We’ve heard talk about Andre 3000 playing Jimi Hendrix in the upcoming film “All Is By My Side,” and we even got a taste of what it’ll look like with a short clip released earlier this year. But now we can really dig our teeth into the biopic, with the release on Thursday (July 3) of the first official trailer.

The trailer shows Three Stacks as a young Hendrix — pre-fame, in 1966-67 — as he works his way to become the legendary musician that he is now remembered as. The movie reportedly has not secured the rights to the late rocker’s music, which is much of the reason that it focuses on the years before he made it big.

Hendrix died in 1970, at the age of 27.

The film, which was written by John Ridley, who also wrote “12 Years A Slave,” opens September 26.

Adam Fleischer

I'm serious about these snacks. Catch me @adamfleischer

There’s a rift growing in the world of “Transformers.”

On one side, you have the movie audience, who has shelled out nearly $1.3 billion worldwide for the series since it began in 2007, including the opening weekend grosses for this summer’s “Transformers: Age of Extinction.” On the other, you have critics, who have savaged the movies: none have been “certified fresh” on Rotten Tomatoes, with “Age of Extinction” garnering the lowest rating of any of the movies so far.

In the center of that rift is producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura, who has stewarded all four films along with director Michael Bay. On the eve of “Age Of Extinction” set to dominate theaters for a second weekend, and in the middle of a busy press week in Europe, MTV News got on the phone with di Bonaventura for a candid interview to talk about this divide, how he responds to the biggest criticisms of “Age Of Extinction” and where he sees the franchise going next.

[Note: MTV and Paramount, which releases the "Transformers" films, share a parent company.]

MTV News: First thing, obviously “Age of Extinction” had a gigantic opening weekend. It made over $300 million internationally, and I just read, I believe, that in China its up to $134.5 million, which is even out-pacing North America.

Lorenzo di Bonaventura: Well I mean, you know, you hope for this kind of result, but you don’t really dream it’s possible. That’s the honest truth.

You can be as bullish as you want about ...

Aww shucks, superkid — why so glum? What is it about Zack Snyder’s “Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice” that has both you and the bat one so down in the dumps? Is this, like, a seasonal affective disorder situation? (I mean, it does seem mighty rainy where you are.) Or are you just feeling generally ho-hum because it’s hard to be a superhero?

After Henry Cavill’s underpantsless superhero was revealed Thursday morning on Twitter, much of the Internet found itself concerned over the heavy emotional weight the boy from Krypton seems to be lost within. And in an uncharacteristic moment of concern, the Internet took pity on poor Kal-El and decided to cheer him up the only way they knew how: through the magic of photoshop.

Like this circus-y take:

Or this smirking equivalent of photoshop facial reconstruction:

This tender lover’s embrace kills two birds with one stone (because man oh man does Snyder seem interested in super-sad superheroes):

So cheer up, buttercup! You’re Superman — don’t let the rain get you down.

Alicia Lutes

Too much exuberance for one person. Follow her on Twitter @alicialutes.

Kylie and Kendall Jenner’s YA book, “Rebels: City of Indra: The Story of Lex and Livia,” came out a few weeks ago, so it’s high time we meet the woman who put fingers to keyboard to pen the tome: Maya Sloan, author and teacher — and Jenner ghostwriter.

As we’ve reported before — when we premiered an exclusive excerpt from the dystopian book — the Jenner sisters employed Sloan when they decided to make their entrance into the young adult fiction genre. In a recent story in the Los Angeles Times, however, it was revealed just how much writing the girls did. The answer? When it comes to physical writing –writing — well, none.

According to the publication, Sloan wrote the book, but the Jenners’ creative director, Elizabeth Killmond-Roman, points out that the girls and the writer had many meetings via Skype and Face-Time to discuss.

“Maya wanted to understand our lingo,” Kylie told the Times. “She’s super smart and just kind of adapted to us — remembering what we said and the way we talked.” The Jenners also provided notes and edits.

“People are trying to take this away from the girls,” Killmond-Roman said. “But most art is collaborative. It was never, like, ‘Maya — go off and write 10 chapters and send them back to us.’”

The girls also helped conceptualize the plot. “We just wanted to do something different — not something everyone would have expected from us, like a fashion, high school kind of story,” Kendall said.

Sloan ...

When Nick Cannon revealed a new look recently, it had people wondering: Why the change?

Is it so he can play Richard Pryor in an upcoming biopic?

“I’m doing the work; I’m working right now;” Cannon told MTV News, without fully confirming that he’s been cast in the film. “The movie is not in production. Let’s just say that.”

Earlier this year, it was reported that Lee Daniels was in talks to direct a biopic on the late comedy great. Though details on the movie are still thin, Cannon feels confident that he’s the right man for the role.

“I started in standup doing Richard Pryor’s material in church,” he recalled, adding that his father, a preacher, was a fan. “That was one of my first impressions that I ever knew how to do, is Richard Pryor, at like 11, 12.”

And so what exactly does it mean to do “the work”?

“Now that I am doing a lot of the research, and actually digging really deep and trying to find every piece of work that he ever laid his hands on, it’s like, ‘Oh, this is stuff that’s kind of already in me,’ ” the “Wild N Out” host explained. “Just as an actor, man, it’s things that you do to actually embody something, and figuring out people’s mannerisms…I’ve read every piece of material, every book. And you understand that he’s definitely a complex individual.”

And since Pryor had such an influence on Cannon — who has branched out from standup to ...