"Hang on a minute, lads," said Michael Caine at the end of The Italian Job. "I've got a great idea."

Not half as great, we'd wager, as casting Vin Diesel as a sword-wielding crusader in an effects-packed fantasy called (drum roll, please)... The Last Witch Hunter.

Sir Michael joins Diesel, Elijah Wood and Game of Thrones' Rose Leslie in a film that, if nothing else, provides an answer to at least one vexing question. Namely: what would Vin Diesel look like with a Gandalf beard?

Check out the trailer below.

Image source, Getty Images

Darcey Bussell took a break from Strictly Come Dancing earlier this week to join some young dancers hoping to follow in her illustrious footsteps.

The former ballerina has lent her name to a new bursary scheme organised by the Royal Academy of Dance that will enable budding hopefuls to compete in the prestigious Genee International Ballet Competition.

Find out more in our interview.

Two days before coming to a close, the Toronto Film Festival has taken the unusual step of withdrawing a title from its line-up after its director took legal action against its producers.

London Fields, a blackly comic mystery based on the 1989 novel by Martin Amis (pictured), was to have had its premiere later.

But festival organisers chose to cancel its screenings after director Matthew Cullen claimed the film's producers had added "incendiary imagery" without his approval.

Reviews of the film, which was shown to critics before its screenings were cancelled, have been decidedly mixed, with one pundit describing it as "car-crash film-making, external" and another calling it "a disgrace, external".

It's the second film to have had its Toronto airing pulled this year, following the earlier cancellation of a documentary about the recording of Aretha Franklin's 1972 album Amazing Grace.

Here's how organisers announced London Fields' no-show.

Read more on this story.

Image source, AP

Legendary music producer Quincy Jones was taken to hospital last night after suffering breathing problems. 

A representative for the 82-year-old later said he was "fine".

A message on his Twitter account confirmed "all is good". 

How do you become a singer if you're afraid to sing? That was the dilemma once faced by David Rhodes, a musician from Hertfordshire who now performs and records under his surname.

His fear of singing began at a young age, after he heard his voice on cassette. "I had a really high voice...," Rhodes told the BBC. "... and I just couldn't bear the sound of it."

After spending his teenage years playing in bands, he was finally persuaded to step behind the microphone and sing a Robert Johnson song at a party by his father.

The rest, as they say, is history, as this rendition of Ellie Goulding's Love Me Like You Do on Radio 1's Live Lounge recently attests.

Find out more about this rising British star and his debut album, Wishes, in our interview.

NME is being given away free for the first time today, after the music mag decided to scrap its cover price in an attempt to woo back readers.

Rihanna is its first free cover star, talking about when fans can expect a new album. (Hint: it might be a long wait.)

Copies are to be delivered weekly to train stations, universities, HMV and Topman. The magazine is also available as a digital download.

BBC Breakfast spoke to NME's editor, Mike Williams, earlier.

Beyonce has teamed up with Naughty Boy, One Direction fans' favourite producer, for a new track called Runnin' (Lose It All).

They've just released a video that features a couple running underwater.

Neither Beyonce, Naughty Boy nor their collaborator, Arrow Benjamin, appear in the arty promo.

Image source, AFP

Sir Elton John has accepted he was hoaxed by a call that saw him believe he was speaking to Vladimir Putin, but says his invitation to talk to the Russian president about LGBT rights still stands. 

"If this unfortunate incident has helped push this vital issue back into the spotlight, then I am happy to be pranked on this occasion," he wrote on Instagram, accompanied by a shot of a young man with a bloodied face, external.