Director: Edgar Wright
Cast: Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Ellen Wong, Keiran Culkin, Anna Kendrick, Mark Webber
Certificate: 12A
Trailer/Clips 

This is Scott Pilgrim (Cera). Scott Pilgrim’s precious little life involves computer games, sleeping and not much else. Unless you count his band, Sex Bob-Omb. They suck. Scott lives with his gay roommate Wallace Wells (Culkin) and is dating a high schooler called Knives Chau (Wong). She’s Chinese. Then one day into his head rollerblades the girl of his dreams, Ramona Flowers (Winstead). And every adolescent boy knows exactly what that means: awkward chat-up lines, making out and some serious Street Fighter action.

With only weeks to go before shooting starts, Matthew Vaughn is still cramming his cast list full of top talents. The latest to join X-Men's First Class club? Rose Byrne and Jason Flemyng. And Oliver Platt.

Byrne is hammering out the fine print before she signs on to play Moira McTaggert, a genetics specialist. A Scottish scientist? Yes, that's right, she'll be the one doing the naughty with James McAvoy's Professor X while he founds his school for gifted youngsters (hopefully forming a highly intelligent love triangle with Michael Fassbender's Magneto). After her turns in Knowing and Sunshine, she's got a good track in science and weird crap. Plus she can act, which helps.

Flemyng is down to play Azazel - Nightcrawler's pappy. Confirming his role at Empire's Movie-Con, the actor (who has appeared in each of Matthew Vaughn's films) is getting ready for some serious make-up work: "They said, 'Don’t worry, we’ll add the tail in post'".

A teleporting mutant from another dimension, Azazel spends his time trying to get freaky with human women so his bright red, long-tailed, pointy-eared genes can thrive and give him a long-term link to this world. One successful attempt later and out pops bright blue offspring Nightcrawler, complete with ears and tail. And, if you're wondering how he teleports, Empire describe Flemyng's technique as something like "a cross between a flamenco dancer and a Bollywood star". Sexy.

And, just when you thought this was enough talent to fill Professor X's school register, Oliver Platt has been announced as another actor who's hopped onboard the mutant wagon. No, he's not a mutant: he's playing The Man in Black. Now, Platt doesn't look a lot like Johnny Cash, so he's probably just your average shady government type, chasing down X-Men (or at least looking at them in a suspicious manner).

Vaughn's superhero prequel now boasts the combined skills of McAvoy, Fassbender, Kevin Bacon, Nicholas Hoult, Alice Eve and Jennifer Lawrence. And Byrne, Flemyng and Platt, of course. X-Men: First Class starts shooting at the end of this month, and will tell the world how Magneto and Professor X began their lifelong feud. Probably over a lost Johnny Cash album.

Would you talk about this guy behind his back? Rumours were flying around Comic-Con (were you there?) yesterday about Karl Urban being offered the part of Judge Dredd in a new film. Naturally, those nifty guys at Film School Rejects promptly hassled him until he told them all about it.

During the press conference for spy thriller Red (still at Comic-Con, remember) Karl confirmed the rumours:

"I can’t say too much about it, but I have been offered the role and we’ve been having discussions. We’re working on it."

Written by Alex Garland (of 28 Days Later/The Beach fame) and directed by Pete "Vantage Point" Travis, Judge Dredd's new outing will be in 3-D and, it seems, will be starring a fan of the comics - Urban also added that he had been reading them "for 25 years". The question is: can he read them with his helmet on?

And now we all know what Asgard's throne room looks like. And the word of the day is: shiny.

The image first popped up at The LA Times over the weekend, showing us all the shiny, sparkle-motion glory of Kenneth Branagh's team of set designers. And more of Anthony Hopkins' serious gold fetish. You can also spot Loki's helmet, Thor's red cape, and Rene Russo's legs. She's called Frigga, by the way - true story. 

Have you heard of Inception? You probably have. Well, now you can read it as well as watch it, with a prequel comic that's turned up over on Yahoo! Movies. The Cobol Job takes place before Inception's main plot, with the events leading neatly up to the beginning of the film - it's not exactly spoiler-free in some regards, but it won't ruin the movie before you've seen it.

Written by Jordan Goldberg, it's features  some lovely artwork from Long Vo, Joe Ng, and Crystal Reid, nicely capturing the likeness of Leonardo DiCaprio and Joseph Gordon Levitt. Under 20 pages long, it takes you throw one of Cobb's standard dream heists, inspired by Christopher Nolan's film. And you know what? It's rather good. And the online reader for it ain't half bad either - much like the viewing style of the iPhone's Comics app.

You can read it online over at Yahoo! Movies, or download it as a PDF. Well worth a look. Even if you do wait until after you've seen the film. Oh, Inception comes out on Friday by the way. And it's pretty much the film of the year.

Director: Edgar Wright
Cast: Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Chris Evans, Jason Schwartzman, Brandon Routh
Certificate: TBC
Release Date: Wednesday 25th August

Meet charming and jobless Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera). He's 22, and a bass guitarist for totally average garage band Sex Bob-omb. And he's just met the girl of his dreams. Literally. The only catch about dating Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead)? He'll have to defeat her 7 evil exes.

Based on Bryan Lee O'Malley's graphic novels, director Edgar Wright (Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead) tells the amazing story of one slacker’s quest to power up with love.

As Scott gets closer to Ramona, he must battle an increasingly vicious series of exes — from infamous skateboarders to vegan rock stars. And if he hopes to win his true love, he must vanquish them all before it really is game over. Get ready for Scott Pilgrim vs the World, an epic of epic epicness.

Director: Matthew Vaughn
Cast: Aaron Johnson, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Nicolas Cage, Chloe Moretz, Mark Strong
Certificate: 15
Release Date: Friday 26th March

"With no power... comes no responsiblity."

Kick-Ass tells the story of average teenager Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson), a comic-book fanboy who decides to take his obsession as inspiration to become a real-life superhero. As any good superhero would, he chooses a new name -- Kick-Ass -- assembles a suit and mask to wear, and gets to work fighting crime. There's only one problem standing in his way: Kick-Ass has absolutely no superpowers.

His life is forever changed as he inspires a subculture of copy cats, is hunted by assorted violent and unpleasant characters, and meets up with a pair of crazed vigilantes, including an 11-year-old sword-wielding dynamo, Hit Girl (Chloe Moretz) and her father, Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage) - and forges a friendship with another fledging super hero, Red Mist (Christopher Mintz-Plasse). But thanks to the scheming of a local mob boss Frank D'Amico (Mark Strong), that new alliance will be put to the test.

It may look harmless. It may sound harmless. It may even be considered entertaining by those unaware of its dangerous effects, but swearing is no laughing matter. Did you know that there is swearing in Kick-Ass? The Daily Mail knows.

Thanks to that bastion of UK society, we are all now forewarned of this potty-mouthed and puerile piece of filth, which could seriously offend and damage your children.

Especially when characters say words like "fuck" and "cock". And shoot people in the face.

Angelina Jolie is getting all kinds of offers at the moment. Will she star in Alfonso Cuaron's Gravity? Who could blame her? It certainly looks interesting. Although, according to some sources, she's denied any interest whatsoever. And now, according to The Hollywood Reporter, she may sign on for Serena, a project with Darren Aronofsky.

The director, having wrapped Black Swan, is circling this adaptation of Ron Rash's 2008 novel, which sees a man and his new bride head to the woods to start a timber empire in the 1920s. Only for the woman to flip slightly, then end up looking to murder her illegitimate son when she finds out she's as barren as a block of wood. Chris Kyle has scripted it already, but the project needs some financing before it goes ahead with either Jolie or Aronofsky. Presuming she does sign on for it in the first place.

 
In this crazy mixed up world of non-denial denials, all we know for sure is this: Angelina ain't starring in Wanted 2. Although, according to Universal insiders, that sequel is still going ahead.

Is there anything Christopher Nolan cannot do? Warner Bros clearly don't think so, because they've signed him up to make Superman sexy again - whether he ever was in the first place is up for debate (Brandon Routh? Phwoar). The original Superman outings (well, the first two) were solid comic book classics, but then the series lost its way, becoming camper and crappier by the movie.

Bryan Singer's 2006 reboot - which I rather enjoyed - didn't please the fans or the studios, and so Christopher Nolan has been brought on board. Not as a director, you understand. More of a "godfather" role in mentoring the overall project.

Nolan is currently putting the last touches to the Warner Bros-funded Inception, his own personal blockbuster, before turning to the Man of Steel, which the studio are keen to distance from Singer's previous attempt. A grittier, darker take on Superman? It might well be possible, although it would be nice to keep Brandon Routh in the frame - he was an excellent Clark Kent. And he had thighs of pure thunder.

Either way, Warner Bros will be keen to avoid the financial crisis of Superman Returns, which barely recouped its costs at the box office. Then again, they've already ensured that won't happen with eight simple words: Christopher Nolan will oversee the new Superman movie.

And if that hasn't got you excited, digest this: Nolan's also started work on Batman 3, for which he has finally found an idea he's happy with. He and brother Jonathan (and David Goyer) are scribbling away right now.