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Bryan Singer enlists two ages of X-Men for Days of Future Past

There will be two versions of Professor X and Magneto in the next X-Men movie, Days of Future Past. Director Bryan Singer tweeted the news today that both Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen will be returning to play the older versions of their X-Men movie characters in the film, alongside returning X-Men: First Class cast members James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence (Mystique) and Nicholas Hoult (Beast).

Star Trek Into Darkness synopsis released

Paramount Pictures has finally given Star Trek movie fans what they have been waiting oh-so long for: a more detailed story synopsis of the new film Star Trek Into Darkness. and judging by what the movie studio has to say about the next cinematic adventure of Captain James T. Kirk and the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise, things will get dark indeed.

Here's what the studio had to say:

In Summer 2013, pioneering director J.J. Abrams will deliver an explosive action thriller that takes Star Trek Into Darkness.

Fox cans Independence Day 3D, moves up Star Wars 3D prequel releases

I can't determine whether it's a sign of little interest or high expenses that caused 20th Century Fox to cancel its plans to re-release Roland Emmerich's first end of the world FX extravaganza, 1996's Independence Day, in 3D. That's just what the movie studio has done, scuttling plans to post-convert the 16 year old sci-fi/action film into 3D and release it to theaters on July 3, 2013.

Paranormal Activity 5 confirmed

Paramount Pictures has announced that Paranormal Activity 5 will indeed happen, and the movie will come out in theaters on October 25, 2013. The studio has had very good success releasing a new Paranormal Activity every Halloween, with its last installment in the found footage horror franchise grossing $53 million dollars domestically.

Twilight's final Breaking Dawn nearby breaks box office record

The final Twilight movie is now out in theaters and on track to be one of the highest-grossing installments in the five movie franchise. Breaking Dawn Part 2 opened with early showings on Thursday evening totaling $30.4 million dollars, giving a positive notice to its three stars, Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner. When the additonal Friday day-evening ticket sales were added up, Breaking Dawn Part 2 had an estimated opening day total of $71.2 million dollars.

See the Skyfall opening title sequence

Now that the 23rd James Bond movie Skyfall is in theaters in North America, we're able to share in the enthusiasm that the lucky people in the U.K. had a couple of weeks back when the movie was released in European cinemas. With a crushing $88.4 million dollar opening weekend (the best ever for a Bond film) and very strong weekday grosses, Skyfall will almost certainly pass the highest grossing 007 picture to date, Quantum of Solace, which enjoyed a total accum of $168 million dollars at the domestic box office.

Could Darth Vader return in Star Wars Episode VII?

Longtime readers of Coming Attractions will remember the days that I kept track of the rumors tossed about for Star Wars Episode I, The Phantom Menace. Looking back and reading some of those posts, it amazes me how many unconfirmed reports and stories I kept track of, as well as surprisingly how many turned out to be 100% real.

More often that not, they were bunk.

Trailer: Les Miserables

Les Misérables has its legion of worldwide fans anxiously awaiting the movie's holiday release (December 25 for North America and January 11, 2013 for those in the U.K.) While those fans in England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland will have to wait two weeks longer to see the film, please note that they are the land that delivered us this new trailer for the Les Misérables movie today.

Mark Wahlberg cast as lead in Transformers 4

There was a rumor floated on the internetz a week about that Mark Wahlberg was going to headline Michael Bay's Transformers 4. However, the story was soon quashed by Bay's spokesperson who said that it was false.

But that was before we lived in the era of Star Wars Episode VII, which was supposed to never happen, right team?

Trailer: World War Z

Although it was originally slated to come out next month, Paramount Pictures decided to push back their zombie apocalypse movie World War Z to next summer. Today, the first trailer for the film was released. See what it looks like below when Brad Pitt runs for his life from flesh-eating ghouls and the world goes to hell:

Editorial: Why selling Star Wars to Disney was a good thing

It’s hard to believe that less than a week has gone by since we learned George Lucas was selling Star Wars to Disney, and that more Star Wars movies will be made. Until that announcement I had figured that, one day a decade or two from now, we would see Star Wars Episode VII get made. If you had asked me one week ago if we would be planning on watching Episode VII in theaters by 2015, I would have called you crazy.

Wreck-It Ralph gets a high score at the box office

The video game action-action of Disney's Wreck-It Ralph captured the imaginations of movie audiences this weekend, elevating the CG 'toon to the top of the box office. Although Wreck-It Ralph had a considerable budget (it was estimated to cost the movie studio around $160 million dollars to make), Wreck-it Ralph opened with a domestic theatrical gross of $49.1 million dollars. With that kind of splash, Wreck-It Ralph will almost certainly recoup its production cost from domestic screenings.

Editorial: George Lucas, Inc.

When George Lucas handed an early draft of Episode II: Attack of the Clones to his marketing team to vet – itself an interesting note – the response he got back on one specific point is rather telling.  His merchandising masterminds took issue with the character of Dooku, a former Jedi Master who had turned count, being portrayed as the latest member of the so-called Lost 20, the only 20 Jedi to have ever left the Order (typically to pursue such flights of fancy as marriage or childrearing).

Lucasfilm bought by Disney for $4 billion dollars, Star Wars Episode VII coming in 2015

The Walt Disney Company has made an agreement to purchase Lucasfilm, the company created and built by Star Wars creator George Lucas, for $4.05 billion dollars. Furthermore, Disney is planning to create and release Star Wars Episode VII, the sequel to Return of the Jedi, for release in 2015.

This is big news. Furthermore, it seems to fly in the face of what Star Wars creator George Lucas has said throughout his filmmaking career: to keep Lucasfilm an independently run film business and to never make another Star Wars sequel.

So what changed Lucas' mind?

Arnold Schwarzenegger agrees to make third Conan movie

While I didn't see this one coming, the signs were pointing in that direction: Arnold Schwarzenegger will portray his first iconic movie hero role again, that of Conan the barbarian, in a new movie titled The Legend of Conan. This is a done deal and Universal Pictures, the company who now has the rights to release Conan movies, wants this new picture out in the summer of 2014.