Record breakers in the news today
Veteran composer John Williams is to return to score Star Wars: Episode VII, it has been announced.
The 81-year-old, who has composed all six films in the sci-fi saga so far, said he was "happy to be continuing to be part of the whole fun" of the franchise.
Williams, (pictured above left with Star Wars creator George Lucas), holds the record for highest average box-office film gross for a composer, having written scores for 74 theatrically released feature films across his career, each earning an average of $245.5 million (£151.9 million) at the box office, a figure helped by his work on such big earners as the Indiana Jones films and several entries in the Harry Potter series.
The last Mini to leave the Longbridge factory in the UK has sold for £1,400 after being hidden in tunnels for more than 30 years.
Workers had used the Mini Clubman 1275 GT to travel around the car plant in Birmingham, but it was dumped in the late 1970s after being damaged.
The most people crammed in a Mini Cooper is 23 and was achieved by Danielle Maynard and the David Lloyd Divas (UK), on the set of ITV's 'This Morning' to celebrate Guinness World Records Day 2012, on 15 November 2012.
Arrested Development creator Mitch Hurwitz has confirmed that more episodes of the cult comedy are on the way.
During a Q&A session at the Just For Laughs comedy festival in Montreal, Hurwitz confirmed that following the show’s recent successful recent return via the Netflix streaming service, more exploits of the dysfunctional Bluth family were now on the cards, revealing: "Whatever we do, I want to get the cast all together and not do another anthology thing, and that’s why I keep thinking about kicking off with a special or a three-part show and then going into a series.
Netflix helped organise a successful record attempt for the longest marathon watching films in December 2003, when an audience of 11 people endured watching 34 films for 66 hours and 30 minutes at Times Square Studios in New York.
The attempt ended 26 minutes into the 35th film, Die Hard: With a Vengeance.
Sticking with the world of entertainment, and Eddie Murphy has been confirmed to to return in a new 'Beverly Hills Cop' movie.
Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol screenwriters Josh Applebaum and Andre Nemec have been hired to write the script after interest in the comedy franchise was revived by the pilot episode for a spin-off TV series. While the series has been canned, Murphy's "scene-stealing turn" as Foley is said to have convinced the studio that the character is still "potent".
As of February 2013, the four films in the Shrek franchise which all feature Murphy as the voice of Donkey, have grossed a total of $2,955,807,005 (£1,888,190,025) at the worldwide box office, setting a record for the highest box-office film gross for an animated series.
