On this episode of Collider Movie Talk, John Campea, Kristian Harloff, and Jon Schnepp discuss the following:

  • J.J. Abrams spills The Force Awakens secrets.
  • Opening This Week (brought to you by AMC Theatres)
  • The Twilight Zone
  • American film vs British film
  • Avatar box office results
  • Director’s involvement in casting
  • Who’ll get more screen time in Batman v Superman
  • Will DC get their own studio under WB?
  • ...and a few things more!
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Image via Lucasfilm

As many of you know a major Star Wars: The Force Awakens cover feature is coming in the next issue of Empire Magazine and a major point in that article has been released. In the story J.J. Abrams has confirmed that Kylo Ren, the apparent villain of the new Star Wars film, is in fact NOT a Sith. The director also goes on to reveal that Ren works directly under Supreme Leader Snoke, who is a powerful figure on the Dark Side of the Force. Supreme Leader Snoke is a motion capture character in the film being played by Andy Serkis.

OPENING THIS WEEK (brought to you by AMC Theatres)

This week we start off by talking about the new Zac Efron film We Are Your Friends. Young Cole Carter (played by Efron) dreams of hitting the big time as a Hollywood disc jockey, spending his days and nights hanging with buddies and working on the one track that will set the world on fire. Opportunity comes knocking when he meets James Reed, a charismatic DJ who takes the 23-year-old under his wing. Soon, his seemingly clear path to success gets complicated when he starts falling for his mentor's girlfriend, jeopardizing his new friendship and the future he seems destined to fulfill.

MAIL BAG

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Image via Warner Bros.

JayR TheKing writes: My question is about the original Twilight Zone, and the amount of movies that have taken consepts from this amazing show. Since I discovered the show 2 years ago, I have noticed that many of the episodes resemble many well known feature films such as Childs Play, The 6th Sense, Clock Stoppers, The Kid, Liar Liar, Real Steel, and Poltergeist just to name a few. So my question is, am I giving The Twilight Zone too much credit for all of these ideas or if I am not, how much do you guys think that The Twilight Zone has influenced major feature films, and what are your guys thoughts on The Twilight Zone? Thanks.

Grant Peter writes: I was wondering what makes a film an American film or a British Film? What got me wondering was Chappie, when it was in release people kept linking to IMDB / Wiki and it gave a short intro saying "Chappie, an American Film about...". But, the Director is South African, most of the actors are South African (with one Brit and one Aussie and just Sigourney Weaver representing the states as far as I recall), it's shot in South Africa and it's based in South Africa. Is it just American because the pay cheques are from the US?

Robert Clark writes: Hey Collider crew! I was looking at the box office results for Avatar, and was surprised to see a weekend opening of 77 million. I was even more surprised to see the second weekend total of 75.6 million, a decrease of only 1.8%! How did Avatar achieve such a crazy low drop in gross? And did anyone see that coming?

M Awath writes: Hey crew, greetings from Birmingham England. I watched Jon Schnepp's film and noticed the producer John Peters was the one who wanted Nic Cage as Superman. Did Tim Burton have a say? Or do directors have no say in casting and work with who they get?

Sam Israel writes: Dear Collider, with the upcoming Batman v Superman movie coming in March I was wondering who you think will receive more screen time. Will this sort of resemble Man Steel 2 or with the debut of Batman and the Warner Bros comments will we see more Batman in the film? I was just wondering your thoughts. Thanks!

Suhaib Bryim writes: Hey guys and gals of collider I'm digging the new green look. I was wondering that with marvel having their own studio for the MCU and have made some great films, so I'm thinking most of that success Is due to them having their own studio under Disney. Do you think it's a good thing for DC to have their own studio under WB in order to deliver the same quality of films and compete with marvel and what will it take for that to happen? Keep up the great work!