Before reporting on what Patrick Stewart told attendees at Comicpalooza about X-Men: Days of Future Past, you should really watch this moving and personal response he gave to fan regarding his childhood and dealing with domestic abuse.  Moving on to lighter material, Stewart talked about Bryan Singer‘s upcoming X-Men sequel.  He told fans, “I think it is going to certainly be the X-Men of all X-Men pictures, and one doesn’t want to tempt fate, but perhaps also the blockbuster of 2014.”  While he’s obviously doing to talk up his movie, it does fall in line with Hugh Jackman‘s recent comments that Days of Future Past will be like The Avengers of X-Men movies.  That’s not too much of a surprise since Days of Future Past will mash up characters from the first three movies with X-Men: First Class and then add even more mutants.

Hit the jump for what Stewart had to say about Professor Xavier’s return and more.  The film also stars James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Ian McKellan, Hugh Jackman, Anna Paquin, Ellen Page, Shawn Ashmore, Omar Sy, Daniel Cudmore, Booboo Stewart, Fan Bingbing, and Peter Dinklage. X-Men: Days of Future Past opens July 18, 2014. [Warning: possible spoilers after the jump.]

Bryan Singer has officially released a picture on his Twitter of Patrick Stewart donning his Professor Xavier outfit and posing for a photographer with the caption: “Picture before picture.  Tomorrow it begins.”  X-Men: Days of Future Past looks to be one of the biggest films of 2014, and Singer has already confirmed that it will be the biggest film he has ever made.  Stewart, pictured on Twitter, is part of an exceptional cast that includes Anna Paquin, Ellen Page, Shawn, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Ian McKellen, and Hugh Jackman.  Singer has apparently found a way to create a time travel universe for the film that will allow for characters from both the first two X-Men films and X-Men: First Class, hence the mixed cast. You can read more about the time travel process here.

Hit the jump to check out Singer’s image of Stewart as Xavier.  X-Men: Days of Future Past is slated for release in 3D on July 18, 2014.

One thing’s for certain when it comes to the sequel X-Men: Days of Future Past: director Bryan Singer has put together one hell of a cast.  Not only are James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, and Nicholas Hoult reprising their roles from First Class, but Singer is tackling a beloved comics storyline that involves time travel and dystopian futures, so he’s also bringing back a bounty of characters from previous X-Men films like Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellan, Hugh Jackman, Anna Paquin, Shawn Ashmore, and Ellen Page.

Though the ensemble is looking great (with Peter Dinklage being the latest addition), McAvoy recently let slip that the young and old versions of Professor X likely won’t be seen interacting onscreen.  Hit the jump for more.

Here are some of the latest casting additions:

• Patrick Stewart (X-Men), Carla Gugino (Night at the Museum) and Matthew Lillard (Scooby-Doo) will star in director Stephen Belber’s Match, a drama centering on an eccentric Julliard grad and a young couple who wish to interview him.
• Dylan McDermott (American Horror Story) will star in the action-thriller Freezer, directed by Mikael Salomon (Hard Rain).  The picture finds McDermott’s character locked in a freezer by Russian thugs who demand he return their missing money, which he has no knowledge of.

Hit the jump for more on each project.

“Another man would have been humiliated to say those words,” Q (John De Lancie) grudgingly concedes to Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart). “Another man would have rather died than ask for help.” He’s speaking at the end of  “Q Who” after Picard has swallowed his pride and asked for aid during the first fateful encounter with the Borg. It’s not hard to figure out who Q meant by “another man.” Faced with the same scenario, James T. Kirk would have gone down guns blazing… and likely doomed the universe as a result. Picard is most assuredly not Kirk; in that moment, The Next Generation stepped decisively out of the original Star Trek’s shadow to stand beside it as an equal. Hit the jump for my full review.

Well here’s an interesting twist.  Bryan Singer has tweeted that Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart have joined X-Men: Days of Future Past, which is supposedly a sequel not to X-Men: The Last Stand, but X-Men: First Class.  So how will they be used?  There are a couple of possibilities I can think of off the top of my head.  First, they’ll just be a couple of cameos used as a framing device, so that Professor X and Magneto are looking back at the events of the new movie.  When these remembrances would occur in terms of the original trilogy is a bit fuzzy since Last Stand ends on the borderline of the status quo [spoilers] (Magneto loses his powers, but not really; Professor X dies, but not really).

Hit the jump for more speculation.  Singer also tweeted that James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, and Nicholas Hoult will all return.  No mention on First Class‘ other cast members.  Filming on the upcoming sequel is set to begin early next year.

The first trailer for the animated feature Dorothy of Oz has been released.  The CG-animated musical centers on Dorothy (Lea Michele) returning to the Land of Oz, only to find that the kingdom and its inhabitants are in grave danger from a wicked Jester (Martin Short).  The low-budget film comes from the studio Summertime Entertainment, and the visuals are sadly a far cry from Pixar or DreamWorks Animation.  That said, the colorfulness and strange cast of characters would have been a big pull for me as a kid so maybe this will play better to younger audiences.  The film is almost reminiscent of the dark and twisted unofficial sequel Return to Oz, but with decidedly more singing/Broadway stars.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer.  The voice cast also includes Dan Aykroyd, Kelsey Grammer, Patrick Stewart, James Belushi, Bernadette Peters, Hugh Dancy, Megan Hilty, and Oliver Platt.  Dorothy of Oz will open sometime in 2013. 

Star Trek: The Next Generation finally comes to Blu-ray, and if you don’t think that’s cause for rejoicing, you don’t have many Trekkies in your life. The series grappled with significant problems in making the leap to an HD format, thanks to its copious effects shots created in an era when high definition simply didn’t exist. They’ve finally cracked the code and the new Season One Blu-ray reaps handsome rewards as a result…. with a few notable hiccups. Hit the jump for my full review.

A new Funny or Die video has veteran actor Patrick Stewart (Star Trek: The Next Generation) getting Dickensian (or becoming a Disney version of a Cockney blaggard, you decide) as part of the Olympic scalping game.  Assisted by a young David Copperfield-looking Maisie Williams (Arya from Game of Thrones) as Scraggly Sue, the two swindle Yanks and explain their dastardly deeds via hilarious terminology.

Also featured in the video is swimming star Ryan Lochte (Jeah!), complete with his trademark grill, as well as an appearance by the loveably nerdy Simon Pegg (Hot Fuzz) who calls Stewart (“a Knight, no less!”) out on his ruse.  To check out the video, hit the jump.

With the unfortunate news that Andy Samberg will be leaving Saturday Night Live, we decided to bring you a PSA featuring the comedian.  Some of you will remember the Star Wars themed PSA for the Stand Up to Cancer campaign which we posted a while back.  Another service announcement counts Samberg among its celebrities, along with fellow Jewish and non-Jewish comedians alike.  The Judd Apatow-directed video features Ben Stiller, Jerry Seinfeld, Sarah Silverman and more in support of the American Jewish World Service for their 25th anniversary last year.  Hit the jump to check out the PSA.

Last month we reported that the Gene Roddenberry series Star Trek: The Next Generation would be getting a long-overdue high definition makeover for its Blu-ray debut later this year. Celebrating its 25^th anniversary this year, all 178 episodes will eventually be released, but in the meantime fans will have to make due with a three-episode special called, Star Trek: The Next Generation – The Next Level. It will include the feature-length version of the pilot, as well as the season three episode “Sins of the Father” and the season five episode “The Inner Light.” The Next Level will hit shelves on January 31, 2012 and has a suggested retail price of $21.99. For a look at how the original version compares to the new hi-def re-mastering, hit the jump.

Star Trek: The Next Generation is officially, and finally, coming to Blu-ray. StarTrek.com confirms the news, and says the discs will start hitting in January. Rather than kick off with season one, a sampler set of episodes will be the first Blu-ray to be released. The complete first season will hit shelves later next year, with the subsequent seasons to follow. The Next Generation ran for seven seasons from 1987 to 1994, with 178 episodes. For the HD transfer, CBS is returning to the original film negatives to bring the highest quality image. Visual effects won’t be upconverted, but instead the studio will recomposition them, culminating in true 1080p HD masters with 7.1 DTS Master Audio. Denise and Michael Okuda are overseeing the transfer.

The sampler will be called Star Trek: The Next Generation – The Next Level. It will include the feature-length version of the pilot, as well as the season three episode “Sins of the Father” and the season five episode “The Inner Light.” The Next Level will hit shelves on January 31, 2012 and has a suggested retail price of $21.99.  Hit the jump for the trailer and box artwork.

This time last week, I was writing about how happy I was to be in San Diego, 2,000 miles away from the godless heat of the Midwest. Fast-forward to the present, and I’m happy to report that things back home have really cooled off with a heat index hovering right around a brisk 108 degrees Fahrenheit. At this rate, I should be able to check my mail without fear of sweating through my clothes any day now (baby steps, people, baby steps). Because I truly care about our readers, I’m hoping that wherever you’re reading this from is cool, comfortable, and free of any sort of sweating. Now, onto the important stuff…

In this week’s “Top 5″ installment we have an abundance of coverage for The Avengers, a video interview with the iconic Patrick Stewart, the first look at Universal’s Snow White and the Huntsman, the first trailer for director Peter Berg’s adaptation of Hasbro’s Battleship, and Matt’s cast interviews and review of Crazy, Stupid, Love.. Hit the jump for brief recaps and links to each.

As you may have noticed, we’ve been a bit flooded with content for the past week thanks in no small part to Comic-Con 2011. We’ve been posting our full-scale coverage from the convention (I’m still trying to catch up on sleep), which has included a large number of interviews. We know some of you might have missed a few of these interviews, so we’ve compiled a sort of “catch up” list of 10 that we thought you might enjoy.

Not all of the interviews are Comic-Con related, but we’ve got conversations with Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson, Damon Lindelof, Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone and Marc Webb, Steve Carell, Patrick Stewart, Don Cheadle, Neil Patrick Harris and Jayma Mays, Nicolas Winding Refn, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, Don Cheadle and Kate Beckinsale. Hit the jump for some quick recaps and links to the full interviews.

At this year’s Comic-Con, I got to talk to someone whose work I’ve loved for a very long time: Patrick Stewart.  While many Star Trek fans debate which show was the best, I’ve always thought Star Trek: The Next Generation was the one that got everything right, and I’ve watched every episode at least a few times.  Trust me, if you had seen my face while doing this interview, you’d have thought I’d won a million dollars.

The reason Stewart was at his first Comic-Con is the movie Dorothy of Oz.  In the upcoming animated film, Stewart will voice a character named Tugg (you can watch him talk about the character here).  During the interview, Stewart talked about his love of animated films, making Dorothy of Oz, being at Comic-Con for the first time, how you can get him to record his voice for an answering machine message, when he looks back on his experience filming Star Trek: TNG what’s the one thing he remembers, has he seen X-Men: First Class and J.J. Abrams Star Trek, and a lot more.  Hit the jump to watch.