The Bieber Hoax, Harry Potter Spinoff, Dredd and Loki Petitions - The Week in Movie News

This has been a wild week in movie news, and then a slow weekend, which has given us time to collect up some of the big stories of the week and share them with our readers as a kid of recap of the week that's been. Check 'em out below. The week started out with a little help from our (electronic) friends, as Tony Stark's JARVIS personal assistant became a real-world iOS app in anticipation of Iron Man 3 on Blu-ray and DVD next week. The app, which can help you with some basic questions a la Siri, also features an armor gallery and a second screen feature that will allow fans to interact with the movie once the Blu-ray is officially released.

Speaking of Blu-ray, the Hi-Def, official video release of director J.J. Abrams's Star Trek Into Darkness has given fans an opportunity to freeze their screens and find something kind of special: a cameo appearance by Star Wars's R2-D2, marking the second time Abrams has made the recognizable Droid into space junk in two Star Trek movies. That doesn't bode well for Artoo's chances in the Abrams-directed Star Wars Episode VII. Speaking of that movie--don't be too surprised if Kick-Ass and Carrie star Chloe Grace Moretz plays a role in it. Or if its post-production happens in Los Angeles. Oh, and you know who's almost certainly in the film? Mark Hamill, who is already in training to return to the role of Luke Skywalker, according to his friend Robert Englund. X-Men: Days of Future Past and Super star Ellen Page is in talks to star as the lead in Queen & Country, a new film based on the novels and graphic novels by Lazarus co-creator Greg Rucka. "I couldn't be more delighted to see an actress of Ellen Page's incredibly talent associated with Queen & Country, nor a writer of John Rogers' caliber on the script," Rucka told us in an exclusive in a statement. "Peter Chernin and Jenno Topping have been in the trenches on Queen & Country for a long, long time, and their passion for the material is rare and remarkable. It's Hollywood, of course, and things may change and things may happen, but right now? Man, I could not be happier at the news."

Marvel Studios, with less than two months before the release of Thor: The Dark World (a new trailer for which will debut soon on ABC during a telecast of Iron Man 2), has been looking to the future all week; while they've been dealing with petition requests from fans of Tom Hiddleston who want to see Loki get his own movie (it's not in the cards just yet), the studio pushed up the release of Ant-Man this week, marking what might be the first time in its years of development that this project has ever gotten closer instead of farther away. Meanwhile, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest was pushed back, getting farther away to accommodate busy schedules. Hiddleston won't be involved in Avengers: Age of Ultron, but you can--if you win a new contest by Doritos, for Stan Lee is the spokesman. Both Lee and Warner Bros. CEO Kevin Tsujihara spoke out this week in favor of Ben Affleck as Batman, with the latter saying that DC will play a key strategic role for Warner Bros. going forward. And after Tom Hiddleston got thousands of supporters clamoring for him to headline a movie and then did a Twitter Q&A with them to talk about Thor, where will he go? Well, we're guessing the Disney-owned Marvel might object to another park, but Jurassic World, announced as a new movie with a 2015 release date, seems a solid choice if he were allowed. Against all odds, you know what other blockbuster is getting a follow-up? The Harry Potter franchise, as Warner Bros. announced this week that author J.K. Rowling will write a screenplay for a spinoff titled Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them--an original story and will mark Rowling's screenwriting debut. It is planned as the first picture in a new film series. Set in the wizarding world, the story will feature magical creatures and characters, some of which will be familiar to devoted Harry Potter fans.

Oh, and speaking of petitions? The Make a Dredd Sequel folks have over 80,000 on theirs--and when the comic book sequel begins in the pages of 2000 AD this week, they'll be having a Day of Action, asking fans to buy or rent copies of Dredd and t-shirts supporting the cause. James Wan, director of Saw, The Conjuring and this week's runaway #1 movie Insidious Chapter 2, will reportedly retire from horror movies effective immediately to avoid being "typecast." That's alright, though; he landed on his feet already and started shooting Fast & Furious 7. I know, right? Pics or it didn't happen. There's a new Friday the 13th movie coming, too--plus a TV series and maybe a video game. The next Amazing Spider-Man movie, meanwhile, won't feature the Sinister Six, but it seems as though the third installment will, since that's what villain Jamie Foxx said. J.J. Abrams may have hated the most recent Star Trek video game, but everybody hated it when Justin Bieber punked the Internet by posting a photo of himself with a fake Batman vs. Superman script, hinting that he could play Robin. It looks to be part of a Funny or Die sketch, but since the pop star leaked it before the sketch ever aired, it took hold of the media and threw a cold dread into the hearts of fans.