This week in news: Episode VIII adds Laura Dern, the new Predator gets a poster, Adam McKay promises more Ant-Man and there’s more proof that the Kindergarten Cop sequel is an actual real thing.
Episode VIII gets underway
Director Rian Johnson shouted “cut!” and, well, that was it. This week’s Star Wars: Episode VIII video was a lovely way of inviting the world to have a glimpse of that Irish outcrop before the shutters go up again, with a first take of scene one of Lucasfilm's latest sure-fire smash. After last week’s rumours, the follow-up to The Force Awakens was officially up and running, adding a new cast member to the fray (Laura Dern) and confirmed the return of Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Lupita Nyong’o, Domhnall Gleeson, Anthony Daniels, Gwendoline Christie, and Andy Serkis. No word of Peter Mayhem, though. Where does this leave poor Chewie?
Kindergarten Dolph
He’s tackled Rocky Balboa and Skeletor, survived several Universal Soldier movies and was once confronted by a pram filled with kittens in Empire’s reception area (long story). Now, as trailer man would no doubt say, Dolph Lundgren is faced with his greatest challenge: a classroom filled with psychotic nippers in Kindergarten 2. If you thought this sequel was some kind of early April fool, think again. It had a new trailer this week showing him stepping into his old Expendables mucker Arnold Schwarzenegger’s shoes as hard nut FBI man Agent Reed tackling a room full of six year-olds while trying to complete his mission. You still think it’s an April fool, don’t you? Here, take a look.
From Big Short to very little superhero…
Adam McKay is riding the crest of an awards season wave. His satirical/comic look at the sub-prime crash The Big Short is hotly tipped for Oscars, but all that fancy-dan tuxedo business won’t keep him from the more popcorn-y side of things. In a conversation with The Nerdist this week, McKay revealed that he’ll be reuniting with Paul Rudd to help nut out a script for Peyton Reed’s Ant-Man And The Wasp. [How much involvement he’ll have is to be confirmed but he will play a part](http://www.empireonline.com/movies/ant-man/adam-mckay-says-will-return-ant-man-wasp/
), alongside Ant-Man scribes Andrew Barrer and Gabriel Ferrari. “We’ve been talking to Marvel actually,” said McKay. “We just talked to them the other day, and it looks like I will be involved. I don’t know if it’s gonna be right from page one. But it looks like I will definitely be involved." Good news!
Ain’t got time to full bleed
That angry trans-galactic backpacker Predator is back, back, back. Not the same one – he died in a fit of giggles and a small thermonuclear detonation back in 1987 – but probably a close relative in a Shane Black reboot that got [its first piece of promotional activity this week](http://www.empireonline.com/movies/predator/predator-shane-black-teaser-image-title/
). “You’ll never see him coming,” warned the poster, a caution for whoever Black has in mind to follow in his own footsteps into the jungle/cityscape/branch of TK Maxx that’ll be the setting for this one. "It's an inventive sequel,” explained Black. "As far as Fred [Dekker, writer] and I are concerned, why start over, when you’ve all this rich mythology yet to mine? I like the idea of expanding and exploring the existing Predator mythology, rather than hitting the restart button.”
Deadpool = dead rich
Filed under 'News Absolutely No-one Saw Coming’, last weekend saw Deadpool proving that having a potty mouth and a filthy mind can pay big at the box office. Earning its studio, 20th Century Fox, an incredible million across the US holiday weekend, Ryan Reynolds’ alt.superhero shattered previous box office records, including one set by Fifty Shades Of Grey for an R-rated release. (Something tells us that Deadpool would be more than a bit tickled to have given Anastasia Steele a spanking.) Now a film that once seemed like a risk will get sequels and even the prospect of more X-Men crossovers. Good ones, this time.
Emily Blunt considering a spoonful of sugar
Disney are planning a new Mary Poppins movie, and it appears they've found their practically perfect Mary: Emily Blunt is the Mouse House's first choice to play the umbrella-wielding nanny. She's apparently still in talks, for a film which is something of a reboot/sequel, set 20 years after the original film. Rob Marshall, who directed Blunt in Into The Woods, is helming this one. If there has to be a supercalifragilistic remake, Blunt seems like a good choice.