Time Out with Jenness Mitchell

Electric Fields: Electric Fields is a vibrant one-day festival nestled in the idyllic setting of Drumlanrig Castle in Dumfries. This year’s formidable line-up includes Fatherson, We Were Promised Jetpacks, The LaFontaines, Honeyblood, Stanley Odd, Vigo Thieves, Prides, AMWF, Roman Nose, Miaoux Miaoux, Neon Waltz, Bombskare, Vukovi, The Amphetameanies, Cammy Black, Barstow Bats and United Fruit.

Electric Fields Festival; Saturday 30 August, Drumlanrig Castle, Thornhill, Dumfries. Tickets are £25 (adult), £15 (13-17-year-olds) and free (U13). Limited on-the-day camping passes are available at £10 per person. For more info, go to www.electricfieldsfestival.com.

The Inbetweeners 2: Join the boys Down Under as Jay (James Buckley), Neil (Blake Harrison), Simon (Joe Thomas), and Will (Simon Bird) reunite in Australia for a holiday. Jay, who invites the lads over whilst on a gap year, promises them it’s “the sex capital of the world”. It’s an offer they can’t refuse, so once again they put growing up temporarily on hold and embark on a backpacking trip of a lifetime in an awful car. Following on from the TV show and first movie, expect lashings of rudeness, crudeness, girls, booze and one or two kangaroos.

Top reads: Little Lies by Liane Moriarty; Jane hasn’t lived anywhere longer than six months since her son was born five years ago. She keeps moving in an attempt to escape her past. Now the idyllic seaside town of Pirriwee has pulled her to its shores and Jane finally feels like she belongs. She has friends in the feisty Madeline and the incredibly beautiful Celeste - two women with seemingly perfect lives but with their own secrets behind closed doors - but then a small incident involving their children in the playground causes a rift between them and the other parents of the school. Although minor at first, it escalates fast with whispers and rumours becoming vicious and spiteful. It was always going to end in tears, but no one thought it would end in murder.

Highlights from Comic-Con 2014: Batman v Superman; Dawn of Justice; Fans were given a brief glimpse of the highly anticipated Zack Snyder-directed sequel. A 20-sec clip showed what appeared to be a very pumped up Ben Affleck as the Caped Crusader. As he rips tarpaulin off the bat signal and gazes up to the night sky with white glowing eyes, there staring back in anger with red burning eyes is Henry Cavill’s Superman. An image of Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman was also unveiled. The iconic red, blue and gold costume has now been replaced by Xena-esque leather armour. Verdict; It’s all looking good.

Mad Max; Fury Road; A trailer for the fourth instalment in the post-apocalyptic franchise was screened. Featuring Britain’s Tom Hardy in the title role – which made a star of Mel Gibson over 30 years ago – the explosive promo shows the desert road warrior taking on a gang of ferocious villains with help from Oscar-winner Charlize Theron. Verdict; I’m not sure whether I’m glad or sad there’s no Tina Turner. As long as they keep the action violent like the original films, this’ll be a winner.

The Hunger Games; Mockingjay – Part 1; Although we’ve been treated to ‘propaganda’ teasers from the Capitol, the first official trailer debuted at Comic-Con with actual footage from the upcoming movie. The one-minute clip gives us a look at Game of Thrones babe Natalie Dormer as Cressida, the late Philip Seymour Hoffman (gamemaker Plutarch Heavensbee) and Julianne Moore (President Alma Coin) talking tactics, President Snow (Donald Sutherland) outlawing the mockingjay symbol, a flavour of the rebellion, and Katniss (Jen Lawrence) as she agrees to stand with the people and revolt against the government. Verdict; I’d watch Jen Lawrence read out names from a phone book. I’m excited about this and interested to see how the film-makers are going to work around Hoffman’s role after he died halfway through shooting.

The Walking Dead; Fans of the hit TV show may want to stop reading now. In a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment from the exclusive season five trailer, an unknown assailant looks as if he’s about to take a swing at Glenn Rhee’s (Steven Yeun) head with a baseball bat. The scene is sadly reminiscent of Robert Kirkman’s comic series - on which the zombie drama is based - where Negan, the fierce leader of The Saviors, beats the much-loved character to death with Lucille (a wooden baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire) as payback for an attack that kills some of his men. Showrunner Scott M. Gimple has remained coy over Glenn’s fate, but did say, “I think you have to go back and see if there was barbed wire around the bat.” Verdict; I loved the ending of season four. The cannibals at Terminus who locked up our good guys are definitely “screwing with the wrong people”. Although The Walking Dead has a history of killing off its main characters, I genuinely don’t want Glenn to die as he fought so hard to get back to Maggie (Lauren Cohan) last season. While I would like to see Negan as he’s a great villain, I’m hoping the scene was misdirection.

Hannibal; Following season two’s epic finale, early episodes in season three will revolve around Hannibal Lecter (Mads Mikkelsen) and Dr Bedelia Du Maurier (Gillian Anderson) as they live a new life in Italy after being on the run for a year. Showrunner Bryan Fuller revealed that audiences can expect to see many characters from the novels, including chief inspector Rinaldo Pazzi, Red Dragon/Francis Dollarhyde, Mason Verger’s physician Cordell and Lady Murasaki. Raul Esparza will return as Dr Chilton – despite being shot in the face, while Eddie Izzard’s Gideon and Kacey Rohl’s Abigail Hobbs are set to appear in flashback form. At the moment there will be no Clarice Starling or Barney Matthews as MGM holds the rights to The Silence of the Lambs characters. However Fuller and producer Martha DeLaurentiis are desperately trying to negotiate with the studio to finish the story and bring the events of the book to the small screen. Verdict; I cannot wait for the appearance of Red Dragon as he frightens the life out of me. However more importantly, I really hope the Hannibal team and MGM manage to come to an agreement. I want to see Starling. I want to see Buffalo Bill. I want to see it rub the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again.

Mass Effect 4; The BioWare team showed off some concept art, but stated that all of the content seen was subject to change and may not even appear in the final game. Producer Mike Gamble said players will be able to customize their Mako - the all-terrain vehicle used to explore the surface of planets - as they’ll be spending a lot of time in it, and hinted that cooperative multiplayer is a bigger focus for the developer than competitive. The team did reiterate that the game will not feature Shepard, but may be set during the commander’s lifetime - albeit potentially in a different galaxy. Verdict; As well as the Fallout and Dragon Age series, I adore the Mass Effect franchise. I love how you can create your own character, choose to be good or a rogue, and can enter into relationships with other people in the story. I don’t mind if the new game is set in an alternate universe with a fresh set of characters, but it would be nice if there’s some sort of connection or mention of Shepard’s choices and actions from the first three games.

San Diego Comic-Con International is an annual four-day event that showcases a wide range of comic books and sci-fi/fantasy-related films, television shows, video games and similar popular arts. The convention is celebrated and reported on worldwide and is used by many studios to whip fans into a frenzy via exclusive announcements, snippets from upcoming productions, and Q and A sessions with celebrity guests.

Scotland is hosting its very own Comic-Con at Glasgow’s SECC on 6-7 September. As well as dealer stalls, a comic village and games expo, special guests booked to appear include Chris Barrie (Red Dwarf, The Brittas Empire), D.C. Douglas (Sharknado 2: The Second One) and Andrew Lee Potts (Primeval). For more info and tickets, go to http://www.mcmcomiccon.com/scotland.