Max Von Sydow Is Joining Game Of Thrones

As someone we've already met...

Given the rate at which author George R.R. Martin (and the producers of the show based on his books) like to off characters, it’s only right that Game Of Thrones keeps adding to its ranks, lest the show end up as Peter Dinklage talking to a tree. Following on from Ian McShane’s casting in a mysterious role, Entertainment Weekly brings word that venerable thesping type Max von Sydow is also headed for Westeros.

Unlike his fellow new arrival however, Sydow’s role is not so shrouded in secrecy. We’ll drop a Spoiler Alert here in case you don’t want to know, but he’s already at work as the character known for now as the Three-Eyed Raven, last glimpsed at the end of Season Four, and who will mentor Isaac Hempstead Wright’s Bran Stark in the ways of the warg. 

With the show diverting further from the books and, as we enter the sixth season, overtaking the narrative from the printed page, we’ll have to wait to learn more about him. The series is expected to return as usual next Spring and HBO chiefs revealed last week that we’re looking at eight seasons at least, up from seven as has been talked up before. For more on the show, check out our coverage of its Comic-Con panel.

Von Sydow, who was last seen on the big screen in the likes of Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close and Branded, is part of the cast for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, though his role there is even more under tight security. 

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Ali Larter Returns For Resident Evil: The Final Chapter

Claire Redfield is back

Though we still don’t know whether the title Resident Evil: The Final Chapter will stick (the team might still want to leave the door open to possible future entries), some things are locked in place for the sixth film, including Milla Jovovich and writer/director Paul W.S. Anderson. Deadline brings word today that Ali Larter will be back as Claire Redfield.

Larter, a veteran of the third and fourth films (and glimpsed in archive footage during the fifth), is confirmed as returning, though quite what Claire will be up to is anyone’s guess that this point. The new film picks up the story following the end of 2012’s Retribution, which ended with Jovovich’s Alice and some of the rag-tag human survivors joining the Umbrella army in defending the White House against a huge tide of the Red Queen’s zombie creatures. So there will be the usual carnage, but perhaps also some closure for our central heroine.

The film has had to wait as Jovovich and husband Anderson became parents for the second time in April, meaning that the shoot is now scheduled for September in South Africa, with a US release date set for roughly a year after that. Larter has also recently worked on horror pic The Diabolical, scheduled for an October 16 release across the pond but with no sign of it reaching these shores yet. 

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Frank Grillo Seals A Deal For The Purge 3

Sergeant reporting for another tour of duty

He took over for Ethan Hawke as the main character in the Purge films with the second, Anarchy. And Frank Grillo is ready to make it a double, entering final negotiations to star in The Purge 3. 

Writer/director James DeMonaco is also back again for the third time, spinning another violent yarn about the alternate near-future America which has one day each year when all crime is legalized for a 12-hour period, as written into the constitution by the government. In The Purge: Anarchy, Grillo’s Sergeant was a man on a mission of revenge who ended up helping to protect a group of innocents who are stuck without shelter in Los Angeles as the annual event kicks off.

DeMonaco has yet to outline what the new movie will cover, though Grillo’s return means more tough guy behaviour from Sergeant and, if the actor himself turns out to be correct, a further expansion of Michael K. Williams’ character, Carmelo Johns. The film is targeting a July 1, 2016 release in the States, with Blumhouse Productions and Universal once again keeping the budget thrifty in the hopes of high returns.

According to Variety, there had been some concern that scheduling clashes with Grillo’s work on TV series Kingdom could prevent his return, but the dates have now been worked out and he’ll report to the Purge set next month. The actor will also be seen in Beyond Skyline, A Conspiracy On Jekyll Island, horror pic Stephanie and the character-filled Captain America: Civil War, which sees him finally becoming Crossbones after the events in The Winter Soldier. The Marvel movie will be out here on April 29 next year. 

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Mega Buzz: Arrow Won't Give Oliver and Felicity Their Happy Ending Yet

Oliver (Stephen Amell) and Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards) may have rode off into the sunset together in Arrow's third season finale, but the couple's problems are far from over.

Oliver, who is finally happy at the start of Season 4, will find his new sunny worldview challenged when he and Felicity

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• Arrow
• Stephen Amell
• Emily Bett Rickards

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7 Things We Learned About Transparent Season 2

The cast and creator of Amazon's Emmy-nominated Transparent gathered at the Television Critics Association fall previews, and debuted a first look at the show's upcoming season, which premieres on Dec. 4. Here's what we learned:

1. The show hired a trans writer. In Season 2, the show has to do less

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Other Links From TVGuide.com

• Transparent
• Jill Soloway
• Jeffrey Tambor
• Amy Landecker
• Gaby Hoffmann
• Jay Duplass
• Bradley Whitford

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Warners Can Play Dungeons & Dragons Again

It's game on following a lawsuit and a settlement with Hasbro

There was good news for Warner Bros. today. It has finished its homework and can now play Dungeons & Dragons! Well, that’s sort of what happened. In reality, the studio has worked out a deal with rights holders Hasbro and producer Courtney Soloman’s Sweetpea Entertainment to partner on a new film based on the long-running game world.

And if ever there was a subject actually crying out for a new cinematic adaptation, it was Dungeons & Dragons, which suffered through Soloman’s less-than-magical effort back in 2000 with two straight-to-SyFy Channel sequels after that.

A few years ago, Warners decided to go ahead and try to conjure up its own take, working with Wrath Of The Titans/Red Riding Hood writer David Leslie Johnson’s script Chainmail – itself based on a more obscure game crafted by Dungeons designer Gary Gygax – and having him re-work it to focus on the ideas from the main title before it had locked down rights from Hasbro. That company instead chose to push ahead on a film deal with Universal, and Warners began talking to Solomon and Sweetpea about using their rights instead. Hasbro objected, claiming Sweetpea’s rights had reverted to it, and thus began the battle. Now, the studio and the toy giant have apparently made a deal that allows Warners to go ahead, though no one has heard what Universal thinks about the idea. If there’s an Indominus Rex stalking towards the Warner lot this week, we know what happened.

Still, Warners appears confident it can finally proceed. “We are so excited about bringing the world of Dungeons & Dragons to life on the big screen,” Greg Silverman, Warner Bros. president of creative development and worldwide production said in a statement. “This is far and away the most well-known brand in fantasy, which is the genre that drives the most passionate film followings.  D&D has endless creative possibilities, giving our filmmakers immense opportunities to delight and thrill both fans and moviegoers new to the property.” Please just make this better than the one Jeremy Irons and Marlon Wayans probably wish they could scrub from their CVs. 

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Ronda Rousey Starring In Her Own Biopic

Mark Bomback will adapt My Fight/Your Fight

You might argue that, at 28, UFC champ and actor Ronda Rousey is young to be writing her autobiography, let alone locking in a deal to star in the film based on the book. But she’s led such an interesting life so far that you can see why Paramount might be keen to buy the rights. 

The studio has Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes’ Mark Bomback adapting the book My Fight/Your Fight, which Rousey wrote with older sister Maria Burns Ortiz. It takes a hard stare at the many challenges – a tough birth, communication issues when young, struggling to make her way in the brutal and often sexist world of Ultimate Fighting – that she has overcome in her life and career, on her way to combining a dominant run in the Octagon with an embryonic film career. 

Nothing is yet known about what form the film will take, but it’ll roughly follow Rousey’s life up to recent accomplishments, which includes appearances in Entourage and Fast & Furious 7, plus knocking out UFC opponent Bethe Correia in 34 seconds last weekend in Brazil. The project is still developing, and will have to wait for Rousey to be available again – she’ll work with Bomback on the script for the adaptation before training for a potential next bout and is also scheduled to co-star in Peter Berg’s next action thriller, Mile 22, which will kick off production in January. 

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