Your Bank Holiday news digest! The next X-Men movie, Ant-Man , new Transformers TV spot, the 35th anniversary of Alien and more...
• Here's a new TV spot for Transformers: Age Of Extinction - there's little that's very new, it's just 31 seconds of things going boom. Enjoy:
Transformers: Age Of Extinction opens in the UK on Thursday 10 July 2014.
• X-Men: Days Of Future Past took in $36 million on its opening day . That's better than The Amazing Spider-Man 2 ($35 million) but not quite up there with Godzilla which looks to have grabbed over $38 million on its first day. Meanwhile writer Simon Kinberg has dropped hints about the next one , X-Men: Apocalypse . The titular villain is apparently "more powerful than Magneto" - and we should expect that power to include blowing a lot of stuff up. "The kind of scope and scale we're talking about is like disaster movie, extinction level event. Sort of Roland Emmerich-style moviemaking."
• In case you missed it, over the weekend we heard that Edgar Wright will no longer direct Marvel’s Ant-Man movie . Variety reported on a joint statement from Marvel and Wright that claims the amicable decision stems from "differences in their vision of the film." Joss Whedon saluted the decision, appropriately, with a Cornetto . Meanwhile Guardians Of The Galaxy director James Gunn took to Facebook over the weekend and called the split a "breakup", calling both Wright and Marvel "friends" while admitting his sadness at seeing them go their different ways. Gunn also stated that he feels neither's to blame for the parting of the ways, concluding that "not everyone belongs in a relationship together. It doesn't mean they're not wonderful people." Guardians Of The Galaxy opens on Thursday 31 July 2014. Ant-Man is still set to open on Friday 17 July 2015.
• Talking of people parting ways with Marvel, the studio has confirmed that Stephen S DeKnight, creator of Spartacus , has taken over as new showrunner on the Netflix Daredevil series (original showrunner Drew Goddard apparently pulled out back in March when he was assigned to Sony's proposed Sinister Six spin-off movie).
• Two big film anniversary events will be celebrated in London's East End in August and September, at the Genesis Cinema. On Sunday 24 August you can watch Alien and applaud its 35th anniversary in the company of its BAFTA-nominated editor Terry Rawlings and associate producer Ivor Powell. Then it's time for the 30th anniversary of Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom . Following a screening at the cinema there'll be an exclusive interview with its producer, Robert Watts, and its art director, Alan J Cassie. That's on Sunday 14 September. Book for both online now .
• Can't wait to find out which sci-fi moment topped our national poll? Entered the zombie short story competition and want to know if you won? It's SFX issue 250 you'll be wanting, and it's due out next month! Subscribe to SFX now in order to guarantee you don't miss it - and it's only £2.50 issue in this current offer . Issue 249, meanwhile, officially hits newsstands on Wednesday and comes with a free Transformers car freshener! ( Some lucky subscribers have it already .)
