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Latest stories are listed first with links to the full story below each item.

Jaws star sues family over loan

Actor Richard Dreyfuss is suing his father and uncle over a 24-year-old loan he claims was never repaid. The Jaws star, 60, says he gave his relatives $870,000 (£453,000) in 1984 when they owned an interest in a Los Angeles office building. In court papers filed on Friday, he claims the loan is still outstanding and that his uncle, Gilbert, has refused to turn over financial records.

Neither Norman nor Gilbert Dreyfuss could be reached for comment.

BBC News

Coltrane used on NZ wanted poster

Actor Robbie Coltrane’s face is being used on a wanted poster by police trying to catch a 16-year-old burglar in New Zealand. As law bans the publication of photos of juvenile criminals, Christchurch police are using the actor instead.

“Robbie Coltrane is not the burglar, but imagine him aged 16 with lank greasy hair and you have the picture,” the poster says.

Leaflets have been distributed to homes in the areas of targeted residents.

BBC News

American man too fat for execution

With a lawsuit filed in federal court on Friday, the Associated Press reports, attorneys for the 5-feet-7-inch, 267-pound Richard Cooey say the executioner’s needle would have trouble finding his veins. And even if it did find his veins, they insist, his heft would lessen the effect of the needle’s initial lethal injection drug - an anaesthetic meant to dull the pain.

“All of the experts agree if the first drug doesn’t work, the execution is going to be excruciating,” Cooey’s lawyer Kelly Culshaw Schneider told The AP.

The Register

Robin Hood star quits BBC remake

Jonas Armstrong, who plays Robin Hood in the BBC’s remake of the classic tale, is to leave the show at the end of the third series. The 27-year-old, who is currently filming in Budapest, said playing Robin Hood was an “incredible experience” but he was looking for “new challenges”.

According to producers, the Irish-born actor will bow out in an explosive and nail-biting finale.

BBC News

Royal premiere for new Bond film

Princes William and Harry will attend the world premiere of the next James Bond film, Quantum of Solace. They will be joined on the red carpet in London by 007 actor Daniel Craig, as well as co-stars including Dame Judi Dench and Gemma Arterton. The Royal brothers have asked for proceeds from the event to benefit two charities - Help for Heroes and the Royal British Legion.

The premiere will take place on 29 October in Leicester Square.

BBC News

Joss Stone to star in the Tudors

Singer Joss Stone is to play Anne of Cleves in the third season of The Tudors, the BBC has confirmed. It will be the first TV acting role for the 22-year-old, who made her debut in fantasy film Eragon in 2006. The Emmy-winning series, produced by Showtime and aired on BBC Two, chronicles the reign of Henry VIII, played by Jonathan Rhys Myers.

BBC News

Knights Templar to Vatican: Give us back our assets

The Knights Templar are demanding that the Vatican give them back their good name and, possibly, billions in assets into the bargain, 700 years after the order was brutally suppressed by a joint venture between the Pope and the King of France.

If the Holy See doesn’t comply, the warrior knights, renowned for liberating the Holy Land, will deploy that most fearsome of weapons: a laborious court case through the creaking Spanish legal system.

The Register

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Doctor Who star David Tennant has faced the critics at Hamlet’s press night in a Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) production in Stratford-upon-Avon.

The 37-year-old’s performance has received mixed reviews in newspapers.

The Guardian called Tennant the “best Hamlet in years” while the Daily Express gave the play three stars, describing it as “disappointing”.

Patrick Stewart, best known for playing Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek, was lauded as Hamlet’s uncle Claudius.

Quentin Letts in the Daily Mail said Tennant was upstaged by a “deliciously subtle” performance from Stewart.

He called Tennant’s Hamlet “a sarcastic Hamlet, a selfish Hamlet, a Hamlet very much for our self-indulgent age”.

He was “memorable” but “not the greatest Dane” with a “spirited but unripe” rendition, Mr Letts said.

Paul Callan in the Daily Express said Tennant pitched his Hamlet “somewhere between One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and The Goon Show”.

He added that Tennant relied too much on “quirkiness, pulling faces and various funny voices” to reflect Hamlet’s descent into madness.

But Mr Callan said his “near-whispered delivery is sensitive and polished”.

‘Engaging’ Hamlet

The Independent’s Paul Taylor gave the play four stars and called Tennant’s display “an extremely captivating performance”.

He said the actor was “adept at most aspects of the role but he excels when the prince becomes a prankish provocateur”.

He added: “I rate Tennant very highly, but I wouldn’t put him in the absolute front rank of contemporary Hamlets.”

Michael Billington from The Guardian also awarded four stars to the play.

“He is a fine Hamlet whose virtues, and occasional vices, are inseparable from the production itself,” Mr Billington said.

He said this was “a Hamlet of quicksilver intelligence, mimetic vigour and wild humour”, adding Tennant was an “active, athletic, immensely engaging Hamlet”.

Benedict Nightingale of The Times said the play’s “fluent, pacey, modern-dress revival” of Hamlet gave Tennant the chance to shine “and, praise be, he seizes it”.

He wrote: “I’ve seen bolder Hamlets and more moving Hamlets, but few who kept me so riveted throughout.

“Tennant is restless, curt and mocking when he needs to be, affectionate when he can be, and, apart from an occasional tendency to gabble, pretty impressive.”

‘Flattering’

Tennant drew more than 10 million viewers to the series finale of Doctor Who last month.

He will star in a Christmas special and another three specials next year.

The actor, who played Romeo at the RSC in 2000, has said of appearing in Shakespeare’s great tragedy: “Hamlet is often regarded as the acme of acting to test yourself against, which isn’t a particularly helpful thought, to be honest.

“Of course, it is very flattering to be asked to do that role because of everything that is attached to it.

“But once you get into rehearsal you have to relinquish thoughts like that and just try and tell the story.

“It’s still just a play and you can’t start approaching it in a different way than you would approach any other role.”

BBC News

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A few X Files: I want to believe news stories pulled together for easy reading. Links to the full stories at the bottom of each item with the latest news at the top of the page.

X Files fails to make UK impact

The second X Files film has failed to make a big impact on the UK box office chart in its opening weekend. I Want To Believe, which sees David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson reprise their roles as agents Mulder and Scully, opened at number four. But although the alien-hunting movie was the highest new entry, it only took £887,209 in ticket sales.

Anderson blamed the film’s limited success in the US due to opening against Batman film The Dark Knight.

BBC News

British premiere for X Files film

The second film based on TV sci-fi drama The X Files has had its UK premiere in London’s Leicester Square. I Want to Believe sees David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson reprising their roles as alien-hunting agents Mulder and Scully. Both stars were at the premiere where Duchovny signed autographs while Anderson waved at the screaming fans.

I Want To Believe took $10.2m (£5.1m) in North America on its opening weekend and is released in the UK on Friday. Anderson said: “It’s had a bit of a rough time in the States. It’s opening against one of the highest grossing movies, Batman. “People in the States are so used to lots of CGI, action and sex and we don’t really offer a lot of that in this film.”

Duchovny added: “It’s great to see all the fans here. I must come to premieres in the UK more often.”

BBC News

More X-Files movies a possibility

The new X-Files film, I Want To Believe, is out in the cinemas this weekend and is the first new material from screenwriter Chris Carter, David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson since the TV series ended in 2002. David Duchovny talks about the possibility of another X-Files film and getting back into the character of FBI Special Agent Fox Mulder.

Are you signed up for more X-Files films?

That was always the intention, that it is a natural serial, as evidenced by the fact that there’s 203 hours of television of it. It really just depends on economics. This movie was made for only $29m. It’s actually almost like an independent film. It’s the first independent blockbuster, independent summer movie.

It’s weird that it’s out in the height of summer, because even though the X-Files feels like a summer franchise, this is not necessarily a summer movie. This is a kind of an underdog, when all’s said and done, even though it’s hard to conceive of the X-Files as an underdog. I think it actually is. It depends on the style of movies that Fox wants to make after this, whether or not they really want us to compete on that level. It would be a different kind of movie.

BBC Newsbeat

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I loved Dad’s Army as a kid and even now I find it just as funny as I thought it was then. The scripts were witty and the acting was spot on with great comedic timing, all the more funnier with a bunch of old men.

However I’m not sure how I would have felt if the opening credits were that which were originally planned. Apparently the intended original credits were going to feature shot of refugees and Nazi troops. I understand that they were trying to show what the Home Guard was there to protect us from, but I think it would have set a darker tone for what was essentially a wonderful light hearted comedy.

A row between BBC bosses prompted a complete change to the opening titles of classic comedy Dad’s Army, archive letters have revealed.

BBC One’s controller at the time, Paul Fox, ordered shots of refugees and Nazi troops to be removed from the sequence as he found them offensive.

They were replaced with the now famous swastika-headed arrow sequence.

The BBC’s archives are marking the much-loved series’ 40th anniversary by releasing documents and pictures.

Michael Mills, the corporation’s head of comedy at the time, expressed his “profound disquiet” and “shock” at changes to the title sequence.

A memo in the archive revealed that Mr Mills thought it “right and essential” that viewers were shown the Nazi threat faced by the Home Guard.

“I cannot help wondering whether we, in the comedy department, are controlled by different standards, i.e. clowns must stay clowns,” he added.

They reveal that Fox initially “felt uneasy” about the series but admitted he had been wrong when it became a hit.

In a letter to Dad’s Army’s producer David Croft in 1970 he said: “You made an enormous success of it and like millions of others I am only sorry it has come to an end. Temporarily, I hope.

“Looking back to that first programme, I am glad to say you were right 100%.

Breakthrough territory?

“Thanks to your persistence - and despite that title change - the show became a great hit.”

Croft’s plan had been to illustrate the dangers faced by the elderly volunteers of World War II’s Home Guard, the central characters in the show.

However, at the time Fox was uneasy about whether the series was “advancing comedy’s output in other areas” and asked: “Is this really breakthrough territory?”

The much-loved show ran from 1968 to 1977 and its popularity has endured to this day.

Clive Dunn, Arthur Lowe and Ian Lavender starred in the series, co-created by Croft and Jimmy Perry.

As well as the internal BBC memos, the online archive also features a behind-the-scenes photo gallery and letters from the actors.

BBC News

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Doctor Who and Star Trek fans have been banned from having sci-fi merchandise signed by David Tennant and Patrick Stewart while they star in Hamlet.

The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) says only programmes and other Hamlet merchandise can be autographed at the stage door.

Hamlet director, Gregory Doran, recently said fans arrive at the stage door with “bags” of Doctor Who merchandise for Tennant to autograph.

In a statement, the RSC said the level of interest in Tennant and Stewart meant “limits” had to be imposed. “Due to the huge amount of interest in the RSC’s current production of Hamlet, only Royal Shakespeare Company or production related memorabilia will be signed by members of the company,” the RSC said. “We apologise if this causes any disappointment.”

Tennant’s performance in Hamlet has been hotly anticipated, with tickets exchanging hands on the internet auction site eBay for up to £215 each.

BBC News

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This is the version I found on YouTube, but you can also see the official trailer over at SCIFI.COM

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Scriptwriter Steven Moffat has denied he “quit” a deal to work on Steven Spielberg’s forthcoming Tintin trilogy so he could oversee TV’s Doctor Who.

A newspaper report that he had “turned down” a two-film deal with Spielberg was “a bit misleading”, Moffat said.

He had planned to finish Tintin before starting Doctor Who but was delayed by the US writers’ strike, he said.

In May it was announced he would replace Russell T Davies as lead writer and executive producer on Doctor Who.

Mr Moffat told the BBC that “nothing less than Doctor Who could have torn me away” from Tintin, which he described as a “stunning project” he was “proud” to be part of.

But it was “the proper duty of every British subject to come to the aid of the Tardis”, he added.

BBC News

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Sony and Sky have finally launched their subscription TV-on-PSP service. The GO!VIEW service enables Sony PSP owners to access a variety of TV content through Sky, including films. Shows are downloaded onto the PSP through a PC (Windows only software).

Shows already available include Top Gear, Doctor Who and Gay Sci-Fi Nerds favourite, Weeds The focus is on BBC and Sky content. Films and sports are available for download too.

Users have three subscription packages available to them: Entertainment, Sport and Comedy. A single package costs £5 per month, two packages are £8 per month, or you can get all three for £10 per month. Individual shows can be rented for £1.50, and films cost £2.50 each to watch for a limited period.

GO!VIEW

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Presenting the Comic-Con limited edition Battlestar Galactica Cylon Toaster.

According to NBC Universal Store, these are one-of-a-kind made specifically for the San Diego Comic-Con. We understand that the toaster actually imprints the image of a Cylon on each side of your freshly browned bread. Of course for the more die hard fans, you could always take the toaster apart and toast your own buns. Nothing like a branded butt cheek and what better than Cylon.

The Cylon toaster costs just $65 (£32/€41) and ships on 29 July.

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Exciting news for fans of Heroes. The third series of the sci-fi hit will be broadcast on BBC Two shortly after it is first shown in the US. Each episode will be shown “hopefully within a week” of its première on US network NBC, the channel said at the launch of its autumn line-up.

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