It's not all X-Men: Days Of Future Past in the new issue of Empire. Everything from Nymphomaniac to Need For Speed is in there, and to add to the mix, here are a few words from James Gunn on something the Monty Python boys would no doubt call "completely different": Guardians Of The Galaxy.
Aside from a Comic-Con preview, the film remains very firmly under wraps - Empire'**s take on the footage: very funny, very slick and very encouraging - and Marvel fans have had to make do with concept art. Here, director Gunn (who previously brought us **Slither **and Super), tells **Empire **a little bit more about what to expect from Marvel's biggest roll of the dice yet.
"Visually, [it's] the biggest movie Marvel has made, because of the big, big starscapes and big action sequences," he says, adding: "Our characters are basically all villains to begin with. If The Avengers are The Beatles, the Guardians are The Rolling Stones."
Comparing your film to The Avengers... that makes sense. Comparing your film to The Rolling Stones? That's taking the Mick - though that's half the point when it comes to this particular group of suspect spacefarers.
"There's a lot of strange stuff in the movie. But I think the thing that makes it different from the rest of the other superhero movies out there is that they try and take something seriously that really can't be taken seriously because the concept is just too fun at its core."
If you're not already up to speed, here's why there's so much fun going on: Guardians finds Chris Pratt as Peter Quill (AKA Star Lord), a wise-cracking human pilot who gets tangled up with a group of renegades and mercenaries who eventually bond together as a mismatched team featuring a talking raccoon with a taste for explosive weaponry (Bradley Cooper) and a tree-being whose entire vocabulary is "I am Groot" (Vin Diesel).
Other cast members include Zoe Saldana, Lee Pace, Benicio del Toro, John C. Reilly, Glenn Close, Dave Bautista, Karen Gillan, Djimon Hounsou and Ophelia Lovibond. The world will see how the Galaxy will be guarded come August 1 this year.