It was always safe to assume that R2-D2 would be in Star Wars: Episode VII, especially after J.J. Abrams released a photo of himself with the droid. Lucasfilm has now officially confirmed that the lovable droid will be included in the upcoming films. 

They also reveal the identities of the two other guys standing with Abrams and Kathleen Kennedy in the photo. They are members of the worldwide R2-D2 Builders Club and have been hired to work on the film. Here's the full press release with all of the details from StarWars.com,

The first behind-the-scenes photo from Star Wars: Episode VII hit Twitter last Thursday, featuring director J.J. Abrams, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy, and a certain blue and white astromech droid — who StarWars.com can now confirm will indeed be in the film. But who are the two men standing behind Artoo, looking very protective of the “overweight glob of grease”? 

Meet Lee Towersey and Oliver Steeples, Star Wars fans and members of the worldwide R2-D2 Builders Club. They create fully functioning, film-accurate astromech droids like the R2-D2 seen in the photo, and they’re officially part of the Creature Effects team for Star Wars: Episode VII. They didn’t apply for their jobs, but still had what is probably the best reference one could hope for. 

“It all started when Kathleen Kennedy toured the R2-D2 Builders area at Celebration Europe this past summer in Germany,” says Steeples, who finished his first R2-D2 in 2007, after 10 years of collecting parts and researching. “She posed for pictures with us, looked at all the droids we’d built and was very complimentary. I mentioned that the R2-D2 Builders in the UK were available if required, as a semi-joke. When I was contacted to work on the film by [executive producer] Jason McGatlin, it was on her recommendation.” 

Steeples, from Berkshire, England, and Towersey, from Middlesex, England, are working full-time on Star Wars: Episode VII at Pinewood Studios (where the Twitter photo was taken), focusing solely on astromech-building — for now. Keeping an astromech droid in working condition throughout the production of a film is a challenge, as it’s filled with gears, lights, and electronics; Steeples and Towersey were chosen because of their expertise and experience, both having worked on Star Wars­-themed commercials for the UK appliances megastore Curry’s. “We know the pressures of filming, prepping, and being able to assure reliability throughout the shoot,” says Towersey, who built the droid seen in the tweet. “We have a good knowledge of Artoo, with a large stock of parts for reference and drawings, plus we know what is involved throughout the whole building process, as well as potential problems we need to avoid.” Despite their impressive understanding of how to construct an astromech droid and keep it functioning, Steeples and Towersey still have a goal for Star Wars: Episode VII: to build a better R2-D2. 

“What we do need to do is improve on the mechanics,” says Towersey. “We’re currently in a research and design phase where we’re looking at drive options for reliability on all possible terrains, whether it be a one-motor-does-all, or a system which is easily adjusted depending on terrain. We have a few mocked up ideas which we hope to road test very soon.” And while they’re now on the inside of Star Wars moviemaking, the two remain fans at heart. 

“It’s fascinating to see the whole process of filmmaking as Star Wars: Episode VII grows around us,” says Towersey. “I feel very privileged to be in the working environment I’m in at the moment. It’s something I will never take for granted.” 

“It’s a dream come true,” adds Steeples, “and I hope I can live up to the expectations of the thousands of R2-D2 Builders around the world, let alone the millions of Star Wars fans.”

We've got an awesome full international trailer for RoboCop to watch! This one focuses its attention on the more human element of RoboCop, played by Joel Kinnaman. There's a good amount of new footage here for you to see, and I have to say that the more I see from the movie, the better it looks to me. I do like how the character keeps the memories of his life and his family. It also looks like it's going to be packed full of fun action.

The movie was directed by Jose Padilha and it also stars Abbie Cornish, Michael K. Williams, Samuel L. Jackson, and Michael Keaton. It comes out on February 12th.

Shadowrun Returns developer Harebrained Schemes recently released some new details on their upcoming Dragonfall expansion (out in January 2014). Fans of the game can look forward to a whole new area, in this case Berlin, to explore and battle in, as well as new items, armor, cybernetics, weapons, and new additions to the robust editor, among other tweaks and fixes. Ultimately though, it comes down to one change.

You can now save anywhere.

Cue confetti and fireworks, people, we have a winner! You can now take pleasure in knowing your 20 to 30 minutes of work won’t be lost because you had to go pick someone up from school or just wanted to go to bed. The checkpoint system in Shadowrun was inconvenient at best and a momentum killer at worst, but Harebrained took that to heart and made a change that will greatly affect many people’s enjoyment of an otherwise stellar experience.

If you haven’t been able to try Shadowrun Returns yet, it's a worthwhile investment of your time. The characters are interesting, the setting is gorgeous, and the turn based combat is streamlined and fun. That said, it might be worth it to wait till the Campaign Pack comes out, which will include the full original plus the Dragonfall expansion for $25. Not a bad deal at all. Needless to say, Shadowrun fans have a lot to look forward to in the coming months. You can read an excerpt from the full press release describing the campaign below.

BERLIN. The Flux-State: a stable anarchy enforced by an ever-shifting coalition of megacorps, political factions, and savvy power players. A place where almost anything goes, and the right connections can be the difference between success and starvation. Dangerous jobs abound and there’s no better place to earn a quick payday - provided you live long enough to spend it. For you and your team of battle-scarred runners, it’s just another day in the Free City of Berlin.

But a new threat is rising, one that could mean untold chaos and devastation. The only clue: whispers of the DRAGONFALL, a long-forgotten event from the earliest days of the Awakened world. As you find yourself drawn into a maze of veiled dangers and strange machinations, you will come face-to-face with a grim spectre of the past… and alter the course of Berlin’s future.

In anticipation of the release of Doctor Who's 50th Anniversary and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, here's an awesome parody video that mashes the two together.

All 13 Doctors are forced into a battle royale by The Master in this R rated trailer spoof.

The video was created by Brad Hansen, and it recreates part of the trailer for Catching Fire and includes some familiar aspects from the series while going deeper in the Doctor Who universe. It's a fun video, and I'm sure fans of both franchises are going to enjoy it. 

This hilarious illustration comes from artist Tiago Hoisel. It's called "Best Friends Forever," and it features a Viking boy with his homemade horse toy. I love that it's a decapitated rotting horse head.

Give life to imagination. Homemade toys can stimulate children’s imagination, also preserves the nature by recycling materials and can even prolong the friendship between a boy and his horse! Viking way of life!

The marketing machine behind The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug is running at full speed. There's been a ton of posters, trailers, and TV spots for the film over the last month, and today we have another TV spot for the film with more new footage for you to see. A lot of it involves Bilbo and the the dragon Smaug. 

Pete Holmes has made another hilarious X-Men comedy sketch that features Professor X firing Jubilee from the popular mutant team. Out of all of the X-Men that have been fired so far, her powers are the most useless. She makes fireworks! What kind of power is that? I can't wait to see who Xavier fires next!

Fan Poster by Squiddytron

Next year Marvel Studios is going to release Guardians of the Galaxy. It's a property not many people are familiar with, but I have a feeling it's going to blow audiences away. It's going to be the most different film that Marvel has done, but the characters and setting are awesome. We all kind of got our first look at the film at the end of Thor: The Dark World. 

In a recent interview with MTV, Zoe Saldana, who plays Gamora in the film, says the movie will be a different experience. She also talks about the innovation of superheroes and how amazing it will be. 

"A new way to view superheroes. I mean I love sometimes the consistency of what the classics have left behind, but I need innovation, and you can only have so much of 'I'll save you!' after a while it's like 'Oh god, does he go to the bathroom? Is he hungry? Does he cry? Does he feel?' Not only do we cover that, we're making heroes after thieves and they're Robin Hoods and I love that because I'm an underdog. I always like the longer route, the hardest route, because that's the only one that's going to teach you great lessons in life and these characters are absolutely amazing and they have a full blown redemption. So to be able to sink your teeth into such meaty characters and to be a part of such a story that is very unique and obviously has everything that I love: it has space, it has a cooky director, it literally has just cojones. It has amazing actors that you would have never thought to put them all together and somehow we're all here, giving 150% and loving the story that we're doing.

"It's gonna be very (good) - I hope, I never like to shoot myself in the foot to seem that confident that I may come across as arrogant, but I'm rooting for it, a great deal because it was amazing. What we shot and we left on the screen there were pretty amazing things and I have a feeling that James is going to capture them very beautifully. I'm happy to have worked with someone like James, because not everyday do you meet somebody that is absolutely who they are and you cannot compare them to anybody else. There's only going to be one James Gunn and I like that."

In a separate interview with Total Film, Michael Rooker, who plays Yondu in the film, talks about his character, saying,

"There’s hope in this character, but the stuff going on… I can’t talk about it but… it’s challenging.  You have to forget that you have all these issues like three hour make-up and stuff… once you get that stuff on you have your own down time. You forget you have it on. You just play the role and you have great time doing it."

When asked if his character had any special powers or abilities in the film, Rooker replied, 

"I don’t think I’m at liberty to discuss any powers of any sort… Y’know, most of the roles I play, just by it being who I am – normally they’re somewhat formidable individuals. That’s just sort of my look and my build. So we utilize that in almost everything I’ve done, and it’s the same in Guardians."

The movie is being directed by James Gunn and also stars Chris Pratt, Dave Bautista, Bradley Cooper, Ophelia Lovibond, Benicio Del Toro, Karen Gillan, Djimon Honsou, Gregg Henry, Glenn Close, and John C. Reilly. The characters team up to defeat a cosmic force of epic proportions. It comes out on August 1st, 2014!

A few days ago, a Volvo commercial came out, featuring Jean-Claude Van Damme doing "the most epic of splits" between two moving big-rig trucks. It was insanely impressive. Channing Tatum created a hilarious video spoof with his own versions of the splits between two food carts on the set of his upcoming sequel, 22 Jump Street.

Disney has released two new trailers for Muppets Most Wanted. One is a domestic trailer, one is an international trailer. The movie looks like it will be fun, but it doesn't look as good as the last Muppet film. 

The sequel was directed by James Bobin and stars Ricky Gervais, Ty Burrell, and Tina Fey, along with a ton of cameos including Tom Hiddleston, P. Diddy, and Ray Liotta!

Disney’s “Muppets Most Wanted” takes the entire Muppets gang on a global tour, selling out grand theaters in some of Europe’s most exciting destinations, including Berlin, Madrid and London. But mayhem follows the Muppets overseas, as they find themselves unwittingly entangled in an international crime caper headed by Constantine—the World’s Number One Criminal and a dead ringer for Kermit—and his dastardly sidekick Dominic, aka Number Two, portrayed by Ricky Gervais. The film stars Tina Fey as Nadya, a feisty prison guard, and Ty Burrell as Interpol agent Jean Pierre Napoleon.

The movie hits the big screen March 21st, 2014.

Alfonso Cuaron's son Jonas wrote and directed a six-minute short film called "Aningaaq." It's a Gravity spin-off film, and it focuses on the person on earth that Sandra Bullock's character talks to on the radio during a pivotal scene in the movie when she's trapped in the Russian space capsule with little hope of survival. The conversation included the sound of dogs and a crying baby. This short shows us the other end of that story, and it's shot really well. Jonas had this to say about it to THR,

"It's this moment where the audience and the character get this hope that Ryan is finally going to be OK. Then you realize that everything gets lost in translation." 

Warner Bros. submitted the $100,000 budgeted short for Oscar consideration in the live-action short category. It would be kind of cool if Gravity won Best Picture and this won Best Short Film. Hope you enjoy it!

Entertainment Tonight released a video from the set of Michael Bay's Transformers: Age of Extinction. It gives us a look at what it is like to be on the set of the film, and features a lot of explosions and interviews with the cast and crew talking about the craziness of shooting a film like this. 

The movie stars Mark Wahlberg, Stanley Tucci,  Jack Reynor, Nicola Peltz, Kelsey Grammer, Sophia Myles, T.J. Miller, Peter Cullen, and Li Bingbing.

There are no official story details on the movie yet, but we know that it will involve Dinobots! It hits theaters on June 27th, 2014.

Neil Gaiman's Sandman has been in development as a film and TV series for years. Nothing has really progressed, but it looked like it was getting close a couple of times. Now, according to Badass Digest, Warner Bros. is looking to possibly give it another go. They say that Dark Knight and Man of Steel scribe David Goyer has pitched a take on the comic to Warner Bros., and apparently the studio has been very receptive. 

The site also claims that Joseph Gordon-Levitt could end up playing Morpheus in the adaptation. There's also a very small chance he could direct the film. None of this is set in stone, but they do say it's a possibility. It would be really interesting to see Gordon-Levitt as Morpheus, I think he would be awesome. As you know, he's also in talks with Marvel about possibly playing Doctor Strange. 

Who knows if Sandman will actually go into development, but with talent like Gordon-Levitt and Goyer involved there's a good chance something will happen with it. We'll just have to wait and see.

Sandman launched DC Comic's Vertigo imprint, which ran for 75 issues beginning in 1989. Gaiman's worlds-within-worlds weaved an episodic anthology, focusing on Morpheus, the Lord of the Dreaming, a deity who personifies dreams. The book began in the horror realm but quickly made its mark in fantasy and mythology as Gaiman introduced the Endless, a group of powerful brothers and sisters named Destiny, Death, Destruction, Despair, Desire, and Delirium (as well as Dream).

A new mini episode for Doctor Who has surfaced online as part of the build-up to the 50th anniversary this Saturday! "The Last Day" follows a soldier on his last day on Gallifrey before the massive invasion that I would assume sparked the Time War. The more I watch of these mini episodes and trailers, the more excited and confused I get about the 50th anniversary! I have no idea what is going to happen, but I have a feeling I'm going to like it!

Here is a video featuring the screen tests of Tom Hardy as Bane and Anne Hathaway as Catwoman for Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises. The screen tests, which come from the "The Dark Knight Trilogy: Ultimate Collector's Edition," also include commentary from Nolan. Both Hardy and Hathaway were awesome in their roles. 

Art by Benoit Dromby

Doctor Who fans will be excited to hear to that Matt Smith might be up for a role in Star Wars: Episode VII. There's no information on whether he had an audition, a screen test, or just talked with JJ Abrams. But the rumor is out there thanks to Bleeding Cool, and it would be pretty awesome if there was any truth to it. 

Then there's X-Men: First Class and Snatch actor Jason Flemyng, who posted the following photo of an audition script from Star Wars Episode VII. The photo (via: Comic Book) came with the following note,

Pint of Stella and " Star Wars" script! That's me sorted till 5!

The movie will start shooting in spring 2014 at Pinewood Studios in the U.K., and it will be released on December 18th, 2015! 

Comic fans, rejoice! Scott Snyder has tweeted a photo giving some massive spoilers and easter eggs for the ongoing Batman Eternals storyline. Some things of note are Commissioner Gordon in handcuffs, the white owl perched in the trees, the purple hooded character whose face can't be seen, and possibly a blonde haired Nightwing next to Robin. I'm not confident enough to say for certain I know what's happening or going to happen, but it is a cool picture by DC artist Jason Fabok.

Tom Cruise has been trying to get the film El Presidente off the ground since 2010, and it looks like he is making a big push to get it into production. THR reports that Doug Liman is now attached to direct the film. The two recently worked together on Edge of Tomorrow (formerly All You Need Is Kill). They are now in the process of trying to get Jack Nicholson to join the film. Cruise really wants him on board. If fact, if Nicholson doesn't do the project Cruise won't do it either.

The story is about "a straight-arrow Secret Service agent who is assigned to protect America's worst former president, an alcoholic and womanizing sleazebag who was elevated from VP when the president died. When a threat is made on his life, the duo must go on the run." Nicholson would play the president and Cruise would play the Secret Service agent. Both seem like perfect casting.

According to the report, "Cruise and Liman went to Nicholson’s Hollywood Hills home to convince the 76-year-old semi-retired and extremely picky actor to take the role."

Cruise apparently told Nicholson that he won’t do the movie without him. If Nicholson joins the film, it will be the first time he and Cruise have shared the screen together since 1992's A Few Good Men. It would be great to see these actors starring alongside each other again in this new movie. 

Warner Bros. has announced that George Miller's long-awaited sequel Mad Max: Fury Road will be released in 3D on May 15th, 2015. It's pretty incredible to see all of the films being released in 2015. It might just be the best year of movies ever. 

Miller is done shooting the film and is currently in post-production. The director previously described the story of the movie as follows, 

"Mad Max is caught up with a group of people fleeing across the Wasteland in a War Rig driven by the Imperator Furiosa. This movie is an account of the Road War which follows. It is based on the Word Burgers of the History Men and eyewitness accounts of those who survived."

The movie stars Tom Hardy as Max Rockatansky, Charlize Theron (Monster, Prometheus) as Imperator Furiosa; Nicholas Hoult (X-Men: First Class) as Nux; Hugh Keays-Byrne (Mad Max, Sleeping Beauty) as Immortan Joe; and Nathan Jones (Conan the Barbarian) as Rictus Erectus. Collectively known as The Wives, Zoë Kravitz (X-Men: First Class) plays Toast; Riley Keough (Magic Mike) is Capable, and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley (Transformers: Dark of the Moon) is Splendid. They are joined by supermodel Abbey Lee Kershaw as The Dag and Courtney Eaton as Fragile, both of whom are making their big screen debuts. Also featured in the movie are Josh Helman as Slit, Jennifer Hagan as Miss Giddy, and singer/songwriter/performer iOTA as Coma-Doof Warrior.

Entourage creator Doug Ellin sent out a tweet recently letting the world know that his Entourage movie will start shooting on January 16th. Here's what he said,

"January 16 start date. Getting pumped"

Adrian Grenier, Kevin Connolly, Kevin Dillon, Jerry Ferrara, and Jeremy Piven are all set to reprise the roles in the movie, and they may be joined by model Kate Upton.

It was previously revealed that the story picks up six months after the end of the HBO series. As repetitive as the series was, I always enjoyed watching it, and it will be fun to see the the gang back together again.