According to The Hollywood Reporter Disney has found its two leads for writer/director Andrew Stanton’s upcoming John Carter of Mars. Taylor Kitsch, last seen as Gambit on X-Men Origins: Wolverine and Lynn Collins, also last seen in the same film playing Wolverine’s love interest, have signed on to play the title character John Carter and Dejah Thoris receptively.

In case you’re not familiar with the story, the film is adapted from the Edgar Rice Burroughs series of novels and centers around John Carter, a Civil War veteran who is miraculously transported, via astral projection, to Mars. Once there, he meets Martian princess Dejah Thoris, wins her hand, rediscovers his own humanity after the ravages of war and eventually becomes Warlord of Mars. Along the way he also manages to get in quite a few sword fights and battles.

This movie is a big deal for all involved. It marks Stanton’s first live-action film after directing Disney’s Finding Nemo and Wall-E and its great for Kitsch and Collins, who will need to carry this one on their shoulders. And as a fan of the books growing up, I’ve always visualized what this movie might look like.

In truth, I’m not 100% sure on the casting choices but I think Stanton has the vision to pull off something very interesting. Still, Stanton reportedly was considring both Josh Duhamel and Jon Hamm for the role of John Carter and in my mind, it might of made more sense to go with someone like Hamm. Oh well, no matter what happens, we’ll find out soon enough as the film begins shooting later this year for a release in 2012.

Our good friends at NBC have graciously dropped a bunch of new Merlin clips and cast interviews on us today. And of course, we’ve decided to share them with you. In case you’re not familiar with the show, its a drama that, according to NBC: “updates the story of the infamous sorcerer of Arthurian legend for a new audience. ”

In addition, the show takes place in “the mythical city of Camelot, in a time before history began; a fantastical realm of legendary beasts and mysterious people; a dangerous world in which magic has been banned by the ruthless tyrant, Uther Pendragon.”

The videos we’ve got to share today include a long preview of the show broken into two parts, a discussion of the real-life castles the cast gets to work in while filming the show and interviews with the cast themselves. Speaking of the cast, Merlin features Colin Morgan as Merlin, Bradley James as Prince Arthur, Anthony “Giles” Head as King Uther, Richard Wilson as Gaius, Katie McGrath as Morgana and Angel Coulby as Gwen.

Merlin premieres Sunday, June 21st 8/7c on NBC. Be sure to check out all the videos after the jump.

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One of our favorte directors here at The Flickcast, Neil Marshall, is apparently in talks to take on another project that we’ve mentioned here before in connection with Robert Rodriguez. According to Bloody Disgusting, the man responsible for the super cool werewolves versus soldiers film Dog Soldiers, the cool spelunkers versus creatures film The Descent, and the sorta cool Rona Mitra versus everyone film Doomsday, may take on the reboot of the Predator franchise cleverly entitled Predators.

To be clear, this is just a rumor at this point. Nobody has signed anything on the line that is dotted and nobody is drinking any coffee yet (Look it up). Still, given Marshall’s experience with atmospheric creature films, his ability to make his movies look very good on a limited budget, and his experience with action, he may be a great choice to take on Predators.

But still, this is all rumor and speculation. For all we know, the studio could just be dangling Marshal in front of Robert Rodriguez to get him to commit to directing the film himself. Or, Marshall may actually be in real negotiations for the job?

No matter what the truth really is (And we may never know), things at least look to be moving forward on the Predator reboot front — something that, as a fan of the franchise who thinks it needs another chance, I couldn’t be happier about.

Its Friday and its been a couple days since we had anything up here about The Twilight Saga: New Moon. So, not to disappoint fans of the franchise (including a few folks here at The Flickcast), here’s a new behind the scenes video shot on the set while filming took place.

In this video, we’re treated to scenes of all the actors working, shivering and otherwise having a good old time on the set. Plus, you get a glimpse into the world of movie making and see that even in a place where it rains quite often, the filmmakers still have to bring some of their own.

The Twilight Saga: New Moon hits theaters November 20th. Check out the video after the jump.

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Normally, Fan Film Friday is reserved for a web video that relates to this weekend’s big release in theaters, but seeing as how this weekend is bringing us Eddie Murphy’s Imagine That and The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, there isn’t a whole lot to spoof here.

On this week’s episode of The Flickcast, both Christina and I shared our love of A Cappella, which brings us to this week’s FFF. Most people are aware of Andy Samberg’s half-joke musical group The Lonely Island from their digital shorts on SNL. Samberg was even proven to be big enough in his demographic to host this year’s MTV Movie Awards.

Some of their more popular songs have become apart of pop culture today, with one or two standing out. The one I’m referring to? “I’m On A Boat”. Originally performed with T-Pain, the song was a pretty big hit on the ‘net and even inspired the A Cappella group “Acquire A Cappella” from UC Santa Cruz college to do their own version.

Check it out after the jump.

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For yesterday’s Pull List Comic Reviews, go here. Otherwise, read on for today’s.

Wolverine #74 – Marvel – $2.99

Score: 7.0

Wolverine #74, the final issue before the series becomes Dark Wolverine and focuses on Wolverine’s son Daken, concludes the two stories started in the previous issue. The first is a story about an old biker friend of Wolverine’s by the name of Horrorshow who has asked a favor of Wolverine, to find and help his son who is believed to have killed members of Horrorshow’s biker club and set the wheels in motion for a war between two gangs. While other leaders of the gang pressure Horrorshow in to declaring war, Wolverine appears back at the bar to let his friend know that his son is dead.

Obviously not happy about this news, Horrorshow takes his anger out on Wolverine. As Wolverine is knocked unconscious from the attack which he doesn’t defend himself, a flashback ensues showing what happened between Wolverine and Horrorshow’s son. Though not a critical tale to Wolverine’s mythos, this story has some very interesting aspects as it lets the reader in on so much of his emotional state. While he has fought tooth and nail with his son Daken in Wolverine: Origins, this is the first time that Wolverine has ever really be able to voice his feelings about the situation.

Specifically, his thoughts on the redemption of others are covered rather bluntly in the issue. Daniel Way does a good job in this aside story for Wolverine. It’s nice to see him somewhat out of his “normal” element as he now appears in so many books where he is always surrounded by cataclysmic confrontations with megalomaniac super villains. Here, Wolverine gets to act human and have real emotions and reactions.

He doesn’t need to act on his animalistic instincts. He gets to actually be Logan. Tommy Lee Edwards’ art is something that can go either way for the reader. The same style as the Marvel: 1985 miniseries, it comes across in a very sketch-like style, very similar to what you’d see in courtroom sketches. It’s not something that does it for me but it is also not something that detracts from the story either. The dark theme of the story is actually helped by the shadowy lack of detail at times.

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As you probably know, we were quite disturbed by the fact that the original producers of Buffy the Vampire Slayer were going ahead with a new movie and were not going to involve Joss Whedon. In fact, we couldn’t imagine it going forward at all without the man who basically invented the character and made the TV series what it was. But apparently, that man can imagine it going forward without him because Whedon was recently asked to participate, according to an interview over at EW Online, and pretty much gave the producers, Fran Rubel Kazui and Kaz Kazui, the finger.

Said Whedon:  “I believe [the producers] did ultimately reach out to my agent after the news broke. I think that’s something better left untouched by me. So, I wish them luck.”

Well, there you have it. No Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie with Joss Whedon. With that done and rumors flying around about Megan Fox taking on the Buffy role in the new film, you have to wonder if fans are going to embrace this new film or not. Or, if its going to even get made at all given the negative buzz already surrounding it.

My guess is it may not. It looks like a tough, uphill battle now for the Kazui’s, especially if you take into account results of a poll over at EW Online stating that only three percent of their readers would see the film if Whedon wasn’t attached. Ouch, that’s gotta hurt. I guess the producers underestimated the power of the Whedonverse. Big mistake.

The gang at Film School Rejects are the first out of the gate with the new poster for director Kathryn Bigelow’s (aka the ex Mrs. Jim Cameron) film The Hurt Locker. The new poster is big, bad, features helicopters and explosions and looks pretty darn cool. If you like the poster, also keep in mind the movie has been nominated for several awards at festivals and according to many critics, is a very good film.

In case you’re not familiar with The Hurt Locker, it follows an elite team of explosive ordinance disposal experts during the final months of their tour in the Iraq war. Things don’t go quite as expected, of course, as the team deals with new challenges, new conflicts and a new leader, in the form of the excellent Jeremy Renner. The film also features Ralph Fiennes, Evangeline Lilly, Guy Pearce, Anthony Mackie and Brian Geraghty.

From what I’ve seen so far, this film looks impressive. The performances seems solid and Bigelow, who’s previous credits include Point Break, K19: The Widowmaker and one of my favorite vampire movies of all time, Near Dark, certainly knows her way around action. Put all that together and you’ve potentially got a very, ah, explosive mix which could result in quite a good film.

The Hurt Locker hits theaters on June 26, 2009 in limited markets. You can bet I’ll be there.

Check out the much bigger and more impressive poster after the break. Also, because I care about you, I’ve also included the trailer for the film as well.

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According to our pals over at TUAW, AT&T and Apple are trying desperately to avoid the problems they’ve had during the last two iPhone launches. From long lines to insufficient stock to activation issues, getting an iPhone on the previous two launch days was a bit of a pain for many potential users. So, this time around, how are AT&T and Apple trying to help everyone out and hopefully prevent, or at least minimize, these problems?

Well, according to TUAW, they’ve got a plan. To help, AT&T and Apple stores will open early on June 19th. Specifically, many Apple stores will open at 8AM and AT&T company-owned stores will open at 7AM. Not only that, both AT&T and Apple are offering the opportunity to pre-order the device so you don’t have to wait in line and instead, have your shiny new iPhone 3G S shipped to you.

For more on what to expect from AT&T on iPhone 3G S launch day, check out Seth’s video after the jump.

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I honestly don’t know which is worse, that the director of such “classics” as Rush Hour and Red Dragon was going to be doing the new Conan movie reboot or that he’s moved on and the director of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre reboot and Pathfinder is now, according to CHUD, taking over. This change doesn’t necessary help my attitude towards the project.

Of course, it also doesn’t help that the company making the film, and has now picked Nispel to helm it, is none other than Millennium Films — the folks responsible for such cinematic gems as Alien Hunter, The Wicker Man, 88 Minutes and countless more. They don’t exactly have a fantastic track record when it comes to producing quality entertainment. However, I’m going to give them the benefit of the doubt here.

I’m going to go out on a limb and say that the choice of Nispel may be an inspired one. His work on the rebooted Friday the 13th was actually pretty good. Plus, it looked really good, as do his other films, which is a plus for a big spectacle movie like Conan. Also, making a Conan movie is reportedly something that Nispel has wanted to do since childhood, so maybe that passion will help the film turn into something?

That’s not to say that he still couldn’t screw up Conan. But really, the original movie with Arnold Schwarzenegger isn’t exactly a sterling example of filmmaking either. It was fun and as a kid I enjoyed it but he really doesn’t have that much to live up to. What I’m more concerned about is what actor will play Conan. As the film is supposed to start shoting on August 14th in Bulgaria, that question will be answered soon enough I’m sure. Whoever it ends up being, they certainly have some big, um, pecks to fill.

Jon Hamm as Don Draper

If you love the cool, stylish, sophisticated AMC series Mad Men as much as we do, you already know that the show is currently in production on its third season and will come back to AMC in the very near future. Up till now, we’ve been able to share at least a trailer for the upcoming season with all you waiting fans. But now, thanks to the folks over at E Online, we can show you something even better: an actual photo from the set.

Before you get too excited and look at the photo, we should warn you that it is a bit on the spoiler side. That is, if you don’t want to know a pretty major development for the show’s third season, you might not want to look at it.

Although, seeing the photo and what it contains certainly makes senses given the events of last season, so maybe it won’t come as much of a shock to you after all. If you want to know something new about the show and its third season, or confirm what you already think you know, check out the pic after the jump.

If you’d rather wait and be surprised, hold on because Mad Men returns for an all-new third season this Summer on AMC.

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Over at MTV’s Splash Page, they’ve got an interview with Helboy and future Hobbit director Guillermo Del Toro. Among the many things discussed in the interview was the future of the Hellboy film franchise. The director would do another film but doubts Hellboy himself, actor Ron Perlman would be up for it because he hates the makeup. One other great bit of info revealed in the interview was that the director had come very close to taking on the big screen adaptation of Marvel’s Thor.

In the interview, Del Toro says: “They approached me for Thor. And for a long time we talked about that, because the mythology and the images were very attractive to me. This was before Hellboy II,” he said. While director Kenneth Branagh was eventually tapped to take on Thor, Del Toro had quite a bit to say in the interview about why he was so attracted to the character and the idea of doing the film.

“I’m a fan of [Jack] Kirby and the power he has, and I’m a fan of the original mythology,” explained Del Toro. “So I thought we could go back to the original mythology a lot. I love Loki, I think he’s a great figure.”

Interesting indeed but not really surprising. The director has proven he can handle big, effects-driven films in the past so it would make sense that Marvel would consider him for one of its films. Plus, he certainly seems to have an affinity for the characters and the mythology. Plus, he’s an extremely talented director with a unioque vision. Its too bad we won’t ever get to see what a Guillermo Del Toro Thor movie would look like.

That said, I’m pretty interested to see what someone like Kenneth Branagh can bring to the table. He certainly has the chops to handle actors and has already made some interesting choices in that area. Plus, he’s done effects-driven films before as well so handling the demands of a movie as big as Thor should be no problem. I, for one, can’t wait to see how it turns out.

Be sure to check out the Del Toro interview after the jump.

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