Add Will Ferrell, Liam Neeson, Nick Offerman and Alison Brie to Warner Bros.' LEGO movie. The actors join Chris Pratt, Elizabeth Banks, Will Arnett and Morgan Freeman in the latest marriage of toy and film. They predicted this in Cahiers du Cinéma, right?

Deadline reports that Ferrell will voice the chief baddie in the film, President Business, while Neeson will be the president’s henchman, Bad Cop. Offerman is to play a pirate and Brie will be a member of Pratt's hero character's questing team who has "a powerful secret." Phil Lord and Chris Miller (21 Jump Street) are writing and directing for a February 7, 2014, release.

I think it's a shame that Ferrell isn't playing a LEGO version of Buddy the Elf and Neeson a LEGO Ra's al Ghul. Hey, they're both Warner Bros. characters, so why not?!

We couldn't find a picture of Buddy the Elf making LEGOs, but you get the idea.

Talk to Senior Editor Scott Collura on Twitter at @ScottIGN, on IGN at scottcollura and on Facebook.

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McG is now attached to direct Fox and Radar Pictures' Hollywood Magic Castle movie, based on the famed magicians' night club. Andrew Barrer and Gabe Ferrari will pen the screenplay.

Built in 1909, the historic mansion on Franklin Avenue serves as the headquarters of the nonprofit Academy of Magical Arts Inc. and offers a private space for renowned magicians to perform. Celebs who have performed at the exclusive nightclub include Cary Grant, Steve Martin, Johnny Carson and Neil Patrick Harris, who is the current president of the Academy of Magical Arts.

McG will soon begin filming the Kevin Costner-starrer Three Days to Kill, which will wrap production in February. From there, says The Hollywood Reporter, the filmmaker will shift his focus to Magic Castle, which has Radar's Ted Field producing.

Now repped by agency CAA, the Magic Castle will begin expanding its marketing opportunities not only to films, but other outlets such as television, live events, video games, digital media and merchandising.

Max Nicholson is a writer for IGN, and he desperately seeks your approval. Show him some love by following @Max_Nicholson on Twitter, or MaxNicholson on IGN.

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Good grief, Charlie Brown! Your studio has decided to open your new movie against a Marvel film.

20th Century Fox has rescheduled its untitled new Peanuts movie from a November 25, 2015 release to November 6, 2015 debut ... which puts it head-to-head at the box office with director Edgar Wright's Ant-Man.

Peanuts takes over the slot originally slated for a different Fox release, B.O.O.: Bureau of Otherworldly Operations, which has been shifted to September 25, 2015 instead.

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Universal Pictures has unveiled the poster for the upcoming release of Jurassic Park 3D via the movie's official Facebook page:

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Warner Bros. has revealed some new details about the Mortal Kombat movie reboot, suggesting that the new adaptation is already in production.

According to WorstPreviews, Warner Bros executive Lance Sloan confirmed that the film was being developed, as well as its director and budget.

“

We're preparing right now for the film with Kevin Tancharoen, [who] directed the digital series for us. He's at the helm of the forty, fifty million dollar film.

“We're preparing right now for the film with Kevin Tancharoen, [who] directed the digital series for us," said Sloan. "He's at the helm of the forty, fifty million dollar film."

The series he's referring to is Mortal Kombat: Legacy, which debuted on YouTube in April 2011. Aside from this, Tancharoen's other directorial efforts include the remake of Fame, Glee: The 3D Concert Movie and The Pussycat Dolls Present: The Search for the Next Doll. Sooo....yeah. Fingers crossed that he draws on resources from Legacy rather than his earlier batch of work when making the movie?

In terms of the proposed plot for the reboot, nothing has been confirmed, but rumours are swirling it'll follow a supermarket employee who discovers he has otherworldly powers and must make the ultimate choice between fighting for the side of good or evil.

The original Mortal Kombat film appeared in 1995 and was directed by Paul W. S. Anderson. This in turn spawned a sequel, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation in 1997, which performed poorly at the box office in comparison to its predecessor. As a result a planned third film, Mortal Kombat: Devastation, was shelved indefinitely until Warner Bros. picked up the rights to Midway's assets in 2009 following the game studio going bankrupt.

Luke Karmali is IGN's UK Editorial Assistant and Mortal Kombat fanatic. You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on IGN and on Twitter.

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The new release Wreck-It Ralph is a movie that should appeal to anyone who loves CG animated adventures, but it has a special appeal for gamers. The movie is crammed with references and homages to video games of both the classic and modern era. Even the movie's two leads, Wreck-It Ralph and Fix-It Felix, are inspired by Donkey Kong and Mario, respectively.

As Ralph embarked on his quest for acceptance, the movie featured three game worlds inspired by real-world games and gaming genres. There was the Donkey Kong-esque Fix-It Felix Jr. arcade world. There was Hero's Duty, a hardcore sci-fi shooter inspired by games like Gears of War, Halo, and Metroid. And there was Sugar Rush, a world that was equal parts Mario Kart and Candy Land.

We were only disappointed that the movie didn't feature even more worlds. There are plenty of genres still ripe for Wreck-It Ralph's brand of spoofing. But with a sequel looking very likely at this point, the potential is still there. We've picked out a handful of worlds we hope to see appear in Ralph's next epic quest.

Fantasy World

As seen in: The Legend of Zelda, Fable, The Elder Scrolls

We're not expecting an actual movie based on the Legend of Zelda anytime soon, so the next best option might be to throw Ralph into a world inspired by Hyrule or Fable's Albion. Rather than the running and gunning of Hero's Duty, this world would force our heroes to navigate labyrinthine dungeons, contend with mind-bending traps and puzzles, and battle dragons, goblins, and the undead. Perhaps the movie could lampoon the endless, arbitrary fetch quests these games often saddle players with or the fact that action RPG heroes like Link so rarely speak.

Horror World

As seen in: Resident Evil, Silent Hill

Outside of Cyril the hatchet-wielding, emotionally supportive zombie, Wreck-It Ralph didn't pay much attention to the colorful legacy of horror gaming. To some degree that's understandable, as it can be difficult to maintain a family-friendly PG rating when dealing with nightmarish landscapes and zombies, vampires, and the like.

Still, we'd like to see more horror representation next time around. There has to be a way to put a more colorful and less scary spin on popular games like Resident Evil and Silent Hill. What happens when Ralph's giant fists go up against a Pyramid Head or Tyrant? Is it possible to scare even the unflappable Sgt. Calhoun? Are all zombies as friendly as Cyril when they aren't on the clock? These are questions that need answering.

JRPG World

As seen in: Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest

If any gaming sub-genre could do with a little Wreck-It Ralph spoofing, it's the Japanese RPG. Games like Final Fantasy are known for their epic role-paying experience and creative worlds, but also for outlandish fashion design, androgynous male heroes, strange animal sidekicks, and intricate attack sequences that take entire minutes to play out in some cases.

Why not throw Ralph and the gang into a world that draws on these elements? In general, we'd like to see more of Japan's rich gaming culture reflected next time around. Cameo appearances from Nintendo characters and an “Aerith Lives” tag spray-painted on a wall aren't enough. And really, with Square-Enix's RPG characters already mingling with the Disney crowd on a regular basis in the Kingdom Hearts games, is it that much of a stretch?

Fighting Game World

As seen in: Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat

Zangief pretty much stole the show in the movie's early moments. But we never did get to see his talent for crushing a man's skull between his thighs in action. And while that might sound grotesque for a Disney movie, they did get away with allowing Kano to rip out someone's heart. Maybe Cyril can take another one for the team.

In any case, we'd love to see Ralph and his friends thrust into a world inspired by popular fighting games like Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat. Imagine Ralph battling a character like Goro or setting a new high score in Street Fighter's car smashing mode. Even the 2D perspective of these games could offer the animators some fun new opportunities for CG storytelling.

Adventure World

As seen in: Uncharted, Tomb Raider, Pitfall

The recent announcement about Disney buying Lucasfilm has us hoping that Indiana Jones will be back in action before too much longer. Perhaps a Wreck-It Ralph sequel can allow Disney to dip their toes into the international pulp adventurer pool by including a world inspired by Indy-esque games such as Uncharted and Tomb Raider.

The first movie did a great job of taking the Halo/Gears of War shooter formula and delivering an epic action sequence built around it. We'd like to see the sequel do something similar for these titles. The movie could deliver epic dashes through tombs, ruins, and jungles that could put any previous live-action efforts to shame.

MMORPG World

As seen in: World of Warcraft, Second Life

One popular gaming genre that has a huge amount of potential for a Wreck-It Ralph sequel is the massively multiplayer online RPG. While World of Warcraft is still the most popular MMORPG, we're not focused on the fantasy elements this time. Instead, we're more interested in the social aspect of these games and the ways they connect players.

Director Rich Moore has already talked about how a sequel “would bring the characters involved a bit more up to date.” An MMORPG would drag Ralph and friends out of the arcade and into the modern gaming landscape. A gaming landscape inspired by WoW or Second Life would allow the characters to actually interact with humans in a way they really can't when they're stuck inside of an arcade machine. The potential here is almost limitless, both in terms of the worlds it can allow and in exploring the poignant relationship between gamers and gaming heroes.

Jesse is a writer for various IGN channels. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter, or Kicksplode on MyIGN.

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While his opening weekend box office trailed behind Harry Potter in the UK  - by £2m - James Bond’s latest movie defeated the boy wizard over the course of its first week.

Indeed Skyfall had the biggest seven-day haul in British box office history, taking a whopping £37.2m from 587 screens. The film is now on course to be the biggest ever Bond in the UK.

In a statement, Bond producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli said “We are very grateful to the Bond fans and all UK cinema audiences for making Skyfall the biggest opening week ever during our 50th anniversary year."

Skyfall opens in the U.S. on November 9, so expect further Bond box office records to topple then.

Chris Tilly is Entertainment Editor for IGN and still hopes to be the next Bond. His idle chat can be found on both Twitter and MyIGN.

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It’s oddly fitting that with the release of the latest (and reportedly greatest) James Bond flick impending, we got an influx of genre movie news that has one prevalent theme: continuity. We’ve learned that Arnie is returning to the role of Conan the Barbarian. We’ve gotten our first glimpse at a kick-ass new Evil Dead movie that’s reportedly a reboot but whose trailer suggests ties to the original. And we learned of where The Wolverine takes place in relation to the other X-Men films.

All of these news bits hold relevance to the continuity of their respective franchises, but if the looming presence of 007 should remind us of anything, it’s that continuity is rarely anything more than a distraction from good storytelling.

Bond has avoided continuity for decades. Different actors have taken on the role time and again without a strict continuity other than some recurring characters, but that’s totally accepted by viewers. We just sort of recognize it as a collective anthology of Bond’s greatest tales – after all, we’ll never hear about that time 007 went on a mission to Bangkok and everything went totally fine and he was home in time for tea. Because who cares?

Movies (and stories in general) are cherry-picked adventures from a greater tapestry of less interesting tales that happen off screen. Because of that, movies should be self-contained without a reliance on trivial events of other films in a series. Or, in other words, continuity.

Continuity, particularly in comics and the other media based on those comics, has taken on a life of its own. Many readers desperately want the elements of a universe that have been in flux for sometimes 75 years to line up perfectly. But they never will. It’s just how it’s going to be. It’s impossible. But in movies, it’s a little bit different.

Movies, particularly of one franchise, have a much more spread out release schedule than comics. Whereas upwards of 10 X-Men comics release every month, we’ve gotten five X-Men movies in the last 13 years. Plus, films are more streamlined with fewer characters and side stories. There’s less to keep track of. So then why is it so important to know that The Wolverine happens after the rest of the X-movies?

Well, it’s not, really. If that movie is really going to be a Wolverine solo adventure without reliance on the events that happened before, why even bother to acknowledge the timeline? If there’s any X-character that can work in a Bond-esque capacity, it’s Wolverine. X-Men: First Class had wonky continuity (thanks in part to an appearance from Wolverine), so the matter is only further complicated from that perspective.

In fact, the reason I enjoy First Class so much is because it’s not overly concerned with its placement within the established franchise. Things don’t quite line up, but to the internal benefit of that movie. There has to come a point where the story serves itself instead of the films that came before, and unfortunately getting bogged down in continuity is one of the fastest ways to fall into that trap.

And then there is Conan and Evil Dead, which are both in this strange sort of in-between area. The Legend of Conan is technically a sequel to the 80s Conan flicks, presumably set in the age of King Conan when the character had usurped the throne of the Hyborian Age, “ignoring” the 2011 reboot of the franchise.

But it seems silly to even acknowledge that, as Conan is a character in the same vein as James Bond – he’s a mythic character with no real beginning or end; he simply exists to have adventures and do nothing of interest between said adventures. As such, there’s no reason not to consider Conan in all of his forms as one part of the larger tapestry in the same way we accept James Bond as one cohesive entity despite his different renditions.

As for Evil Dead, we’re dealing less with a specific character (due to Ash’s exclusion) and more a mythology. They are billing this movie as a remake/reboot, though I’m not entirely convinced. I like the idea of presenting this thing in that way, though, promoting the idea of disconnection from the original so that A.) new/younger viewers will be interested and B.) if there are some easter eggs to the original flicks, it will be more of a surprise for Evil Dead diehards.

That said, if the movie goes full on with connections to the original movies (like, say, the main character being Ash’s daughter or something), then Evil Dead runs the risk of betraying its own internal world by requiring familiarity with something beyond the film itself.

Granted, it’s really too early to speculate on either Conan or Evil Dead, I’m just saying that those movies are in prime position to undermine their own potential by choosing to be beholden to past continuity. That’s why, as a reader/viewer, it’s best to simply ignore the concept altogether.

I understand that some people like the idea of continuity; that when done right, it can build the experience into something much larger. I get that. But in an era where reboots are getting stacked onto remakes with some odd cases in between, it’s going to be easier to enjoy these projects when we’re not constantly distracted by what fits where and why.

After all, Bond never had to worry about it, and he’s doing just fine.

Joey is IGN's Comics Editor and a comic book creator himself. Follow Joey on Twitter @JoeyEsposito, or find him on IGN at Joey-IGN. He loves superhero pets so hard.

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When you have my job, you get to meet movie stars and famous directors and Hollywood starlets and blah, blah, blah. But those guys are mostly a bore. And besides, it's not every day that one gets to shoot the s#!t with the man whose comics you grew up reading! For me, that would be Walt Simonson, whose acclaimed run on titles like Thor and X-Factor in particular helped shaped a young Collura's comics-reading habits (well, me, and every other kid reading comics at the time that is).

I was lucky enough to get a chance to talk to Simonson recently because of his new book from Titan… or rather, his new old book. Alien: The Illustrated Story is a restored rerelease of his and writer Archie Goodwin's excellent graphic-novel adaptation of the Ridley Scott film that was originally created for Heavy Metal over 30 years ago (read my review here. An Original Art Edition of the book is also out next week which reproduces all of Simonson's black and white boards, in full size and complete with all of the little details and imperfections of the pre-published comics art, plus an interview with Simonson, original script pages, sketches and more.

The main topic of our conversation was the Alien book and its creation, but we also delve into his recently released labor of love for DC, The Judas Coin, his thoughts on returning to his classic titles like Thor, and much more.

Scott Collura: First of all, I have to ask, were you drawing when I called just now?

Walt Simonson: Well, I’ve got some stuff I’ve got to get done. I was working on some drawing, but that’s all right. I can draw after we talk!

SC: How many hours a day do you draw?

WS: Depends entirely on my deadlines. If my deadlines are a long way off, I don’t draw that much. If my deadlines are tomorrow, I’m drawing like a madman. And right now my deadlines are tomorrow, so I’m drawing like a madman. [Laughs]

SC: Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe your big break came with Manhunter, which you worked on with Archie Goodwin, right?

WS: That’s right.

SC: So you obviously worked on Alien with Archie as well. Can you tell me about how that partnership came about on Alien?

WS: Well, the short version is that John Workman, who was the art director at Heavy Metal at the time, called me about the possibility of inking the Alien graphic novel adaptation of the movie over Carmine Infantino['s pencils] -- but he hadn’t been able to get a hold of Carmine at that point, so we talked about it and it sounded like fun. Eventually, we reached a point where I was going to pencil it, and I suggested that Archie would be a good guy to have write the words themselves in the comic. So that’s how that worked out.

SC: And of course, you and John Workman have had a longstanding relationship with each other since then.

WS: [Laughs] Yes we do, and that was the first time we worked together.

SC: As far as the process of actually creating the visuals of the comic, did you have any kind of access to the art from the film? How did that all work?

WS: We had all kinds of stuff. I was actually shown a rough cut of the film. It was close to two and a half hours long. This was in December of 1978 -- the movie came out in May of '79. So at the end of '78, 20th Century Fox provided a lot of references. At the time, Heavy Metal was also producing a book called The Book of Alien, which was a film book; they weren’t as common then as they are now, but it was a book about the making of the film. So they had a lot of references and slides from the film. I was able to have them essentially make photostats of the slides, blow them up. They were just black and white -- terrible reproduction value, you’d never be able to use them for anything, really -- but they were great for visual reference. 20th Century provided some other photographs and stills. Archie and I also had three different script revisions that were maybe two months apart each, and we were able to really just do our version of a comic using that material to create the graphic novel, as it turned out.

SC: How much attention did you pay to H.R. Giger when you were drawing that book?

WS: Well, I had a book of Giger’s stuff that came out before Alien, so I looked at that when I was drawing. We didn’t have a lot of clear shots of the alien. I think I had one where he was tipped over, sort of standing but bent over. And there were some detail shots. So I looked at Giger’s paintings for a sense of texture, a sense of the external skeletal quality of the character, and kind of went from there.

SC: Even on the first two pages where you draw the Alien title, it’s in that sort of skeletal techno-organic style.

WS: Sure, I just looked at this book of Giger stuff that I had and laid out the lettering, then I went in there with pencil, pen and ink and kind of drew up the series of textures that at least reminded me of Giger’s work. Then we used watercolor to kind of simulate that and give it some sense of the alien before you’ve read the book or seen the movie. You wouldn’t know quite what that was about, but it would resonate later after you had read the graphic novel.

SC: So what was it like when you saw the film? I assume you were done with the book by the time you saw the final film?

WS: The final one, yeah. I saw that when it came out. The book had to be published right at the same time the film was released. I don’t exactly remember how close -- same week or whatever it was. So essentially we had a drop-dead deadline to get the graphic novel finished by early April. There had to be time to get the art separated, essentially made print ready, and then sent to the printer -- printed, bound, trimmed and fired off to retail stores so that on the week the movie came out, the book would be available. By the time the movie came out, I’d finished the book four or five weeks earlier. So it was very neat. It was interesting -- there were bits that were different from the rough cut I had seen; by that time I had seen the rough cut almost six months earlier, so I didn’t remember a lot of stuff clearly. But there were a few things here or there that were different in the release cut. I thought that was kind of interesting.

SC: And even with the comic itself, I think one of the things that’s very effective for a fan of Alien who reads the comic is that it plays as sort of an alternate version of the events. Everything that happens is the same, but because we know Alien so well, angles are different; the length of scenes are obviously different. The characters look like the characters, and yet they’re your versions of the characters. In those ways, it kind of plays like an alternate version of the film, which is so cool.

WS: [Laughs] Well, we had a lot of room to maneuver, but of course I could never do a scene-for-scene drawing of the film. Honestly, I’m not sure I would have wanted to, really. What’s the point? But we had a lot of freedom, so what Archie and I tried to do was create a graphic novel that was the most effective comic book we could do of that story using all the stuff that we had, the raw material, as the foundation for building that comic. And that’s how it worked out.

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