Actors do love repeat collaborations, don’t they? Drew Barrymore and Adam Sandler, Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio. Not normally in as quicker succession as this though.

Jennifer Lawrence (X-Men: First Class) and Bradley Cooper’s (The A-Team) previous collaboration on David O Russell’s The Silver Lining Playbook, is barely in post-production and won’t be released until November this year, but already the two have signed for another film together.

Serena, which is based on the 2008 novel by Ron Rash, will see the pair as two over-ambitious newly-weds George and Serena Pemberton, who move to North Carolina in 1929 to build a timber empire. However, when Serena discovers she can’t have kids, she develops an unhealthy determination to kill George’s illegitimate son.

So, she’s ambitious and vicious? Gripping stuff.

The film was initially set to be directed by Darren Aronofsky back in 2010, with Angelina Jolie considering the role of Serena. Obviously those plans fell through and the project is now to be directed by Danish born, Susanne Bier.

Jennifer and Bradley’s previous collaboration, The Silver Linings Playbook is about a former teacher, who moves back in with his mother and attempts to reconcile with his ex-wife, having spent four years in a mental institution.

Bradley who was last seen in comedy sequel The Hangover Part II, will next be in Brian Klugman’s The Words opposite Olivia Wilde and Zoe Saldana.

Lawrence in the meantime has a small supporting role in indie Like Crazy which is currently playing in cinemas across the UK, before the release of the eagerly anticipated The Hunger Games in March.

He might currently be making headlines in his role as Sherlock Holmes in the BBC’s popular Sherlock series, but it seems that he could soon be headed for Hollywood. The actor has reportedly been cast in the role of Star Trek 2‘s villain – a role which was once rumoured to have been reserves for Puerto Rican actor, Benicio Del Toro.

Whilst details of the character he will play are currently unknown, this could be the breakthrough role for Cumberbatch. The actor had previously tended to star in British dramas, such as Atonement, and last year’s hit tale of espionage, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. However, he has also recently landed a motion capture role of Smaug in Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit, which could be another sign that the actor is well on his way to international stardom.

Also making the leap from the Beeb to the big screen is former Doctor Who co-companion, Noel Clarke. Again, little is known about the exact details of his role in the Star Trek sequel, but Clarke is thought to be playing “a family man with a wife and young daughter” – something a little different to the film roles we are used to seeing him play in the likes of Kidulthood, Adulthood and 4.3.2.1.

Many of the first film’s main cast member have already signed on for the sequel, as well as a third film, so we can expect to see Chris Pine reprise his role as Captain James T. Kirk, whilst Zachary Quinto will return in the role of Spock, Zoe Saldana is back as Uhura and Simon Pegg will once again appear as Scotty.

Star Trek 2 will hit US cinemas on 17th May 2013, and a UK release date is yet to be confirmed.

Star Trek fans are going to wish they could warp forward to 2013 now it has been announced the release date for the anticipated sequel will be a rather long time off, 17th May, 2013.

The sequel to the 2009 blockbuster hit is yet to be find a title and doesn’t begin shooting until January, but fans have been spoiled with some juicy titbits. Prior to the announcement, Abrams confirmed that he was in early negotiations with Benicio Del Toro to play a villain in the film, and that long time Abrams collaborator, composer Michael Giacchino will be back to set the mood with another breathtaking score.

It has also been confirmed the film will indeed be in 3-D, a move that has surprised those familiar with J.J Abrams’s work. The director has been vocal about his reluctance to go down the 3-D avenue, not because he is opposed to the idea as such, but because he has little interest in the medium. “I have nothing against the 3-D theory,” he said in January of this year. “But I’ve never run to the movies because something’s in 3-D.” So did he change his mind of his own accord or was there persuasion involved? We suspect Paramount has a lot to do with the decision.

So for all you non-Trekies, what is all the fuss about? After all, Star Trek has had many remakes and spin-offs over the years including: the TV series Voyager, Star Trek the Next Generation and Star Trek Enterprise.

Based on the original 1966 series, the film included all the original iconic characters such as Captain Kirk, Spock and Scotty. Considering the iconic nature of the series, it was inevitable that fans would scrutinise the film’s faithfulness to the source material, and following in Williams Shatner‘s footsteps, Chris Pine played James T. Kirk chronicling the early days of the USS Enterprise, and how the young trouble-maker Kirk became the captain.

The film was a hit and holds the record as the highest grossing film based on a television series as well as introducing a new generation to the franchise. A sequel was inevitable, so fans will be excited to see where J.J. and the team take Kirk and his crew next.

All the key members of the original cast will be returning for round two, including Simon Pegg, Zoe Saldana, Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto.

Excited? Let us know.

After playing Na’vi creature Neytiri in James Cameron’s blockbuster Avatar, and finding herself caught up in last month’s crime drama Takers, Saldana has landed the lead role in upcoming film Columbiana.

It looks like Saldana’s going to be looking more than a little Lara Croft-esque for her role as Cataleya Restrepo, a woman who witnessed her parents’ murder in Colombia’s capital of Bogotá when she a child.

As an adult, she works for her gangster uncle as an assassin, but spends her free time trying to track down the mobster behind her parents’ death in order to take her revenge.

She’ll be joined by French-American actor Michael Vartan, who is best known for his television appearances US action drama, Alias. In fact, the French influences don’t stop there, with Luc Besson producing and co-writing with his frequent collaborator, Robert Mark Kamen.

Filming for this production began back in August, with shooting taking place in locations which include Chicago, New Orleans, Mexico, and Paris. We’ll keep you posted!

That may be because it should be quite a reputable, if not entirely plausible or original, crime-based action thriller. There’s an impressive cast, including Hayden Christensen, Matt Dillon and Paul Walker, as well as Zoe Saldana, who you might recognise from her computer generated character in Avatar, and Chris Brown, who’s best known for his music… amongst other things.

Somewhat ironically, rapper T.I. who was recently released from prison, is cast as an ex-convict who has been, erm, recently released from prison.

The plot involves a group of bank robbers planning their biggest ever heist. It’s a tried and tested formula that works – so what’s not to love?

Well, plenty, apparently. It’s fairly obvious from the trailer that this is set to be an action-heavy film – car chases, shootouts, helicopters, that sort of thing. The trailer is also sure to include those all important mobster-movie conventions – scantily-clad women drinking champagne, sneering men in expensive suits smoking cigars, buildings bursting into flames whilst the perpetrators walk calmly away…

Whatever the cliché, Takers has it covered, including a scene which looks to be almost directly lifted from crime classic, True Romance.

Still, nothing wrong with an unoriginal plot if the acting’s good and the script’s enjoyable – see much of Tarantino’s stuff. It’s when a film is lacking in three components that it starts to run into trouble – which, judging from what the critics have said, may well be the case for Takers.

But then again, as Betsy Sharkey writes in the LA Times, “too much — or for that matter, any — characterization might get in the way of the film’s raison d’être: standing-around-looking-cool sequences”. Decide for yourself when the film is released over here on 1st October, and check out the trailer below!

Much of the action takes place aboard the ominous interstellar cruiser, where the future captain of the starship Enterprise is still a young cadet. He’s not the only thing fresh and new though… Gone are the boxy stun guns and spray-painted toys. The $150 million budget has instead bought sleeker weaponry and costumes, not to mention the effects, which make the old ‘beam me up’ sequences seem like the work of kindergarten.

After a succession of disappointing TV spin-offs and features, this reboot might not only make fans proud to call themselves ‘Trekkies’ once more, but also bring a whole new audience.