Nicolas Cage Is Seeking Justice

In the trailer for the thrillerWhat would you do if someone you cared about were attacked? Would you seek vengeance? Justice? That's the question of Nicolas Cage's latest thriller, which just so happens to be titled Seeking Justice. You can glance at the trailer over on Apple's site.Seeking Justice finds Cage as Will Gerard, happily married to Laura (January Jones). But then she's attacked, and ends up in the hospital. Distraught, Will is approached by Simon (Guy Pearce), who offers the services of his organisation. Seems they can take the criminal down and get Will a little payback. This won't cost him anything, but he will owe them a favour. Clearly not thinking straight, Will goes along with it. And that's when the trouble really starts.See, the favour involves killing someone else. And when our hero decides he wants no part of it, Simon and his group decides to force his hand. And what does Will do then? Fights back, of course!This one has been sat in limbo for a while, having finished shooting in 2009. Which does make us worry about its prospects for action awesomeness. There's also no set UK release date yet. But one thing is clear: When Cage sports a beard, bad guys show fear...The original title for the movie was Hungry Rabbit Jumps, which does make us wonder what that has to do with the finished product. Here's an idea! Why not ask Mr Cage himself! For those of you who didn't yet know, the man himself will be in the Empire office for a web chat on Thursday (today, January 26 if you're reading this in the UK and it isn't already in the past). We're just hoping he doesn't go all Ghost Rider and try to wee fire on us.

BBC works out succession plan

LONDON -- Head hunters have been hired to produce a succession plan for the BBC's director-general Mark Thompson as speculation increases that he could step down after this summer's London Olympics. BBC Trust chairman Chris Patten has appointed international recruitment firm, Egon Zehnder, to produce the plan by Easter -- a highly unusual step for the pubcaster. "I want us to be able, when the time comes, to have an intelligent view of who are possible successors and where successors should come from and what sort of job we should want them to be doing," Patten told The Times. Employing the recruitment specialists did not, said Patten, "warrant the headline 'Starting gun fired for Mark Thompson succession.' " Thompson has been in the job since 2004, a relatively long time for what is a highly exposed role in British public life. While there appears to be no obvious pressure from Patten for the director-general to quit, the time may be right for both parties. Thompson recently oversaw the delivery of 700 million ($1.1 billion) of cuts following the coalition government's license fee freeze in October 2010, and the successful move of 2,300 jobs from London to BBC North in Salford, Manchester. Moreover, the BBC is on a roll creatively thanks to content natural history series "Frozen Planet," homegrown dramas "Sherlock" and critically praised two-parter "Birdsong," plus quirky factual shows including "The Great British Bake Off" and "Stargazing Live." For once, its legions of critics in the U.K. press, distracted by the fall-out from the News of the World phone hacking story, have fallen mostly silent. In public, Patten has gone out of his way to praise Thompson's achievements, but like all his predecessors he will ultimately want to hire a director-general of his own choosing -- and likely for less than the approximate $1 million the incumbent earns. There is no shortage of suitable successors in the U.K. but toppers working in U.S. media will also attract Egon Zehnder's interest. As for Thompson's next job, he might move across the Atlantic as his wife, Jane, is American. Contact the Variety newsroom at news@variety.com

Start Looking: No Shirt, No Footwear, No Sauce Pans? Not A Problem for No Kitchen Needed

No Kitchen Needed Survivor meets Top Chef through the Amazing Race in BBC America's completely new (and quite honestly, awesome-sounding) series, No Kitchen Needed, premiering Tuesday, March 20 at 10/9c. The Ten-episode series takes three chefs - NY eatery maven Michael Psilakis, New Zealand's Kayne Raymond, and Chopped Grand Champion's Madison Cowan - and drops them into wild, around-the-world locales without a lot like a pepper mill, to compete against each other by collecting, catching or simply plain killing indigenous elements and planning a dish to become judged through the local people. One of the areas looking for the very first season are spots in Thailand, Fiji, the Louisiana Bayou and Belize. We are able to already hear Gordon Ramsay raging at not considering this concept first. Sign up for TV Guide Magazine now!

'Ray' to stick out '14

"Rachael Ray" CBS Television Distribution's syndie yakker "Rachael Ray" remains restored using the 2013-14 season on ABC, CBS and Gannett affils, among others. Renewal will need the top its eighth season. " 'Rachael Ray' is really a solid artist in stations' lineups and contains stood a recent surge in ratings," mentioned CTD's sales prexy Joe DiSalvo in the news release. CBS mentioned the series happen to be restored around the slew of station groups, including Gannett, Cox, Meredith, Media General, Publish-Newsweek and Hearst. The series received daytime Emmys for outstanding entertainment talk show last year and 2008. Contact Mike Thielman at mike.thielman@variety.com