’s Journey.

Another of Lee's incomplete projects (developed with James Coburn and Stirling Silliphant) was The Silent Flute, which was ultimately made into the 1978 David Carradine film Circle Of Iron. In their book The Bruce Lee Story, Lee's wife, Linda, and Tom Bleecker wrote of the original version, "The Silent Flute contained many of the themes that reflected Bruce's life and behavior. The script traced a young student's evolution through the martial arts — his problem of ego, his newfound courage in facing the abyss of death and finally his spiritual rebirth. At one point in the script, Bruce says, 'I'm not even sure what trials I passed through or how I came to be here. I still have doubts, many doubts. How, without more struggle, can I resolve them?'"

"What this project started with was thirty pages of the most incredibly esoteric, non-cinematic stuff I've ever read," says Circle Of Iron director Richard Moore. "I don't know how the hell they would have ever expected to make it into a film. What happened is that Stanley Mann was brought in to flesh it out into a 120-page script. What we ended up with was a far cry from what they had conceived. They were going to do the definitive Zen martial arts film, as I recall. You would have had thirty people look at it."

As to the finished product, Moore muses, "It's a goofy little film that sort of fell between the cracks. For kung fu aficionados it was far too esoteric, and for the mainstream audience it was too much chop-sockey. It didn't do too much business, but I had a great deal of fun working on it."

Warrior, one would hope, will fare better.

Moulin Rouge! stage musical planned

The 2001 original found Ewan McGregor's penniless poet falling in with a group of artists in the Montmartre Quarter of Paris around the turn of the 20th century. There, he's exposed to the vibrant venue and meets/falls for actress and courtesan Satine (Nicole Kidman). Songs are warbled, romantic gestures made and more sequins are on display than in the V&A.

Alex Timbers, who worked on Peter And The Starcatcher and a musical version of Rocky, among other things, will direct from a book by Spectre's John Logan, who has playwriting experience on his CV. “I first encountered Alex Timbers through the remarkable and inventive production of Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson and the brilliance of Here Lies Love. I immediately recognized the young director’s creative spirit and felt we shared similar sensibilities and instincts,” says Luhrmann. “So I’m tremendously happy to celebrate that Moulin Rouge! will be under his direction and that the book will be the creation of the gifted Tony Award-winning playwright John Logan whose writing I also admire deeply. It’s immensely gratifying to know that a new wave of artists will be leading Moulin Rouge! into its rightful theatrical realm.”

We'll have to wait to hear when and where the show will open.

DC's Black Lightning heads into development

With Flash, DC's Legends Of Tomorrow and Supergirl to his name, TV producer Greg Berlanti currently holds the keys to DC TV universe in his hands. According to Deadline, that kingdom may have a new superhero addition. Berlanti is developing Black Lightning and is currently pitching it to the US networks.

The creation of writer Tony Isabella and artist Trevor Von Eeden in 1977, Black Lightning is one of the first black superheroes in the canon. As Jefferson Pierce, his real name, he hails from Metropolis where he works as head teacher of a high school. Appalled at the criminal enterprises at work in his city, he dons the costume of his superhero alter ego to fight for truth, justice and the American way.

According to Deadline, Berlanti has teamed up with The Game and Being Mary Jane's creators Mara Brock Akil and husband Salim Akil to nut out a slightly different storyline. CW’s take, should it come together, will see both his daughter and a star student become embroiled in that shady netherworld. With the stakes high, Pierce is forced to become Black Lightning again.

Expect the influential producer to find a home for this one. He’s also got Archie Comics adaptation Riverdale landing on CW early next year.

Exclusive new clip from David Lynch: The Art Life

The product of four years’ work and more than 20 interviews with the man himself, David Lynch: The Art Life is an origin story, therapy session and celebration of the formative years of David Lynch. It’s making its bow at the Venice Film Festival this weekend, in advance of a date at the BFI London Film Festival, and has an exclusive new clip to share with Empire readers.

This candid footage charts a young Lynch’s traumatic move from the serenity of Boise, Idaho to Alexandria, Virginia. He relates his sense of dislocation, charting the same edgier, unsettled mood that courses through many of his movies.

Explains director Jon Nguyen of his "private memoir" of the auteur: "Having worked on different projects with David Lynch over the past decade, we've always been captivated by his personal stories, so to have the opportunity to make a documentary and share these stories with Empire's readers, was something we were really excited about.

"From the very beginning, we wanted to make a film that focused on his early years, the period before Lynch discovered fame. We felt this period would be rich with clues to understanding such an enigmatic artist. Our intention wasn't to pull back the curtain on the wizard, but to reveal the individual."

David Lynch: The Art Life premieres on Sunday, 4 September in Venice and at the LFF in October. Expect an unprecedented glimpse inside Lynch’s LA compound, a creative space where his music, art and films come together.