BBC Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat has announced that the forthcoming 13-episode Series 6 of Doctor Who will air in two separate storylines. The first will air in Spring 2011 and consist of a seven-episode story arc that will lead to a “game-changing cliff-hanger.”

Then, in Fall 2011, the remaining six episode, featuring the resolution to that cliffhanger and a new storyline, will air. A Christmas episode will put a bow on Series 6 in late 2011.

That’s a long time to wait for Who fans wowed by Moffat’s debut season at the creative helm, as well as the debut seasons for new Doctor Matt Smith and new companion Karen Gillan. With such ambitious plans for the sixth series since its relaunch, one wonders whether Moffat might already be expending so much energy that he’ll soon burn out.

Not to worry. Moffat doesn’t plan to leave the show any time soon. “I’m in it for the long haul,” the lifelong Who fan said. “I won’t be leaving the show for a while yet.”

Even better, it sounds like he’s still brimming with story ideas so that the Doctor and Amy Pond won’t be spending an entire season picking out new discount laminate flooring for the TARDIS… at least, not any time soon!

In a rather blah weekend at the box office, the movie Takers ended up just ahead of The Last Exocism in a photo finish that was so messy I was wondering if any roadside assistance was going to be necessary in its wake. Takers raked in $20.5 million while Last Exorcism blasphemed its way to a $20.3 million weekend in the final tally.

Takers had a $20 million budget so that movie is sitting stable; however, Last Exorcism is a true example of indie filmmaking, with a budget of only $1.8 million, so even the second-place finish meant a return on investment of over 10:1.

That’s not bad, but the box office hit the doldrums after that, with no film even cracking the $10 million mark. Even the special edition re-release of Avatar barely took in $4 million now that it’s out on DVD anyway.

Will next weekend bring any relief? Not likely; George Clooney’s boring political piece, The American, looks uninspired; and the latest Robert Rodriguez thriller, Machete, is coming out too silent from the gate to gauge. Finally, the Drew Barrymore-Justin Long rom-com Going the Distance has a chance to do some business, but don’t expect any of these new films to set fire to the movie-going public.

Call it the Magnificent Nine (or Eleven, if you count the micro-cameos by Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis); the Stallone mega-star-loaded action flick, The Expendables, sat alone atop of the box office this past weekend, hauling in a tidy $34.8 million in domestic box office receipts. The film, which has yet to hit internationally, fell short of the hoped-for opening of $40 million plus, but the flick was still light years ahead of the competition.

The closest behind the boys was a flick for the gals; Julia Roberts’ Eat Pray Love took in $23.1 million over the weekend and has yet to debut overseas. That’s not bad for a film that cost around $60 million to make. The Will Ferrall action-comedy The Other Guys brought up a distant third with $17.4 million and has a domestic haul of nearly $70 million to date against a production budget of $100 million. Yet considering the film hasn’t debuted internationally, that could improve.

Inception came in fourth with $11.2 million in its fifth week. It’s take so far is around $250 million domestically plus $315 million in foreign markets for a total take to date of $565 million. That’s $400 million or so in profit after production costs.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World debuted in fifth place and managed $10.6 million only; against its $60 million budget, that’s bad news. Foreign markets only added an additional million, which does not bode well for the graphic novel-inspired Michael Cera film. Nothing else came close to topping $10.0 million.

One bright now about a film currently much further down the list; with a global take of $940.5 million to date, Toy Story 3 has now displaced Shrek 2 as the top-grossing animated feature of all time. Where to next? Why, to infinity and beyond, of course! Looks like cutting that scene where Buzz Lightyear tried on prom dresses was a good call after all! That should be left to teen girls, guys!

This coming weekend, Nanny McPhee Returns should be the best of the new crop, though Vampires Suck and The Switch both have a shot not to totally stink. The same might not be said for the car-wreck-in-3D flick, Piranha 3D.

After that, though, movie-going gets grim until maybe mid-October, when I personally am looking forward to Paranormal Activity 2.

While not exactly a critical darling in the UK, a third series of Merlin is currently in production and set to debut on UK television this coming September. It doesn’t require a handy barcode scanner to detect that Merlin is perhaps more popular in the US than the UK.

Still, the Smallville treatment of Arthurian legend has drawn its fans, and with Buffy alumn Tony Head as Uther Pendragon, there’s plenty of US appeal to the show. The season two finale seemed to indicate that Morgana could become the series three big bad, which could be a mislead, or an extremely exciting set-up for the upcoming season.

This is one viewer who’s looking forward to Merlin Series 3 almost as much as Glee Season 2.

Inception won’t make it to a month of box office dominance, as the Will Ferrell-Mark Wahlburg buddy comedy, The Other Guys, which is on its way to a weekend in the neighborhood of $40 million or just shy of that. All the hand dryers in the world won’t help Inception beat that, since the movie only took in $5.5 million on Friday on the way to a weekend that likely won’t reach $20 million.

Yet it’s Step-Up 3D that looks to take second place behind The Other Guys and in front of Inception; it took in $6.6 million, en route to a weekend expected to fall short of $20 million and will below expectations for the 3D dance flick. The jury’s officially out until Monday, but for the moment that’s how things are playing out.

Well folks, the Ellen DeGeneres era on American Idol is, thankfully, over.

The stand-up comic and daytime talk host was out of her area of strength on Idol, and her departure will hopefully mean that Fox will have a judge panel next season who all have music backgrounds. That was the biggest and most legitimate critique of DeGeneres – her lack of a music industry background.

Personally, I’d love to see Ellen join the judges panel of the next season of NBC’s Last Comic Standing; she’d immediately become the top judge and draw of the show, and has way more credibility and humor than any of this season’s judges. The woman knows comedy, not music, and could help make Last Comic Standing a way more legitimate show.

That aside, it’s a relief to have her off Idol, where she was outside her area of expertise.

Now to the rumor mill: word is (and no, I have no security cameras at Fox) that Idol has come to terms already with Jennifer Lopez as Ellen’s replacement. Huge improvement; while J-Lo needs an image boost after being dumped by her record label and her latest movie bombing, she’s an ideal Idol judge due to being a legit pop star – just as Paula Abdul was.

Simon’s replacement is still in the works; I’d love to hear that Apprentice winner Bret Michaels is the choice, although the rumor mill has Steven Tyler as more likely. Personally, I wouldn’t mind if it was Nigel Lythgow himself, who is returning to Idol after a couple seasons as just on So You Think You Can Dance.

The remaining questions are these: will Fox retain Kara DioGuardi as a fourth judge? The word is, she’s already been told she won’t be returning, and her deal was a year-to-year contract.

The bigger question is whether Fox will retain Randy Jackson as a connection to Idol’s past, or if they want to clean house and start fresh. Hard to say.

Personally, I’d love to see Idol free up Randy; that way, when Simon Cowell’s X-Factor debuts in 2011, he could potentially re-team with both Paula and Randy, reuniting the original three-judge panel that worked so well for years on Idol.

Now if only we knew when Ryan Seacrest’s contract was up, and whether he’d consider re-teaming with Cowell on X-Factor, or if CNN is in his future instead.

Smart filmmaker Christopher Nolan has proven he can deliver box office without Batman; his brainy thriller, Inception, earned its third straight week atop the box office this week, gaining $27.4 million to bring its US total to $193 million to date. Foreign markets have added another $171 million for a global take of around $364 million. Not shabby.

Steve Carell’s Dinner for Schmucks was the most worthy challenger this week, earning $23.5 million for a strong second-place showing. Salt fell off big-time to third, earning only $19.4 million in its second week. The animated Despicable Me was fourth with $15.5 million.

The modestly budgeted Charlie St. Cloud ($12.3 million) just beat out children’s film Cats and Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore ($12.2 million) for the fifth and sixth place finishes, respectively. Nothing else earned more than $5.1 million.

This weekend the competition may not be as rough; anything could happen with the Will Ferrell-Mark Wahlberg action comedy The Other Guys, while Step-Up 3D is also hard to predict, though it’s unlikely either will set the world on fire.

But on Friday, August 13, the best weekend left in the summer movie season hits like a hurricane, as about a dozen action film stars of the 80s and 90s unite for The Expendables, Julia Roberts looks to turn heads in Eat Pray Love, and Scott Pilgrim vs. The World could surprise a lot of people the way the prices of steel buildings do compared to brick-and-mortar construction.

It’s officially confirmed by NBC Entertainment president Angela Bromstad; the upcoming season of The Office will be Steve Carell’s final season as a series regular.

“Not to diminish the departure of Steve, because that will impact the show, but we have tremendous faith in the writers and actors to keep it alive,” Bromstad said in an Associate Press report.

Carell had been hinting at his exit for months, as he was at the end of his contract; he’s developed a prolific movie career on the side and that is expected to be his primary pursuit following his exit from the top NBC comedy.

Speculation has run amok on who might replace Carell as the head of Dunder Mifflin. While Jim seems to be a natural choice, many have said the creative possibilities of putting Dwight in charge might be more intriguing. Of course, the show may also opt to introduce a new character, in which case, the question becomes what actor could step into the established ensemble without upsetting the established chemistry.

Personally, if I could choose anyone, I’d draft Aziz Ansari, currently a supporting cast member of Parks and Recreation. But I’m not sure I have enough onecall coupons to really sell anyone by myself on the idea.

However, spare me the suggestions of Ricky Gervais reviving his David Brent character on the US version to replace Carell; it’s a fan-boy dream, nothing more.

With the weekend box office numbers now final, it is clear that all the promotional tote bags in the world couldn’t help Angelina Jolie’s SALT from upsetting Chris Nolan’s INCEPTION from the top spot at the box office.

The final numbers are Inception $43.7 million on the weekend, Salt in second place with $36 million. Despicable Me was a distant third with $23 million and no one else even cracked $10 million.

Of course, this weekend will be interesting as the kid-friendly Cats and Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore makes a challenge to the adults-only Inception. Charlie St. Cloud could quietly do well, also. And there’s always a chance Dinner for Schmucks could break $10 million, which could lift box office results overall.

We’ll see.

The very smart thriller, Inception, appears as though it will hold off a strong challenge from Angelina Jolie’s new thriller, Salt. In Friday returns, Inception drew $13.2 million while Salt drew $12.7 million, with both films seemingly on a course to break the $35 million mark before the weekend’s out.

That would be a strong second-week showing by Inception and a decent, if not dazzling, debut by Salt. Despicable Me, the animated children’s film, is the only other film likely to break the $10 million weekend barrier, as fourth-place-at-the-moment children’s live-action flick, Ramona and Beezus, based on the Beverly Cleary children’s classic that was around when I was in grade school, was trailing a distant fourth place with only about $3.0 million on Friday, good enough to stay ahead of Nic Cage’s The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.

So while Jolie’s SALT continues to set spirometer ablaze, mark me down for being more interested in Chris Nolan’s latest “film between Batman films” offering, Inception.

When he’s not hocking natural products for acne on an infomercial, Kevin Bacon still pops up as an actor once in a while; the rumor mill is hot right now that the notoriously tight-wadded Marvel Studios (Fox is releasing) is allowing X-Men: First Class director Matthew Vaughn pursue Kevin Bacon for a super-villain role in the flick.

While lately Bacon’s best-known for the cheesy Hollywood name-association game built around the once-prolific actor, Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, the former star of Footloose is reportedly willing to deal himself into the X-franchise.

No word on which villain he’s play, although considering they have Emma Frost in this story, Bacon might be a nice fit for Sebastian Shaw of the Hellfire Club. Time will tell.

A tentative release date has been leaked for The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, and it appears the franchise has decided to stay out of the way entirely of the other huge children’s-lit-to-film franchise, Harry Potter.

Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn will be made as two separate movies, just as is the case with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows. Deathly Hollows releases part one this coming November, while part two will release late next spring.

Breaking Dawn Part 1 will then follow in November 2011, well removed from any possible lingering Potter-effect on the box office, with Part 2 likely to follow in the Summer of 2012. The two-part finale of the Twilight Saga will be filmed in Baton Rouge and Vancouver with filming expected to start this fall and last for several months.

Hopefully those Twilight fans already lining up for the next installments will be well-supplied on the best fat burner, since they’ll be sitting there a LONG time this time…