As you can see by the A Madea Christmas trailer, Tyler Perry’s comic alter ego has a unique way of marking the holidays. To celebrate the film’s arrival in theaters December 13, Movie Fanatic is presenting an exclusive giveaway. One lucky reader will receive not only some A Madea Christmas swag, but also a three-pack of Madea movies!

One lucky reader will receive a Madea ornament for your Christmas tree, a Madea fan to keep you cool as things heat up this holiday, the A Madea Christmas soundtrack and the A Madea Christmas teaser poster, nutcracker poster (pictured above) and final A Madea Christmas poster.

We will also award our winner three Madea DVDs: Madea’s Witness Protection, Madea’s Big Happy Family and Madea Goes to Jail.

To enter, use the widget below to enter on Facebook or Twitter. There are three unique ways to enter, and by entering all three ways you can increase your chance at winning! And enter now, this prize pack’s winners will be announced December 20.

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Rumors have long been flying that a World War Z sequel is coming and now we know there is no question the $540 million grossing blockbuster will see its second chapter hit the screen. The big news isn’t really that a World War Z follow-up is coming -- it is that Juan Antonio Bayona is directing, taking over the reins from Marc Forster.

Bayona is no stranger to filming drama amongst utter destruction as his The Impossible chronicled one family’s horror during the Thailand tsunami.

Brad Pitt will return to the World War Z sequel, and also serve as producer. No word yet on writers or a release date, but stay tuned. 

Soon after Paul Walker died, Universal said that Fast and Furious 7 production would halt. The studio has already sunk $150 million into the project, so the fact that it would completely go away is not to be believed. When Walker perished in that car crash, he had shot about half of his scenes that are set to be in the seventh Fast and Furious movie. There was considerable amount of Walker work still to go.

Universal and filmmaker James Wan have been looking over all the footage they have so far of Walker and determining if there is some way to “retire” Walker from the franchise with what has already been shot and re-work the storyline for Fast and Furious 7, and thus Fast and Furious 8, which Universal clearly wants to also make.

Screenwriter Chris Morgan is currently working on revisions to his script to aid in the process of seeing how the storyline can be tweaked to move on without the presence of its star. If that can be done, the cast and crew should be returning to the Fast and Furious 7 set in January to complete the work started months ago.

If there is no way to complete the film that works within the framework of the franchise, it could result in the largest insurance claim in Hollywood studio history as the Fireman’s Fund insurance firm would have to shell out the over $150 million to Universal for the “lost “ film.

Stay tuned, this story is just in its infancy. 

Hot on the heels of those Edge of Tomorrow photos, the first trailer for the Tom Cruise-starring Edge of Tomorrow has arrived. The film version of the novel All You Need is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka arrives June 6, 2014 and tells the story of a soldier who has the daunting task of dying in a battle, only to awake and have to relive it again.

As you can see from the below trailer, Emily Blunt holds the key to ending that deathly cycle, and hopefully, winning that war against the invading aliens. She knows about Cruise’s fate and aids him in training every day to be a better soldier than before with the hopes that he will eventually become the secret to turning the tide of the war.

Edge of Tomorrow Trailer

Edge of Tomorrow also stars Bill Paxton and Jeremy Piven.

Although we were promised something from The Crow at Comic-Con, the remake’s promise was never seen to fruition. While promoting The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, star Luke Evans -- who is set to inhabit the role made famous by Brandon Lee -- reported that he is not scared off by what many have called “The Crow curse.”

Relativity Media and Dimension Films are moving forward with the remake of the classic film, and have Evans set to star after Bradley Cooper quit The Crow remake. It is in pre-production, so look for filming to begin within the year, if we were to bet. Evans will play the character of Eric, who becomes the titular character after his death. Many had thought the storyline was too close to what happened to Lee.

Evans said that he is actually quite excited to take on the role and taking into consideration what happened to Lee on the set of The Crow, which is not stopping his desire to play the dark hero.

"It is incredibly sad that Brandon died making the movie. He was a very talented actor. It is a very beautiful story, The Crow,” Evans told Metro UK. The actor promised that fans of the source material will be thrilled with what filmmakers have planned.

“It is a very tragic story with huge emotional themes. We plan to tell the story differently and with a lot of integrity to the original comic book."

When it was announced that Tom Hanks was Walt Disney in Saving Mr. Banks, we could not think of a better showman to play the ultimate showman. Saving Mr. Banks tells the story of Disney’s decades-long passion to bring P.L. Travers’ (Emma Thompson) book Mary Poppins to the big screen. Travers was none too keen on letting the “man with the cartoon mouse” make her beloved nanny into a movie. Yet, with her finances in trouble -- one fateful year in the early 1960s -- she changed her mind, and the film chronicles the incredible effort it took to make Mary Poppins the classic we all know it is.

We caught up with Hanks recently where he told Movie Fanatic about his method to the madness that is trying to capture a beloved and well-known American Icon.

“We had the most discussed, photographed, analyzed, diagrammed, tested mustache on the planet. I think actually documents went to the United States government to discuss the angle of the shave, how much mustache was going to be there,” Hanks said and laughed while talking about Walt’s legendary fine follicle line.

“I had a little bit of luck in that Walt Disney, at this time in his life was very much already Walt Disney. He is the accomplished artist, industrialist that he was. I had a lot of video and audio that I could work with. The only handicap was that a lot of it is Walt Disney playing Walt Disney!”

When it came to things he learned for Saving Mr. Banks, much of it played into Hanks’ real life. “[He was] just a regular dad. Disneyland itself came about because he used to spend every Saturday with his two daughters. And after a while, here in L.A., he ran out of places that he could take his two daughters. There were pony rides over where the Beverly Center is now, and there was the merry-go-round in Griffith Park. That was it,” Hanks said.

“He was sitting eating peanuts on a park bench in Griffith Park and the girls were on the merry-go-round, he said, ‘God, there really should be place dads can take their daughters on a Saturday in L.A.’ And from that, Disneyland was born. [I found] that connection that he had through a very tight family.”

One aspect that Disney kept from his public persona was well known to those who knew him, and they even allude to it in Saving Mr. Banks. “He smoked three packs of cigarettes a day, and he died of lung cancer,” Hanks reported. That’s just another one of the grim realities of the way the world operated back then.”

As a director/storyteller himself Hanks found a kinship with Disney in his efforts to make Mary Poppins, teased in the Saving Mr. Banks movie trailer.

“The story starts in your head and you see possibilities for it, and it’s just one damn thing after another. You’re always coming across somebody that just says, ‘No, no, no, no, no -- it’s not gonna happen.’ Walt Disney was pretty much used to getting his way because everybody loved him and he’s the guy who invented Mickey Mouse. Listen, in the creative process, which is really what this movie is about, you come to loggerheads and you just have to keep the process moving forward, even if that requires jumping on a plane and flying to London and knocking on hell-in-a-gasbag’s door,” Hanks said in reference to how Disney had to work his trademark magic on an author who did not want his vision for her story.

Where Disney was obsessed with making Mary Poppins a movie, there has to be a figure or story Hanks is also consumed with telling. “I always wanted to play Lestrade of Scotland Yard just because he’s kind of a buffoon that gets to wear a uniform,” Hanks said and laughed. “I always thought that would be fun. So maybe we got something.”

Speaking of Disney and Disneyland, when asked what Tom Hanks the grandfather has to thank Walt Disney for, he relates a story that did not turn out as he would have thought, or Walt for that matter when he designed the theme park.

“I have taken [the grandkids] to Disneyland on the day that we shot in Disneyland. As a grandparent you see no reason whatsoever that your granddaughter shouldn’t be delighted to take a ride on the Winnie the Pooh Adventure. It’s Winnie the Pooh! It’s fun. It’s Pooh Bear. It’s Kanga and Roo and Owl. It’s Christopher Robin. It’s gonna be a blast. She’s gonna remember this for the rest of her life,” Hanks recalled.

“My granddaughter was terrified by the noise, the big spinning bears! She is now haunted for the rest of her days by this first image of Winnie the Pooh in a loud, short, herky-jerky ride that her grandfather forced her to do on the day he played Walt Disney in Disneyland. That is just a sample of the fantastic job I do as a grandparent.”

Lastly, we wondered if it had occurred to Hanks that this was his second “Saving” movie after Saving Private Ryan. Is this a Hanks trilogy of “Saving?”

“I like to think of it as a trilogy. I am hoping to make Saving Nanny McPhee,” he said of his Saving Mr. Banks co-star Thompson’s franchise. “That’s what I’m hoping.”

The prolific man that is the entity known as Tyler Perry has revealed the trailer to his latest film, Tyler Perry’s Single Mom’s Club. With his A Madea Christmas arriving in theaters Friday, we’re wondering if the Atlanta-based filmmaker/producer/star/writer ever takes a day off!

Single Mom’s Club stars Nia Long, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Amy Smart, Terry Crews, Eddie Cibrian and Perry. The story follows a group of moms who become friends after an incident at their children’s school brings them together. They create a bond and support network for easing the bumps that come one’s way in trying to raise a child solo.

Tyler Perry's Single Mom's Club

Look for Tyler Perry’s Single Mom’s Club in theaters March 14, 2014. What's your favorite Tyler Perry movie?

In addition to that impressive first Godzilla trailer that debuted yesterday, we’re proud to present a new Godzilla poster. After seeing the trailer, it’s easy to see that the image for the poster is taken from a thrilling moment that arrives just before the pause that is all the Earth-bound horror that teases the monster reveal in the final moments.

Godzilla is coming back to the big screen, courtesy of director Gareth Edwards with an all-star cast featuring Bryan Cranston, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Elizabeth Olsen, Ken Watanabe, David Strathairn and Juliette Binoche.

Godzilla storms his way into theaters May 16, 2014. 

The deal when Peter Jackson and Steven Spielberg teamed up to make The Adventures of Tintin was that Spielberg would helm the first film while Jackson would produce, and Jackson would direct the second with Spielberg producing.

Well, we got that first film in 2011, and it made an impressive $373.9 million... and we’re still waiting on that sequel. While promoting The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, Jackson let it be known that he will indeed hold up his end of the bargain.

The thing is, Jackson still has one more Hobbit movie to get out, The Hobbit: There and Back Again, and it sounds like when that clears… he’s all about Tintin.

“As soon as I’m free of The Hobbit, I’ll be going back into doing Tintin,” Jackson said.

“It was held up by The Hobbit, but we have every intention of doing another Tintin movie, and it’s just waiting on me to be done with these Hobbit movies.”

We’re betting Jackson will be filming some sort of version of Tintin based on the books Seven Crystal Balls and Prisoners of the Sun. Look for a 2016 release date, at the earliest. 

Terminator 5 has a solid director in Alan Taylor (Thor: The Dark World) and has now settled in on who should play the role that is central to the entire franchise. Zero Dark Thirty and The Great Gatsby star Jason Clarke has nabbed the coveted role, rumored to have beaten Tom Hardy for the right to play the character.

Terminator: Genesis is now its official title. And whether it is the fifth movie in the series -- as it was previously known as Terminator 5 -- or whether this is a reboot remains to be seen. But we know this, this next film will be the first of a new trilogy.

Now, who will play his mother, Sarah Connor, is still up for debate, but we know it has come down to two actresses: 21 Jump Street star Brie Larson or Game of Thrones’ Emilia Clarke. What would be interesting about Emilia Clarke’s casting is she stars in Game of Thrones with Lena Headey, who famously played Sarah in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.  

Peter Jackson is back taking us to Middle Earth for his second chapter of his Hobbit journey, teased in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug trailer. We caught up with Jackson recently and up front he addressed the idea of doing something some J.R.R. Tolkien fans would see as sacrilege, creating a new character that was not in The Hobbit book. Evangeline Lilly is Tauriel and honestly, she is a great addition to a story that was first of all, lacking any female characters.

“In The Hobbit novel, they (the dwarves) get captured by the elves and they escape through the bowels and there’s a memorable part of the book. But, the elf king isn’t even named! It was only later on that Tolkien decided that he should be Thranduil and he also decided that he had a son (Legolas) when The Lord of the Rings was written, 18 years later. He created the character of the son of the king,” Jackson said.

“So, you have the material there, but you can’t have a scene in a film that’s a memorable scene and not have just one person as the elf. We wanted three Elven characters who were all different. That’s the thing too is to create characters who have conflict with one another and who have different agendas. I mean Thranduil, Legolas and Tauriel are all on different flight paths, which makes it more interesting to write the narratives through their eyes.”

There was also some criticism as to why he turned one book into a three-film trilogy. After seeing The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, for us it seemed to be a necessary decision to fully allow the adventure to intersect with the development of characters that were worthy of the screen time that honestly added to the resonance of the entire piece.

“You just want your narrative of the film to be told through either the dialogue that the characters are saying or the actions that they do. So that’s really why we ended up giving it the sort of depth and explore some of the character depth that we had done with Lord of the Rings,” Jackson admitted.

And ultimately, Jackson knew that these films would be watched as one unit of a cohesive universe that is Tolkien’s Middle Earth. “I also was acutely aware that there was going to be, ultimately, this cycle of releasing a movie every year, knowing that was six films. I expected (An Unexpected) Journey to be the beginning and Return of the King to be the end. I did want to have a unity. I didn’t want to make The Hobbit feel any more simple or any less. I just wanted it to feel like it was the same filmmakers.”

Jackson gathered his cast and crew in New Zealand for 10 weeks of pick-ups to fill in the holes necessary to make The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug and The Hobbit: There and Back Again fuller. It was during that time that ironically, Jackson felt he could have kept going!

“It was actually interesting because by the time we were done with pick-ups I was just getting in my groove,” Jackson said and laughed. “It was interesting to get completely into the narrative of the story because as a filmmaker I was getting swept along with the characters day to day. So the filmmaker is on the same journey as the dwarves to some degree over that period of time.”

What fans will notice about the second film in this trilogy, much as Two Towers did for The Lord of the Rings trilogy, is you don’t have to spend minutes with plot exploration. “The good thing with the middle film is that you don’t have to set things up, you can just drop into the story assuming that no one is going to see this film that didn’t see the first one,” Jackson said.

The filmmaker is also keenly aware that his six Tolkien films are just beginning their journey. “As much as the romance of the big screen, the 3D, and everything else is that the ultimate life of these movies is going to be one on Blu-Rays, download and hopefully for years to come. That is where they are going to find their ultimate resting place. So you are telling a continuous story. It’s three movies but it is telling one narrative arc and you are trying to make each film work individually. This is the part in the middle where you pick up your foot and put it on the gas pedal.”

When asked about the idea of fans having to wait a year for the next chapter of his films, like with The Hobbit trilogy and The Lord of the Rings trilogy, he thinks fans of the Tolkien series have it easy! “I remember when I was 17 to 19 years old. I remember the big Empire Strikes Back cliffhanger,” Jackson said.

“It was like three years before the next one came out. We’re being pretty generous with one year!”

Forbes has released its top 10 of the most overpaid actors in Hollywood. Adam Sandler tops the list, what with his $15 million per picture deal. His recent releases Jack & Jill and That’s My Boy prove Forbes' point. Jack & Jill grossed $150 million, but cost almost $80 million to make, and the amount of money Sony had to shell out to market that film results in a $3.40 return for the studio on every $1 they spend on Sandler.

Although Katherine Heigl has not been too busy lately, she too has the problem with a higher salary versus profits and marketing. She comes in second with $3.50 made by the studio for every dollar they spend on her.

There are some surprises on the list this year, such as Denzel Washington and Steve Carell, who is making his first appearance on the list. Given that he appeared in Despicable Me 2, which is on its way to $900 million, this may seem confusing. But, Carell did star in a few smaller movies this year, including The Way Way Back, which could have contributed to his landing on Forbes’ list.

Forbes Top 10 Overpaid Actors of 2013

1. Adam Sandler, Returns $3.40 for every $1 paid
2. Katherine Heigl, Returns $3.50 for every $1 paid
3. Reese Witherspoon, Returns $3.90 for every $1 paid
4. Nicolas Cage, Returns $6 for every $1 paid
5. Kevin James, Returns $6.10 for every $1 paid
6. Denzel Washington, Returns $8.30 for every $1 paid
7. Steve Carell, Returns $10 for every $1 paid
8. Jennifer Aniston, Returns $10.60 for every $1 paid
9. Matt Damon, Returns $10.60 for every $1 paid
10. Ryan Reynolds, Returns $10.70 for every $1 paid 

The Golden Globe nominations have been revealed, and although this year there are few surprises, it does do a fantastic job of putting what is one of the most challenging Oscar seasons of recent memory further into focus. Of course, with the Golden Globes breaking its major film acting awards into two categories, Drama and Comedy or Musical, it does simultaneously muddle it up a bit!

Our latest Oscar Watch looks through the nominations list and gives you the big picture on how the Golden Globes will affect the Oscar race.

We’re not sure why American Hustle was placed in the Best Motion Picture Comedy or Musical category. It is neither a musical nor a fall-on-the-floor funny film. That move probably allowed Ron Howard’s Rush to sneak into the Best Motion Picture Drama category, and although it is that good of a movie, it is not quite award nomination worthy.

Oscar, with its relatively new rules, can award up to 10 films for Best Picture, and we believe that 2013 is a year that will warrant such a long list. As such, all 10 of the comedy/musical and drama nominees for the Golden Globes could make it, although there will likely be others that Oscar likes that the Hollywood Foreign Press skipped.

12 Years a Slave and American Hustle have to be your favorites, but we would add Gravity, Her (which won the National Board of Review award for Best Picture) and The Wolf of Wall Street to the contender list. Some felt that by not receiving SAG nominations, Inside Llewyn Davis suffered, but we disagree. It’s the Coen brothers and Oscar loves them, so count that folk music celebration of a movie in for a Best Picture nod. And some may have felt that Captain Phillips has slipped a bit in the Oscar race, but its Golden Globe nomination for Best Drama all but secures its place when Academy Award nominations are handed out in mid-January.

If there is one surprise to the Best Picture nods for the Golden Globes, it is a welcome one. Seeing Philomena on this list is well-deserved and warranted. Judi Dench, of course, got her nomination and she will too come Oscar time, but Best Motion Picture – Drama for Philomena… well done!

Where things get muddled truly is the acting categories. Best Picture for Oscar gets ten spots, as we mentioned, and there are 10 nominees at the Golden Globes. But by splitting up the Drama and Comedy/Musical categories for the actors, we have 10 potential nominees and only five spots to vie for Oscar gold.

Golden Globe nominees Cate Blanchett for Blue Jasmine, Sandra Bullock for Gravity, Emma Thompson for Saving Mr. Banks and Judi Dench for Philomena are all locks for an Oscar nod. And we’re thinking the last spot will be fought over between the “Comedy” nominees, either Meryl Streep for August: Osage County or Amy Adams for American Hustle. If we had to bet, we’d put the money on Streep.

Best Actor at this year’s Oscar is by far the most challenging and competitive race of the year. Things were made more complicated by the nominations today from the Golden Globes. We’d say there are locks: Chiwetel Ejiofor for 12 Years a Slave, Matthew McConaughey for Dallas Buyers Club and Robert Redford for All is Lost.

The mystery will be whether the remaining two spots will go to Tom Hanks for Captain Phillips. Oscar loves Hanks, and they love awarding actors for playing Hollywood royalty, as Hanks does with his turn as Walt Disney. So, he might score for Saving Mr. Banks. But, there’s a complication… he’s equally good as the title character in Captain Phillips. Oscar Watch thinks Hanks may cancel himself out!

Idris Elba has to be on the list, in our opinion. His turn as Nelson Mandela was uncanny in Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, and with added interest in the biopic since Mandela’s death, look for Elba to take that fourth spot. And finally, the Academy loves a comeback and who better to embody that this year than Bruce Dern in Nebraska.

Two things truly stand out in the Supporting Acting categories, and one is the inclusion of Captain Phillips star Barkhad Abdi. He recently received a SAG nomination in the same category, and although we thought so when the film arrived, it looks like the first time film actor will score a Best Supporting Actor nomination come Oscar time! The other is the rightful and surprise inclusion of Rush’s Daniel Bruhl. He is astounding in that movie and deserves to hear his name called when Oscar nods are handed out. 

Say what you want about Johnny Depp, but he is one of the most popular actors in the world, and in our opinion, rightfully so. His latest, Transcendence, has released the first two photos from the upcoming film that also stars Morgan Freeman, Paul Bettany, Rebecca Hall, Cillian Murphy and Kate Mara.

Transcendence follows Depp’s Dr. Will Caster who is trying to build the first self-teaching supercomputer. When those that fear what it could bring (a Terminator-type revolution, perhaps?!) learn of his experiments, he is labeled an extremist. To prove them wrong, he does what he can to show that his research is safe. He then, inadvertently, becomes the subject of his own experiment of transcendence.  

“It’s a very timely subject as we find we have to update the software on our cell phones before we can even make a call,” director Wally Pfister (cinematographer for Inception) tells Entertainment Weekly, where the photos debuted. 

Look for Transcendence in theaters in 2D and IMAX on April 18, 2014. 

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug is a much better, livelier and more action-packed film than its predecessor The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Now, we enjoyed the first Peter Jackson The Hobbit film, there’s just something in his second chapter of his The Hobbit trilogy that shows that the filmmaker has taken it up a few notches.

Whereas the first film had long scenes involving dwarves enjoying merriment at Bilbo’s Shire home and others like it, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug is keenly more focused. Yes, there is exposition, but it is handled in a crisper way that moves this film along at a fiercer pace. It is still right around three hours long, but it in no way feels like it.

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug may have the absolute best action sequence of 2013. From here on out, simply saying "The Barrel Scene" will immediately conjure up images of our dwarves, Hobbit and Elven heroes careening down a rapids waterway trying to escape invading Orcs. But The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug is so much more. It has heart, triumph over adversity and the fight for what’s right feel that made The Lord of the Rings trilogy one of Hollywood’s best.

Jackson actually starts his second epic chapter with a flashback that adds so much in context. No spoilers here, but it involves Gandalf (Ian McKellen) and has us realizing that this quest that involves Bilbo had been long thought out, well before the Wizard landed on the Hobbit's doorstep.

Martin Freeman is Bilbo, and as the film picks up where the last one ended, he is on an epic quest to rid the dragon Smaug from the mountain home of a group of dwarves. He has found “The Ring” and it will play a huge part in this second chapter. That circle of gold also shows the rumblings of the awakening of evil that fully is on display in The Lord of the Rings.

It’s fascinating how the J.R.R. Tolkien film series has played out with the audience knowing where the larger world of Middle Earth is headed -- all while watching it build towards that in Jackson’s The Hobbit.

We are also introduced to a few new-to-the-film-series characters, including Luke Evans’ Bard. Our fellowship, who seeks to rid the evil dragon Smaug from the dwarves' home, meets his human in his native Lake-town, and he reluctantly becomes a huge help to our crew and thus will play a huge part in the third film, The Hobbit: There and Back Again.

Evans is fantastic and elevates the performance of every actor around him. It is through the Bard character that we get the bigger picture feel of why this quest is so important. It is about much more than ridding a dragon from his stolen perch.

Then there is Evangeline Lilly as Tauriel. Fans of the book The Hobbit know all too well that there is no female elf character named Tauriel on any one of the pages. Jackson has inserted this character into the story, and at first, it may cause fans pause. But, let us assure you, she is a terrific addition to the landscape and Lilly is astounding in the role.

Tolkien was writing in a different time, and it would have been irresponsible in today’s world to present a story without a single female protagonist. And Lilly takes the challenge and creates a character that firmly sits in Tolkien’s world. She is not simply window dressing, but an integral part of the action and drama. She gives Orlando Bloom’s Legolas something to round him out, that will ultimately set him up for the adventure he partakes in during The Lord of the Rings.

And we have to give props to Benedict Cumberbatch for his turn as Smaug. He joins Andy Serkis in the motion capture performance world and succeeds on every level. He is every ounce the evil being we know from the pages of Tolkien and makes the fire-breather a three-dimensional powerhouse that has us waiting with utter eagerness for the final Hobbit chapter landing in theaters next year.

Jackson firmly knows this world. There could have been no better visionary to tackle Tolkien’s rich universe. He grows as a filmmaker with each successive chapter, and what he has accomplished with this film, we are proud to report in our The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug review, is an impressive feat. He took a gamble by expanding a piece of art painted by one of the best in Tolkien, and he's elevated it to a level that is a treat for the eyes, ears and hearts of the world’s audiences. 

When we saw that Simon Pegg Ant-Man photo that the actor posted on his social media pages, the world went gaga over the idea of Pegg reuniting with his Blood and Ice Cream trilogy director Edgar Wright in the film version of Ant-Man.

Many who adore the Ant-Man character, on the other hand, were baffled at the idea of the UK actor tackling the superhero role in the film that is due in 2015. Turns out, Pegg was having a laugh, and in his opinion, casting him in Ant-Man would be wrong on so many levels.

"If I was Edgar, I wouldn’t cast me in Ant-Man, because I think he obviously has to spread his wings as a director and be seen not to just come with me as a package,” Pegg told SFX Magazine.

“We need to do things separately so we don’t ultimately get seen as coming as a double act. You know, Ant-Man would be enormous fun to be in, but I think Ant-Man himself has to be a lot younger than me for a start. And there probably isn’t a part for me. If Edgar asked me, I’d think about it. But as his friend and his lawyer, I would advise strongly against asking me."

So, who should play Ant-Man?

The second Rio 2 trailer has flown in and it simultaneously captures the spirit that made the first Rio an international hit and also expands the boundaries of the world created by Blue Sky Animation.

Rio 2 Theatrical Trailer

Rio 2 brings back the first movie’s Jesse Eisenberg and Anne Hathaway as, well, lovebirds who now have a family. Seems that Hathaway’s Jewel wants to leave their life in the titular city behind and head to the jungle to raise their kids as she was raised. Eisenberg’s Blu goes along with it, but this former domesticated bird who found his true home in the first movie, is not so sure it is a good idea for him personally!

Eisenberg and Hathaway are joined by the first movie’s Tracey Morgan, Jamie Foxx, Will.I.Am, Leslie Mann and George Lopez. And making their Rio debut, we have Andy Garcia, Rita Moreno, Natalie Morales and Kristin Chenoweth.

Look for Rio 2 in theaters April 11, 2014. 

It has been quite the scary year at the Cineplex this year from re-imaginings such as Evil Dead terrifying us to wildly original fare from horror directors operating at the top of their game, such as James Wan and his The Conjuring.

But, what are the best… the ones that when we look back on the year that was, still scare us? Without further ado, we present the Top 10 Horror Movies of 2013.

10. Mama
Guillermo del Toro had his handprints all over Mama, directed by one of his prodigies, Andres Muschietti. Jessica Chastain plays against type as a rocker chick who is dating a rather straight-laced guy. Things are going pretty well until her boyfriend’s brother dies mysteriously and his kids disappear. Years go by, and the kids are found in a remote cabin… but they are not the same and they do not come home alone.

Dark and delicious, Mama enthralled us in its ability to tell a horror story through the eyes of children where they can see the evil, but adults cannot. The children were in fact being raised by someone, or something, in that cabin and Mama is not going to go quietly.

We hear rumblings of a Mama 2 and that would be a very good thing.

9. Dark Skies
Keri Russell stars in this UFO thriller that paints the aliens not only as evil, but utterly haunting. It’s nice to see the sci-fi flick delve into the horror territory. Sure, Dark Skies has a few problems, but those scares are sensational.

8. Carrie
A remake nobody thought should be made, Carrie looked to update the Stephen King book and the Brian De Palma classic movie starring Sissy Spacek. Chloe Moretz stars, this time out, as the alienated high school teen who discovers she has the power of telekinesis. In this age of bullying dominating headlines, the story could not be timelier and Moretz and Julianne Moore (who plays her creepy mother) made a terrifying tandem.

7. The Purge
The Purge gets the award for most original idea for a horror flick in 2013. Ethan Hawke stars as a security specialist in a United States where crime is at an all-time low. The reason: Because once a year on a night called "The Purge," all crime is legal. Everyone gets their angst out once a year, so there is no reason to commit crimes the rest of the 364 days.

Hawke, as the security expert, feels that he and his family (with onscreen wife Lena Headey) are safe with their suburban barricades, but when their son lets in someone who is in trouble, nothing can protect them from the Purge coming their way.

6. World War Z
World War Z is a zombie movie where the zombie itself is downright scarier than any we've seen this year. Sure, it’s wildly different than the bestselling book, but then again… the book would not have made a good movie. Brad Pitt stars as a UN worker who must leave his family behind as a zombie apocalypse has taken over the world. Pitt is charged with discovering how the zombie infestation began, in hopes of stopping it.

The zombies in Marc Forster's blockbuster epic move at breakneck speed. Instead of dragging one foot behind them like we’re used to, they, in fact, swarm like insects and there is no escape.

5. Stoker
Heading in to see Stoker, Movie Fanatic saw it as a familial drama starring Nicole Kidman, Mia Wasikowska and Matthew Goode. That’s some fine pedigree for a dramatic two hours of family intertwining. But, while watching it, it became quickly clear that at its heart, director Park Chan-wook’s (the original Oldboy) American language debut was a terrifying turn into the dark corners of secrets, lies, murder and revenge.

It will surely land on our Top 10 Movies of 2013 and it also deserves to be on our Top 10 Horror Movies of 2013 for its jaw-dropping eeriness and haunting images that will remain with the viewer, long after the credits have stopped rolling.

4. You’re Next
Someone’s killing off family members and their significant others, one by one, in a remote house in You’re Next, and there’s nothing anyone seems to be able to do about it. With each successive death, the wall or nearby area is adorned with “You’re Next” written in blood. There’s a twist in this flick that you will not see coming, and honestly is one of the best plot turns in a movie all year.

3. Maniac
Elijah Wood has come a long way from Middle Earth and The Lord of the Rings and stars in this horror flick that is about as terrifying as a film can be. And who would have thought that a remake of a 1980 cult classic could up the ante and instill more fear than the original? Maniac does that and so much more.

2. The Conjuring
James Wan has rapidly made himself one of the best horror directors around and he solidified that fact with his work on this past summer’s The Conjuring. Although he said he is sworn off horror films (he’s currently filming Fast and Furious 7), we certainly hope he’s just taking a break instead of retiring from the genre. Although his Insidious Chapter 2 slightly missed the mark in 2013, The Conjuring took Wan back to a good old-fashioned haunting movie that induced utter fear around every corner.

Patrick Wilson reteamed with his Insidious director and was joined by Vera Farmiga as the real life Warrens, a couple who specialize in the supernatural and have been more than successful at ridding families of what haunts them.

The story set in the 1970s features Ron Livingston and Lili Taylor as a couple who move into a new house with all sorts of hope and promise. When their child finds a haunting doll in a hidden room -- all sorts of hell breaks loose.

1. Evil Dead
Who would have thought that a remake of a horror classic could possibly be good, much less the best horror movie of the year? Evil Dead set the standard for films of the genre when it debuted, and the same team who brought us that flick (Sam Raimi, Bruce Campbell) are all over this one as producers… thus why the quality was so good. Director Fede Alvarez clearly was an Evil Dead fanas his 2013 version of the movie feels like a love letter to one of the scariest movies to arrive in the last several decades.

Jane Levy stars as a woman who is battling addiction issues, and with the help of her brother and her friends, she heads to a remote cabin to go through withdrawal and end her cycle of drug use forever. When she starts seeing things, her cohorts deem that she is having withdrawal hallucinations and leave it at that. When things get more violent, bloody and horrifying, they realize (too late!) that it is much more than drugs leaving her system.

Honorable mentions: Insidious Chapter 2, Curse of Chucky and American Mary

The full-length trailer for The Legend of Hercules has landed and it features Kellan Lutz as the titular hero in what is truly an origins story. We recently spoke with Lutz for an exclusive interview (coming soon!) and he admitted that this was a dream role. While some kids pretended to be superheroes as a kid, he pretended to be Hercules.

Hercules features Lutz as a young Hercules, who does not yet know who he is, or what he is destined for. His mother is dead, and his father has nothing but disdain for him. Well yeah, he’s the son of Zeus!

The Legend of Hercules Movie Trailer

We appreciate how this particular trailer has included scenes where Lutz has to fight like a gladiator. As can be seen from that first The Legend of Hercules trailer, he is enslaved, and this latest teaser shows the only way to win his freedom is to fight.

The Legend of Hercules lands in theaters January 10, 2014. 

One of our favorite characters in the Iron Man series is Colonel James Rhodes, and news has arrived that Avengers: Age of Ultron will have actor Don Cheadle back in the role. We last saw Cheadle in Iron Man 3, and it will be fascinating to see how Whedon weaves in the character while still introducing James Spader as Ultron, Elizabeth Olsen as Scarlet Witch and Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Quicksilver.

Oh yeah, and then there’s the rest of those superheroes to write dialogue and plot points for!

We have a theory that Cheadle may have a minor role in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Given that Robert Downey Jr. has made it known he’s not sure if he’d return as Iron Man after The Avengers sequel, perhaps Marvel is thinking about its Iron Man franchise and handing it over in some capacity to Cheadle’s character.

We’ll have to wait and see when Avengers: Age of Ultron hits theaters May 1, 2015.