McKellen and Fry unite in Fellowship to battle a powerful, unceasing force for corruption, evil and doom – LA lawyers.

Maybe he should go on Come Dine With Dwarves! No? Okay, forget we mentioned it.

We could not love it more.

This summer, you can hardly move for superhero films – and Green Lantern aside, we’ve seen most of the stars before. All the classic heroes have had a fair few outings with different faces by now, and if there’s one thing we hate about competition it’s not knowing who’s the WINNER. Feel like arbitrarily deciding whether Michael Keaton’s better at being grumpy than Christian Bale? Good.

This week we’ve decided to give the much under-appreciated Michael Fassbender a little cheat sheet of his own. The multi-accented, bi-lingual, self-starving (only for a role) actor is having a pretty good time of it at the moment, so it’s time to see how he’s got there, and where he’s going.

Do you think it might actually happen?

Hobbit news that isn’t TERRIBLE news? What brave new world is this?

So, we’ve heard that a couple of small films based on some fantasy book, starring a few fairly well-known actors and directed by this Kiwi bloke have started shooting in..

Some books – anything by Roald Dahl, DIY safety manuals, Katie And Peter: The Sweet Release Of Death – were never meant for the transition to the big screen. And we salute them for that – heck, Katie and Peter are far too camera-shy anyway, bless them. But some literary classics are just crying out for a blockbusting re-vamp, and like Gok Wan to a nation of slop-shouldered, emotionally fragile women, we are here to loudly point at what needs to go where.

What is it that makes Colin Firth, Helen Mirren and Judi Dench so good at playing our monarchs of old? Is it maturity, is it talent or is it just that they all have a crown fetish? From the Sixteenth Century up to the present day, many actors have tried to play royalty, and few have succeeded. Those that have are celebrated here.