You can learn a lot about the movie industry by checking out the papers. We're not talking about the trade tabloids like Variety or The Hollywood Reporter - which do have a fair amount of decent, spoiler-ish info amongst their reports on casting calls and box office grosses - but the simple, humble, local newspaper. Because whilst the average countryside town's rag will struggle to fill its pages with stories of bake sales, school holidays and the disappointing performances of their lowest division sports teams, every so often their miniscule staff (average: one person to write everything, one to work the printers) will get thrown a bone in the form of a major television or film production happening nearby. You get all sorts of Game Of Thrones spoilers, owing to the fact that the show uses rural Ireland to double for its medieval fantasy landscapes, in the nearby press. There's even been a handful of occasions where upcoming WWE wrestling events are spoiled by grappler's big comebacks being advertised in the back pages of papers where they're taking place. Our favourite spoilers to come out of some silly low-circulation reporting, however, are all from a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away... Recently an Irish newspaper has been speculating that wrestler Sheamus would be taking on the role of Darth Vader in the new Star Wars films, a character we weren't expecting to turn up in JJ Abrams' seventh episode in the series. It could be worse, though. You could be original Vader actor David Prowse who, during an article in a Berkeley, California paper, revealed that he was Luke Skywalker's father. Two years before Empire Strikes Back came out. Oops.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
