Even with all the movie and TV news we do around here, we also love us some games — especially when those games tie into a movie. Case in point is the upcoming game from Activision and High Moon Studios: Transformers: War for Cybertron. In case you’re not familiar, the game features two distinct storylines: the Autobot campaign tells a story of heroism to save their home planet against overwhelming odds, and the Decepticon campaign tells a story of an unquenchable thirst for power to control the universe.

You will also be able to “play the game with friends through team-based online co-op, or go head to head in a variety of intense, online multiplayer game modes.” In addition, the game “features a sci-fi art style that introduces to fans the entire living, metallic world of Cybertron, as well as all-new visualizations of the iconic Transformers characters in their original Cybertronian forms.” I don’t know about you but I think that sounds pretty awesome. The trailer isn’t bad either.

Transformers: War for Cybertron is in development and will be released later this year for Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PC and DS.

Check out the brand new trailer after the jump.

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Comedy is king, at least at ABC, as the network has renewed three of its freshmen comedies, giving them the much-coveted second season pickup. The announcement came Tuesday and was given by ABC’s Steve McPherson who said he had given early second-season orders to Wednesday night comedies Modern Family, Cougar Town and The Middle. The network also gave the green light to another comedy pilot called Mr. Sunshine, starring Friends alum Matthew Perry.

ABC also announced the pickup of Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution, which follows the celeb U.K. chef as he travels to Huntington, W.Va., in order to launch a new healthy cooking initiative. The show, from Ryan Seacrest Prods. and Fresh One Prods., will air Fridays at 9 p.m. starting March 26.

And McPherson confirmed the network is at work on a spinoff for The Bachelor. The new show, Bachelor Pad, will run in late summer as a bridge between The Bachelorette and the fall schedule. The show, hosted by Chris Harrison, features former Bachelor contestants keeping it sexy in a house. ABC’s other big reality franchise, Dancing With the Stars, is back Monday, March 22. McPherson said the show would include fewer contestants this season.

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Welcome back to Western Wednesdays’ properly scheduled day and time. In honor of its return to normalcy, I’ve chosen the weightiest film I could outside of Unforgiven: John Ford’s The Searchers.

I’ve been anxious to revisit The Searchers. I haven’t seen it in years, and it’s the kind of film that’s referenced so often that it practically buries an individual memory. Am I remembering actual film, or simply George Lucas or Quentin Tarantino’s visual quotation of it? The lines can really blur. So when it popped up on Netflix Instant, I grabbed the chance to watch it again.

This is a fascinating film, though I’m not sure it’s a particularly enjoyable one. It goes without saying that it’s visually stunning — the sunsets, the famous door frame shots, those endless expanses of Monument Valley, a snowbound herd of buffalo. You’ve seen The Searchers even if you’ve never actually sat down and watched it.  Every shot has been imitated a dozen times over, but that doesn’t make them any less stunning.

But I’ve never felt the story was entirely sure of itself.  Is Ford criticizing the treatment of Native Americans and the racist opinions of his characters? Or does the film uphold them by its uneasy worship of John Wayne’s Ethan Edwards, and its laughter over Marty Pawley’s abuse of his “wife”? Is it saying that violence merely begets more violence?

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This week on The Flickcast, Chris and Matt are again joined by Elisabeth Rappe and, as usual, launch into discussions of various topics including Twilight’s vampire baby, that Breaking Dawn may be unfilmable, Conan O’Brian, Jay Leno and NBC and the Spider-Man reboot. They also discuss Stuart Townsend leaving Thor, the casting of Blake Lively in Green Lantern, who should play Sinestro in Green Lantern and a whole lot more.

The trio also made some new picks this week including Matt’s pick of Aziz Ansari’s standup video Intimate Moments for a Sensual Evening, Elisabeth’s pick of Lesbian Vampire Killers and Chris’ pick of Katherine Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker, which is new on Blu-ray this week and also one of Chris’ top ten films of 2009.

As always, if you have comments, questions, critiques or offers of sponsorship, feel free to hit us up in the comments, on Twitter and at Facebook, MySpace or via email.

Today, Netflix announced it will be adding another gaming console to its list of streaming video partners: the Nintendo Wii. The companies are teaming up to bring Netflix’s streaming media service to the console this spring. Of course, in order to take advantage of this service, Wii owners will need to have a broadband internet-connected Wii (who doesn’t?) and a subscription to a minimum $8.99 Netflix plan.

Now the bad news. Similar to the service on the PS3, the Wii will not have an embedded application like it is on the XBox 360 and instead will require a Netflix application disc which must be inserted in the Wii while accessing content. Given that, still ready to jump on board? If so, you can sign up now to receive additional information and reserve an application disc at Netflix’s website.

Even with having to use the disk this is still great news for those of you who use a Wii and don’t have an XBox 360 or PS3. We realize that not everyone can have more than one console and many people prefer the Wii over the other two. So, even though it took some time, we’re glad this service will finally be available for you — silly inserted disk requirement not withstanding.

Aliens vs Predator: Three World War #1 [of 6]
Dark Horse Comics – $3.50 US
Writer: Randy Stradley
Artist: Rick Leonardi
Score: 8/10

Machiko Noguchi has had her fill of aliens and predators, being the only person to spend any quality time with both species and live to tell about it. But when a rogue predator clan known as the “killers” slaughters a mining colony on Caparis VII and the Colonial Marines show her the startling footage, Noguchi realizes an unavoidable reunion is on the horizon.

While it’s been 15 years since writer Randy Stradley penned the Aliens vs Predator: War mini-series, to central character Noguchi it’s been 10 years since she stood side-by-side with a predator nick-named Broken Tusk against a horde of aliens and survived. In her time with the “hunters,” she came to understand their culture, including knowledge of a clan of predators that forego their sense of honor for the hunt and kill indiscriminately instead.

Believed to have been wiped out, the “killers” are in fact alive, and worse yet, they’ve found a way to not only control the “bugs,” but to use them as weapons as well. Stradley hits the ground running in this opening issue of this mini-series. Reading the aforementioned 1995 mini-series isn’t necessary – although I would recommend checking out the trade paperback as the story’s pretty good – thanks to the pace he sets in.

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It should come as no surprise that we love Chuck here at The Flickcast. We cover it quite extensively and bring you as much info about the show as we can. We are also still hanging in there for Heroes, even though the show sorta seems to be heading down the wrong path. Although, Greg Grunberg assures us that the show is not being canceled, so its got that going for it.

This week Chuck settled into its Monday slot and Heroes was all new as well. If you missed the episodes, we’ve got some video for you to help you keep up with what’s going on with your favorite reluctant spy and your used to be favorite people with special abilities.

If you saw the episodes already, well, just watch these recaps and previews for next week anyway. We would appreciate it and I’m sure NBC would as well — especially if it gets you excited to watch Chuck and Heroes next week. Check out all the video goodness after the jump. You can also watch full episodes at NBC’s website.

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With the final season of LOST beginning to air in just over two weeks, fans are already salivating over more unanswered questions, mysteries, and unexpected deaths. This season is expected to ramp up those same themes with much more before the island – and it’s inhabitants – disappear forever.

Exec. Producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse were recently bombarded with questions from the press about what will happen in the coming season. They were tight-lipped, as usual, but they did spill the beans on some facts, such as the fact that Libby (Cynthia Watros) and Michael (Harold Perrineau) will be back. Lindelof also said that this season may be the most frustrating. From the Hollywood Reporter:

“Get ready to scratch your heads, America!” Lindelof said about the premiere. The sentiment was echoed by several cast members. “I think I had to read it three times before it made sense,” Emilie de Ravin said. As for the May finale, “there is certainly a hope that everybody universally loves the ending, but I don’t think it would be ‘Lost’ if there wasn’t an ongoing and active debate,” Lindelof said.

“If I could put on my predicting hat, there’s going to be some that think it’s the worst ending in the history of TV, and on the other end, to balance that out, would be my mom.”

Given that most fans of TV are used to cop-out or confusing endings over the past few years (I’m looking at you Sopranos and Battlestar Galactica), but if one of the executive producers of the show is claiming that we’ll more than likely hate the ending, then we should be prepared for the mother of all unanswered questions come May.

Lost returns to ABC on Tuesday, February 2nd.

As hard as it may be to believe sometimes, someone (or someones) actually sits down and writes a movie or TV show before you end up seeing it at your local multiplex or on your favorite TV network. The people who do the sitting and the writing are, surprisingly, called writers and, like the Directors, the Golden Globes and the Oscars, they have their own awards show.

This week, the Writers Guild of America, which is the trade group and advocate for writers, announced its nominations for outstanding achievement in feature film and television, radio, news, promotional writing, and graphic animation during the 2009 season to be honored at the upcoming 2010 Writers Guild Awards on February 20, 2010, in Los Angeles and New York.

We realize that these nominations may not be as glamorous as the Golden Globes or the Oscars, but we kinda like writers around here and think they do a pretty important job. So, with that in mind, here’s a complete list of nominees.

Check out these names, these people are pretty important. Without them you wouldn’t get to enjoy your favorite TV show, movie or pretty much any other form of entertainment. The 2010 Writers Guild Awards will be held on Saturday, February 20, 2010, simultaneously at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles and the Hudson Theatre at the Millennium Broadway Hotel in New York City.

FILM NOMINEES

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

(500) Days of Summer, Written by Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber

Avatar, Written by James Cameron

The Hangover, Written by Jon Lucas & Scott Moore

The Hurt Locker, Written by Mark Boal

A Serious Man, Written by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Crazy Heart, Screenplay by Scott Cooper

Based on the novel by Thomas Cobb

Julie & Julia, Screenplay by Nora Ephron Based on the books Julie & Julia by Julie Powell and My Life in France by Julia Child with Alex Prud’homme

Precious: Based on the novel Push by Sapphire, Screenplay by Geoffrey Fletcher Based on the novel Push by Sapphire

Star Trek, Written by Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman Based upon Star Trek, Created by Gene Roddenberry

Up in the Air, Screenplay by Jason Reitman and Sheldon TurnerBased upon the novel by Walter Kirn

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Created by Ann Biderman, who won an Emmy for NYPD Blue, and produced by ER’s John Wells, Southland has all the earmarks of a potentially great drama with engaging characters, intense and dramatic situations and storylines and enough police action and procedure to satisfy even the most devout cop show fan. Originally produced and broadcast in a limited run on NBC, the show was scheduled to return late last year. Inexplicably, NBC canceled the show and TNT decided to pick it up. I, for one, am glad they did.

In the deal, TNT will rebroadcast all the original 7 episodes that aired on NBC and then the remaining completed ones that NBC never showed. TNT will see how the rating do for the show to determine if they will order any more episodes. In the meantime, the original pilot airs tonight.

In the pilot, new police trainee Ben Sherman (Ben McKenzie) is having a pretty bad day. His training officer (Michael McGrady) is on him and trying to get him to quit, he’s being harassed by other cops and to top it off, he’s had to **SPOILER** shoot his first suspect. All in all, a pretty intense way to spend your first day as a cop.

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While he may still be technically in “negotiations” with Warner about the role, many sources are citing that Peter Sarsgaard has signed on to Martin Campbell’s Green Lantern to play opposite Ryan Reynolds. The role in question is that of Dr. Hector Hammond, the would-be main villain of the film.

According to The Hollywood Reporter’s Heat Vision, who originally broke the story, this villain doesn’t seem to be one many remember.

Sarsgaard will play Dr. Hector Hammond, the pathologist son of a senator who is seen as a disappointment in his father’s eyes. He becomes infused with psychic powers when he discovers a meteor. The character was created by John Broome and Gil Kane in the early 1960s.

This puts an end to the rumor that the villain of the film would be Sinestro, which is the Green Lantern’s most obvious villain. An interesting route to take, but it looks like Campbell is casting young for the film. Between Reynolds, Blake Lively (Gossip Girl) as Carol Ferris, and now Sarsgaard, it seems that the cast will be aimed at a younger demographic.

Green Lantern is set to shoot this March in New Orleans.

2010 is in full swing and some really great movies are hitting store shelves this week for the first time and for the first time on Blu-ray. This week’s releases include Moon, Halloween II, Cliffhanger, Kathy Griffin: She’ll Cut a Bitch, I Can Do Bad All By Myself and the Blu-ray release of The Hurt Locker (pictured above).

Check out this week’s releases:

Movies

Amreeka ~ Yussuf Abu-Warda, Hiam Abbass, Alia Shawkat (DVD)

Big Fan ~ Patton Oswalt, Michael Rapaport, Matt Servitto (DVD and Blu-ray)

Cliffhanger ~ Sylvester Stallone (Blu-ray)

Departures ~ Masahiro Motoki, Ryoko Hirosue (DVD)

8 1/2 (The Criterion Collection) ~ Marcello Mastroianni, Anouk Aimée, Claudia Cardinale  (Blu-ray)

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