It could be argued that Peter Jacksons' prequel to his much acclaimed, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, will seem to be remembered more for its frame rate then anything else. But the film raked in over a billion dollars at the box office so it was never going to be Bilbo's only chance to get his time to shine. The first poster for the sequel, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, was released yesterday, with the first trailer set to online by tomorrow. The poster oozes with tension with Bilbo on his merry way towards the series' baddie, Benedict Cumberbatch's gold loving dragon, Smaug, described in the book ! A most specially greedy, strong and wicked worm".

Despite being one of the highest grossing films of 2012, many critics of the first film complained that the tone was to light and far too humorous, yet the real problem with The Hobbit franchise is the question of whether Jackson can stretch a very short book over nine hours. Whether the decision to stretch the films from the original two installments, to three, was Jackson or the film execs but you cannot help but wonder what Guillermo Del Toro could have done with the franchise. Like its predecessor, The Desolation of Smaug is set for a winter release and will hit our screens on the 13th of Decemeber later this year.

Five years on from Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging and who would have thought that Aaron Johnson would be the Hollywood saviour he is becoming? British actor, Johnson, made his break through in America in Matthew Vaughn's Kick-Ass in 2010 and he hasn't looked back since, just don't mention Oliver Stone's Savages. With a sequel to Mark Millar's comic book adaptation is set for release this summer and filming with Gareth Edwards on the new Godzilla, Johnson seems to like to keep himself busy. And if the rumours are true Johnson doesn't seem to have any plans on slowing down, with every film site reporting that Johnson is hte front runner to play Quicksilver, the newest addition to Joss Whedon's Avengers. But Johnson is not the only Qucksilver you will see gracing our screens next year after Bryan Singer revealed that Evan Peters (also from Kick-Ass) is set to play Quicksilver in X-Men: Days of Future Past.

The only thing that seems clear at the moment is that Marvel fans will not be getting the cross over that they want but it would be interesting to see what both actors would bring to the same part. Aaron Johnson has star quality, unlike Evan Peters who is still pretty unknown in Hollywood. As well Johnson looks more the part with his typical good looks then Peters. If the rumours are true then it would prove for an interesting summer although it would be a whole lot more interesting if half way through Avengers 2 Hit Girl popped up to drop some beautiful C-bombs.

Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol has endlessly been remade and retread over the years, some have succeed in being humorous (Muppets Christmas Carol) and others have achieved originality (Scrooged). But if Dickens was alive nowadays and was unlucky enough to have to sit through Ghosts of Girlfriends Past then he would no doubt burn every edition of A Christmas Carol so his name could not be traced back. Starring the always dull and boring Matthew McConaughey, who yes does get his shirt off, plays photographer Connor Mead. Mead is lets say, a disgusting sexist pig who thinks his the most important person to women around the world, he is the type of person in a club or pub that you would emigrate to avoid. We first encounter Mead breaking up with three girls at the same time, or as he calls it "in bulk", while about to have intercourse with another. This basically sets up the tone for the rest of the film, women are only featured as disposable sex objects for Mead to play with then kick out of bed to move on to the next woman. Mead is made to look like some sex god, with women fallen at his feet while his lovers, or should I say victims, are portrayed as promiscuous and easy. The question of why women sleep with him, especially once she has seen him treat three women like  trash, its not only baffling but annoyingly offensive.

Mead's redemption comes when he visits his brothers wedding in the form of his deceased uncle Wayne, played by a washed up Michael Douglas, who plays the Marley part warning Mead that he will be visited by three ghosts. Douglas' cameo in the film adds nothing but another layer of disgusting dialogue including such magical and beautiful lines as "women liked to be screwed but not screwed over". Lovely, just lovely. The first ghost of girlfriend past, played by Emma Stone, offers the closest thing this film comes to to comedy. The comedy in no way comes from the script but instead, from Stone's easy likeability. You get the gist from then on and no one would blame you if you turned it off at that point. Seen as it is a romantic comedy, despite swapping the romance for sexist bigotry and comedy for, yes you guessed it, more sexist bigotry, there has to be a love interest hidden somewhere and that comes in the form of Jennifer Garner, an actress who has never exhibited any talent, Elektra and Daredevil are perfect examples of that. Garner plays Jenny Perotti, Mead's childhood sweetheart. It is quite fitting that Connelly stars seen as she is as dreadfully dull as the lead. Watching the two leads is more painful then a root canal without anaesthetic, neither demonstrate any talent, only there to be gawked at.

The typical layout that the screenwriters have ripped out of Dickens' books allows scriptwriters, Jon Lucas and Scott Moore, to be as dull and boring as their leads. And Mark Waters, the director responsible for the likes of Mr Popper's Penguins, adds to the layers of characterless, insipid and monotonous dullness.The film takes exactly the same route as most adaptations of Dickens' novel, it never strays from the overly beaten track and seeing McConaughey shout outside a window "You boy? What day is it? Is it Christmas day?", makes you wish for the warmth of Michael Caine's Scrooge. Although it is incredibly fitting that the film is set in winter as the film lacks any warmth what so ever and even after Mead has gone through his transformation you cannot help but just want to punch his smug, air brushed face. The typical story of redemption is common in Hollywood films, some wear it well but it looks like a cheap suit on this film. The only thing this film should be applauded for is that it has an ending but sadly it doesn't come quick enough. If you are looking for a film about redemption buy Groundhog Day on DVD, the first two minutes of Bill Murray's classic has more character and comedy then the 115 minutes that this atrocious film runs for. It is well known that you can make a bad film out of a good script but you can't make a good film out of a bad script, somebody should have burnt this script before it saw the light of day.

Jamie Foxx maybe spending his summer in the cinemas running around the White House in Roland Emmerich's White House Down, imagine Olympus has Fallen but with Channing Tatum instead of Gerard Butler. But this time next year we will all be enjoying Foxx play Spiderman villain, Electro in the sequel to The Amazing Spiderman. Foxx may not have been the actor everyone thought director Marc Webb would cast as Electro but judging from the recent photos that have been released, Webb and co are taking a new stance on the character. Foxx recently talked to Total Film about his experience on the film “It’s been fantastic. [Director] Marc Webb has been fantastic to work with. What I’ve learned on the set… that suit, that Spider-Man suit… the first thing I had to shoot it was like… not tears, but this is the real thing. It was mindblowing. My little daughter - maybe two years ago, she was a huge Spider-Man fan. She had a Spider-Man birthday party, and she got the chance to come on the set and her mind is blown. She says, ‘Wow, there’s so many Spider-Men!’ There was a stunt Spider-Man and everything…”

Foxx isn't the only newcomer to Webb's universe, even more surprisingly then Foxx playing Electro, Paul Giamatti has come on board as Rhino. It literally has to be seen to be believed that Giamatti, someone more famous for strong acting roles then big blockbusters, but it will be interesting to see what they have managed to do with it because from the photos, he looks nothing like a rhino. The whole interview is available in the new Total film and if you cannot wait to see Amazing Spiderman 2 then you will have to wait till April next year. 

Many fans of Star Wars have spent the last few months speculating what director J.J. Abrams will do with their beloved franchise. With news coming from Disney about potential spin-offs for Han Solo and everyone's favourite assassin, Boba Fett. Along with the news that Disney are looking to release a Star Wars film once every year after 2015. At a recent Produce by Conference event  the director was bombarded with questions but managing to avoid the bigger questions he did release some of his plans saying, “Talk about bigger than any of us. That thing is so massive and so important to so many people. I know from seeing the first film when I was 11 what that felt like. I think the key in moving forward with something like this is in honoring but not revering what came before. There’s that deep feeling of infinite possibilities that I think was the ultimate thing I thought when I first saw Star Wars, which I would – and probably will – give my left arm to try and come close to again.” 

It seems like Abrams has got his work cut out in creating a film that will satisfy the child within him yet still create something new and fresh, and remember to avoid dull and boring story lines that include taxation on trade routes. There is no doubt Abrams can helm a film on this scale, his recent two Star Trek films are evidence of this but there isn't a franchise on Earth that has the following of Star Wars and if he wants to win them over he will have to avoid the balls up that Lucas made in the three prequels that made everyone forget why they loved Star Wars in the first place. Pretty much everyone on planet Earth will be crossing their fingers for no Jar Jar Binks like characters. With Disney looking to release the seventh film in the franchise by 2015, although Abrams himself hasn't confirmed this, fans won't have to wait long to see what Abrams can do. 

You are probably more use to seeing Daniel Radcliffe in a cape and a wand in his hand but the British actor seems adamant to put his childhood behind him with his choose of films lately. Later this year we see him alongside Ben Foster, Dane Dehann and Elizabeth Olsen in Kill your Darlings, in which Radcliffe plays beat poet, Allen Ginsberg. But in another attempt to distance himself from the billion dollar franchise that was Harry Potter, Radcliffe takes the lead role in the bizarre, Horns. Without even hearing the synopsis and just looking at the photo, you know this is going to be an odd one. Radcliffe plays Ig Perrish who after the death of his girlfriend wakes up after a heavy night of boozing and finds he has grown horns from his head, sort of life a modern day version of Franz Kafka's Metamorphoses. Coming from the pen of Joe Hill, son of Horror writing legend Stephen King, and being directed by Alexandre Aja, director of Mirrors and The Hills have Eyes, it would be easy to mistake this for just another horror film. But Radcliffe wants to eradicate any preconceptions anyone might have, telling Total film “The first third starts off like some bizarre absurdist comedy, and then it becomes this epic tragic love story and revenge saga with elements of horror, fantasy, religion and everything else you can imagine along the way,” he explained. “And rock’n’roll, that’s another important influence in the movie. I saw it the other day and I do think that Alexandre has done an amazing job. The Woman In Black is more authentically horror. Horns has horror elements in it but it’s not really a horror film. “There’s one sequence where – in Alex’s words – we go into full slasher movie mode. Generally speaking, it’s never just one thing, which is why it will be a challenging film to market." Set to hit our screens at the end of this year, it won't be long till the audience can de-cypher this one for themselves.

The internet has been a blaze with rumors about who could star in the next Avengers film. And now fans hankering for more Whedon directed fun, can indulge in some Avengers news. Sibling superheroes Scarlett Witch and Quicksilver have been confirmed for the film that is set to wrap up Marvel's Phase two. In an interview with IGN Whedon let the rumor slip and said: “You know, they had a rough beginning. They’re interesting to me because they sort of represent the part of the world that wouldn’t necessarily agree with the Avengers. So they’re not there to make things easier. I’m not putting any characters in the movie that will make things easier.” Brother and sister superheroes Scarlett Witch and Quicksilver have been rumored over the past few months and now it has been confirmed comic book fans breath a sigh of relief and sit back and wait for the film. In the comic book Quicksilver and Scarlett Witch are the offspring of X-Men villain Magneto but after their father's abduction they were assigned by Iron Man and became part of the second generation of Avengers.Scarlett Witch has the ability to manipulate probability, manipulate chaos magic as well as being able to manipulate reality. Quicksilver, on the other hand, has the ability to think and move at phenomenal speeds as well as jumping through time. Both exhibit some extra ordinary powers that would make them useful to the Avengers.

Now the rumors are true the internet will not doubt come alive with a million suggestions of who could play the new superheroes. With names like Rachel McAdams, Evan Rachel Wood and even Kate Beckinsale have been rumored to take the part of the Scarlett Witch. And actors such as Robert Pattinson (obviously), Tom Felton and Orlando Bloom have been rumored to play the role of Quicksilver. No matter who takes on the role, to see these two characters alongside Captain America, Thor and Iron Man would only make the sequel more watchable.