The Office Ending with Season 9

Updated with much more info from the press call:

During a conference call today, The Office's executive producer, Greg Daniels, announced that the upcoming Season 9 will be the final year for the NBC series.

Daniels said that "all questions will be answered" as The Office comes to an end, including meeting the documentary crew and finding out who's been filming the Dunder Mifflin crew all this time.

The final season of the show will bring back a lot of familiar faces, according to Daniels. We'll see Roy (David Denman) get married and David Wallace (Andy Buckley) will once again be running Dunder Mifflin. Despite having her own new show on FOX (The Mindy Project), we will see Mindy Kaling as Kelly Kapoor a couple more times.

Of course, it's hard not to wonder if one of those familiar faces might be Michael Scott. Daniels didn't have a definitive answer on whether Steve Carell might guest star, saying, "We would certainly wish for it. We're not going to put so much pressure on Steve by writing something that could only work if he returned. But it would be fantastic if he returned."

Daniels also hopes to bring back some of the show's veteran directors, including Ken Kwapis, who may get the honor of directing the final episode, a neat bookend since he also directed the pilot. Daniels also mentioned that there are some juicy roles the producers are expecting to fill with prominent guest stars and that the fact that this is the last season may lure some talents who have been hoping to work with the show for a while.

Further details on the big surprises coming this season were in short supply, though. Daniels has vowed to keep a lid on the big surprises in store this season, opting to let the audience experience it as it happens rather than reading it online. But for what it's worth, here are some of the tidbits he did share:

* We will finally find out who the Scranton Strangler is!

* Stars Rainn Wilson, Jenna Fisher and John Krasinski have all been promoted to producers this year, and have been involved in the "vision and pitch" of the story.

* Perhaps related to that, Daniels promised it will be a "big year" for Jim and Pam. "The story is not over for them," he said.

* We'll get some "crazy Dwight" stories that the writers have been wanting to do for years.

* Breaking Bad's Bryan Cranston was on the set directing an episode. Daniels said he could see him working just outside his window.

A potential spinoff, The Farm, focused on Dwight Schrute and his family, is in development. An upcoming episode of The Office will serve as a backdoor pilot for The Farm, and introduce several new characters, including Dwight's sister, played by Majandra Delfino. The new show will be produced by former Office showrunner Paul Lieberstein. Daniels is not involved in The Farm.

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DICE: Mirror's Edge and Bad Company Are "Too Good to Kill"

While EA and DICE remain coy about Mirror's Edge 2, a sequel seems all but inevitable.

In an interview with IGN, DICE executive producer Patrick Bach continued EA's (as well as DICE's) pro-Mirror's Edge 2 messaging, staring that Mirror's Edge is a property "we love, and of course we haven't killed it, because it's too good to kill." This also applies to Battlefield: Bad Company 3.

“The Bad Company IP is still something we love," Bach continued, "and it’s very dear to me because I worked on both titles. We have no information with where we are to a sequel to Bad Company, so I can’t tell you anything about that IP." When asked about the uncertain future of the Bad Company franchise, particularly with Battlefield 3 and Battlefield 4 taking center stage for the developer's foreseeable future, Bach emphasized that DICE will "never kill something that's great."

This reinforces an earlier DICE statement: "We haven't killed Bad Company 3." We may not see it now, but it sounds like its return is also inevitable.

"And then of course," Bach continued, "we have other projects in store for you." Is DICE working on an original new game? Another sequel? "You’ll just have to wait and see."

Mitch Dyer is an Associate Editor for IGN's Xbox 360 team. He’s also quite Canadian. Read his ramblings on Twitter and follow him on IGN.

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Harrison Ford in Expendables 3 Talks

With The Expendables 2 about to hit cinemas worldwide, producer Avi Lerner has been discussing a potential threequel, with some very big names apparently in talks.

Speaking to Total Film, Lerner said “We’ve approached Clint Eastwood to be one of the guys. We’ve got a character in mind for him. We’re talking to Harrison Ford. Wesley Snipes when he comes back from prison. I’ll give you one more name – we’ve got Nicolas Cage.”

And if that weren’t enough testosterone Lerner also has plans for one of the stars of the original who failed to return for part two.

“We’re going to bring Mickey Rourke back, if he won’t be too crazy. I like Mickey. And of course, all the existing stars [will return].”

Which includes the superstar likes of Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, Jason Statham and Jet Li.

So are there any other action stars you’d like to see added to the Expendables rosta?

Chris Tilly is the Entertainment Editor for IGN and is all about Rowdy Roddy Piper for Expendables 3. His idle chit-chat can be found on both Twitter and MyIGN.

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Yo! ALF Movie Planned

The 1980s TV sitcom ALF will get the big screen treatment via the producer of the Smurfs movie.

The Hollywood Reporter claims that Jordan Kerner has teamed with the series' creator Tom Patchett and puppeteer Paul Fusco to produce a hybrid live-action/CG-animated feature film for Sony Pictures Animation. Fusco, who voiced the wise-cracking visitor from the planet Melmac on the TV series, will reprise the role for the movie.

The sci-fi sitcom, which ran on NBC from 1986-90, followed an alien life form (ALF) named Gordon Shumway who crash-lands on Earth and ends up living with the American suburbanite Tanner family. ALF later beget an animated TV series, a TV movie, a Marvel comic, and a talk show series on TV Land.

No writer or director is said to be attached to the movie yet.

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Spider-Man Producer Playing Jumanji

Sony's Jumanji reboot now has a pair of producers: The Amazing Spider-Man's Matt Tolmach and the original film's producer William Teitler.

What Are Sony's Other Franchise Plans?

Variety has the report, adding that the original's executive-producer Ted Field will fill that position once again as well.

Columbia Pictures president Doug Belgrad (who used to run Columbia with Tolmach) said last month that one of the company's mandates is to pursue more family films, including their Smurfs franchise, and to "reimagine Jumanji and update it for the present."

The original 1995 film starred Robin Williams and Kirsten Dunst and was directed by Captain America: The First Avenger's Joe Johnston.

Talk to Movies Editor Scott Collura on Twitter at @ScottIGN, on IGN and on Facebook.

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New Final Fantasy XIII Game "Just Entered Production"

Work on the new title in the Final Fantasy XIII series that will be announced in September has apparently only recently started.

In this week's Famitsu (via Andriasang), producer Yoshinori Kitase said that the new project only recently entered production and that we'd find out the game's title on September 1.

While it's not much, the news that the game hasn't been worked on for long lends credence to the idea that we could be about to see Final Fantasy XIII-3. When it was first revealed that new series details were incoming, many fans were hoping they may in some way relate to the long-absent Final Fantasy Versus XIII, but unless you count 2006 as "recent", it appears we can now rule this out.

The Final Fantasy 25th anniversary event in Shibuya kicks off later this month, with the new game scheduled to be revealed at 11.30 on September 1 through the "Final Fantasy XIII Lightning Saga: New Developments Presentation".

Luke Karmali is IGN's UK Editorial Assistant, and would personally prefer Final Fantasy X-3. Let him know your thoughts and feelings on IGN and on Twitter.

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