After a mini-leak of footage from Iron Man 2 in a behind-the-scenes doc, Paramount (bless ’em) have decided to give us all an early Christmas present in the form of a new trailer. And we have to say, it’s looking pretty chuffin’ awesome.

Well, pretty much. Lately, it seems like you can’t go two minutes without some Hollywood star-or-other announcing they’re set to appear in Thor, the upcoming film of the popular Marvel strip. With with so many names being bandied about we thought it was high time someone sat down and collated all the info together.

Another day, another announcement of a franchise needlessly yanked, kicking and screaming, into the 21st century. This time – and seeing that horror’s rather fashionable at the moment – it’s the turn of the 1973 classic The Exorcist. But wait! Before you let out that hangdog, undone sigh and bemoan the state of the universe you might want to reflect on the finer details.

We can’t help but notice that Hollywood loves to up the explosion-and-sex factor with Britain’s classic literature. One only needs to look at the bare chest of Robert Downey Jr as the new Sherlock Holmes to see that the silver screen doesn’t mind taking a few liberties. But what other classic-but-uncool tales are Hollywood missing out on? We re-imagine some great British classics the way Spielberg would do ’em…