The Force is with us

Just when it seemed that Darth Vader had heavy breathed his last, the world of Star Wars has returned with a vengeance.

This follows the several billion dollar sale of George Lucas's Lucasfilm to Disney - and the promise of an Episode 7 for 2015.

After six films since 1977 when the franchise first burst on an unsuspecting galaxy very close to home, creator Lucas, 68, said: "It's now time for me to pass Star Wars on to a new generation of filmmakers. I've always believed that Star Wars could live beyond me, and I thought it important to set up the transition during my lifetime."

Quite where the series will pick up is currently unclear since the last batch of three films were designed as a 'prequel' to the original trio of blockbusters..

With the current power of the so-called "grey pound" which, thanks to the box office success of films like The King's Speech and Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, has seen a surge in middle-age audiences, don't rule out the possibility of Harrison Ford & Co unbuckling their light sabers for a new, slightly arthritic, adventure in space.

Transformers: Another battle begins!

Oh dear, things are getting a bit fractious in the world of The Transformers. Director Michael Bay took to his blog to lambast actor Hugo Weaving as a "whiner" after the latter said his voice work on the blockbuster trilogy was "meaningless" because he had no idea what his lines meant.

In remarks he later deleted – but not before several sites had captured a screenshot – Bay implied that Weaving ought to have taken the money and kept his mouth shut after voicing the lead villain Megatron in the Transformers trilogy without, apparently, bothering to read the script in advance.

 "Do you ever get sick of actors that make $15m a picture, or even $200,000 for voiceover work that took a brisk one hour and 43 minutes to complete, and then complain about their jobs?" asked the director. "With all the problems facing our world today, do these grumbling thespians really think people reading the news actually care about trivial complaints that their job isn't 'artistic enough' or 'fulfilling enough'?

"What happened to people who had integrity, who did a job, got paid for their hard work, and just smiled afterward? Be happy you even have a job – let alone a job that pays you more than 98% of people in America."

Bay was upset by Weaving’s comments to the Collider blog. "It was one of the only things I've ever done where I had no knowledge of it, I didn't care about it, I didn't think about it," said Weaving. "They wanted me to do it. In one way, I regret that bit. I don't regret doing it, but I very rarely do something if it's meaningless. It was meaningless to me, honestly. I don't mean that in any nasty way.

"My link to that and to Michael Bay is so minimal. I have never met him. I was never on set. I've seen his face on Skype. I know nothing about him, really. I just went in and did it. I never read the script. I just have my lines, and I don't know what they mean. That sounds absolutely pathetic! I've never done anything like that in my life. It's hard to say any more about it than that, really."