Film News: 12 Years a Slave and Breaking Bad lead Golden Globe winners; Quentin Tarantino's new western

12 YEARS A SLAVE AND BREAKING BAD LEAD GOLDEN GLOBE WINNERS
Steve McQueen's powerful and harrowing 12 Years a Slave, the tale of a man kidnapped and sold into slavery, took home the Best Motion Picture (Drama) award at last night's Golden Globes, leading to speculation that it may also clean up at this year's Oscars. McQueen's film narrowly beat Gravity and Captain Philips, both odds-on favourites to win. Chiwetel Ejiofor, the film's star, narrowly missed out on the Best Actor award, which went to Matthew McConaughey for Dallas Buyers Club. 

The Best Motion Picture (Comedy or Musical) category was dominated by American Hustle – Amy Adams and Christian Bale were both nominated, and Adams took home an award for Best Actress, while Bale narrowly missed out on the Best Actor award to Leonardo DiCaprio in The Wolf of Wall Street. The film itself took home Best Motion Picture in the category. The Best Director award went to Alfonso Cuarón for Gravity, while the award for Best Screenplay went to Spike Jonze, for Her. 

In the TV category, Breaking Bad was the big winner, taking home awards for Best TV Series, and Best Actor (for Bryan Cranston). Also given awards were Michael Douglas (for Behind The Candelabra), Elisabeth Moss (for Top of the Lake), and Julianna Margulies (for The Good Wife). The award for Best TV Miniseries or Movie went to American Horror Story: Coven. The Telegraph has a full list of the nominees and winners.

TARANTINO'S NEW WESTERN GETS A TITLE: THE HATEFUL EIGHT
It has long been rumoured that Quentin Tarantino's next film project will be another western, in the same stylistic vein as Django Unchained. This week, it has been revealed that the director's new project will be called The Hateful Eight, a play on the title of the John Sturges’ classic The Magnificent Seven. The story broke in Deadline, who also report that Tarantino wishes to cast his regular sparring partner Christoph Waltz in a central role, and is keen to sign on Hollywood great Bruce Dern, who had a minor role in Django Unchained. Deadline report that Tarantino has a draft script ready.

Speaking late last year on The Tonight Show, Tarantino revealed that his new film would be a western, but denied that it was linked in any way except stylistically to Django Unchained. "I haven't told anyone this publicly, but I will say the genre: it's a western," said the director. "I had so much fun doing Django…, and I love westerns so much that, after I taught myself how to make one, it's like, 'OK! Let me make another one now that I know what I'm doing.'"

THE RUMOUR MILL: STAR WARS – EPISODE VII LATEST, JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT SPEAKS OUT ABOUT THE SANDMAN, MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE TO GET REBOOT?
J.J. Abrams' Star Wars Episode VII has proved to be an absolute behemoth of gossip already, with new rumours flying around the internet every few days or so, relating to casting, the plot, the set-up for the sequels and much more. Here's a short summary of the is-it-or-isn't-it news doing the rounds this week. Currently in the rumour mill of casting are 12 Years a Slave star Chiwetel Ejiofor – when asked directly by Yahoo Movies if he had been cast he replied simply: "We'll just have to wait and see" – and Hugo Weaving, who many sources are speculating will play the role of a senior Imperial commander. Also throw into the mix over the past month or so are Benedict Cumberbatch, Michael Fassbender, Adam Driver, and Jesse Plemons of Breaking Bad fame.

Meanwhile, The Hollywood Reporter has been feeding speculation about the reasons for the departure of screenwriter Michael Arndt from the production – he was let go in favour of original series writer Lawrence Kasdan. Citing "multiple insiders" as sources, THR reports that Arndt's script focused on the children of Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and Princess Leia – the report hints that J.J. Abrams wished for actors Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher to play a more central role in Episode VII, and so Arndt and his script were let go. 

Joseph Gordon-Levitt has spoken out about his forthcoming big screen version of The Sandman, which he will produce, and possibly star in. Talking to culture site IGN, Gordon-Levitt said it was still "very, very early days" for the production. "I love just the basic concept of it – just the concept of personifying Dream, along with all of his brothers and sisters – the seven Endless – personifying Death, personifying Destruction and Delirium and Destiny and Desire and Despair. I mean, that's just a fascinating and, I think, a really cinematic concept," says Gordon-Levitt. "You look at the art of Sandman, and it just looks spectacular. I love big, spectacular movies, but often big, spectacular movies sort of get stuck in a rut. They go down certain paths that end in big explosions or whatever. Sandman has so much opportunity to do something that's on a grand, grand scale, but really unlike your average big, grand-scale, spectacular movie. I guess that's the tip of the iceberg." The actor also comments on his role in Sin City 2: A Dame To Kill For.

And finally, rumours of the latest 80s toy franchise to get a slick CGI reboot – saddle up your Battle Cat, He-Man is coming back to the big screen! Den of Geek reports that Columbia Pictures is trying to reboot Masters of the Universe, with Kirk DeMicco and Chris Sanders (The Croods), Rian Johnson (Looper), Joe Cornish (Attack the Block), and Phil Lord and Chris Miller (22 Jump Street) being lined up as possible directors. The original rumour comes from the blog Schmoes Know.

TRAILERS: OUTLANDER, GAME OF THRONES
It's a TV Trailers Special! First up, a production filmed on location in Scotland, and helmed by showrunner Ronald D. Moore, the brains behind the phenomenal Battlestar Galactica reboot. Time-travelling fantasy epic Outlander is based on the novels by Diana Gabaldon, telling the tale of twentieth century woman Claire Randall – she travels back in time to 18th century Scotland, and then on to ther times. It looks like a Game of Thrones-challenging swords-and-swashbuckling epic, but with the added attraction of frequent jumps from era to era. Watch the first trailer below.

Speaking of Game of Thrones, here's the trailer for the much-anticipated Season 4, which begins in the UK on 7 April, and by the looks of the series trailer below, things in Westeros are only going to get more chaotic and violent. Will the dragons ever return to Westeros? Will John Snow ever leave the Wall? How many detumescent male members will they manage to cram on screen this year? All will be revealed...