Jeff Bridges tells Comic-Con of struggle to get Lois Lowry’s The Giver filmed

Carys Herz: Bridges' father, whom the actor had hoped to direct in the title role, died before plans for the film could came to fruition

The Fountainhead review – Ivo van Hove’s smouldering take on Ayn Rand

This mammoth production of the neocon classic shifts the focus to its enthralling and predatory femme fatale, writes Andrew Todd

Arles 2014: Nicolo Degiorgis lifts the veil on Italy’s Islamophobia

Nicolo Degiorgis contrasts the peace of prayer with the tension of politics in his award-winning photobook, capturing Italian Muslims forced to pray in garages, gyms, and shops

Literary clock: help us find quotes for the missing minutes

We're winding up our 24-hour literary clock again in an attempt to find a quote for every moment of the day and night: can you fill in any of our empty moments?

Edinburgh International Book Festival bags: send us your quotations

Suggest quotations for the tote bags that everyone will be carrying at the Edinburgh International Book Festival this year – and win a pair of tickets

Edinburgh Book festival: a palpable passion for literature

Whether rubbing shoulders with world leaders, grilling the latest literary stars or simply reclining in Charlotte Square with a glass of wine, Edinburgh is a book festival like no other, writes Kirsty Wark

Cherie Booth calls for quotas to help women succeed in politics and business

Barrister tells audience at the Hay festival equality would take a 'long time' if left to happen naturally

Star Wars original cast looked ‘a little melted’ for Episode VII – Carrie Fisher

Princess Leia actor describes to Hay festival her reunion with Harrison Ford and others to work on first of new Star Wars films

Illuminating ideas (and a lot of fun) in a small-town idyll

Where else could you learn the latest black-hole theory, hear unfettered political debate and dance to Hot Chip? Tracy McVeigh reports from the alternative festival at Hay-on-Wye

Hay: middle class and proud in the land of the whittled breadboard

Zoe Williams attends the literature and arts festival where experts are still experts, and that's why people come

Enniskillen’s Samuel Beckett festival draws international stars for happy days by the lakes

Klaus Maria Brandauer in Krapp's Last Tape will be centrepiece of event celebrating Fermanagh town's most famous schoolboy, writes Maev Kennedy

HowTheLightGetsIn 2014: philosophy, music and thought for all

Festival director Hilary Lawson reveals what to expect at the philosophy and music festival, and how the event will challenge assumptions. Interview by Tom Lamont

Irvine Welsh joins team writing dystopian graphic novel

IDP: 2043, set in a benighted future Scotland, features leading writers and graphic artists including Mary Talbot and Pat Mills

Mythical beasts and voodoo worship: photographing pagan rituals in China

Sean O'Hagan: Using a cheap Holga film camera, Zhang Xiao captures the otherworldliness of a new-year festival that has survived China's surge towards modernity in Shanxi, a haunting new photobook

Does everyone share Hall’s vision of making BBC arts as important as news?

Maggie Brown: Ratings-focused managers could sabotage director general's plans for more Glyndebourne, Hay festival and Royal Academy