The first Paul Thomas Anderson’s film I saw was his take on addiction and gambling called Hard Eight. It featured John C. rilley, Gwyneth Paltrow and the awesome Philip Baker Hall. It was filled with despicable characters who were selfish and hurt others to get what they wanted. I liked it very much and thought Anderson was definitely a filmmaker to watch.

His next piece of work was Boogie Nights, which further solidified his status as one of the best directors working today. Then, he released another seminal work of great distinction in Magnolia. This film, yet another pian to selfishness and the darker aspects of humanity, takes place in a single day in Los Angeles, focusing on a number of interconnected people whose lives are forever changed as they search for love and meaning in a chaotic world.

The film chronicles such diverse occurrences as a suicide turned homicide by a quirk of timing; a motivational speaker motivated by rage; and a quiz kid rendered stupid by a lightning strike and features Tom Cruise in what could arguably be called his best performance to date. Besides Cruise, look for more great acting from Philip Seymour Hoffman, William H. Macy, Jason Robards, Philip Baker Hall and Julianne Moore.

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Jeff Blake, Chairman of Sony Pictures Worldwide Marketing & Distribution announced today that the upcoming Spider-Man reboot will be coming to theaters on July 3rd, 2012 in full 3D. According to Blake: “Spider-Man is the ultimate summer movie-going experience, and we’re thrilled the filmmakers are presenting the next installment in 3D. Spider-Man is one of the most popular characters in the world, and we know audiences are eager and excited to discover Marc’s fantastic vision for Peter Parker and the franchise.”

Set to be directed by Marc Webb (500 Days of Summer) with from a screenplay by James Vanderbilt (Zodiac), the still untitled Spider-Man film will quickly reboot the franchise that had starred Toby McGuire as Peter Parker. Now already eight years after the original film’s release, a new generation’s webslinger will step on to the silver screen.

With visuals like shooting webs and swinging through Manhattan, it seems like the Spider-Man franchise would work well in 3D as long as they were about to avoid the somewhat stereotypical “throw something at the screen” actions that some of these style films fall in to. Our main concern though is making sure there are no 3D song and dance routines down Broadway.

If you’re enjoying Marvel’s newest cross-over event Siege, then this information is for you. Today, Marvel released the full details of who will be guiding this event through all of its various mascinations and incarnations. For all the details, check out this official press release:

In Siege: Captain America, from Christos Gage and Federico Dallocchio, learn more about the role of Bucky Barnes and Steve Rogers in this war and how it will define their relationship! Then, in Siege: Young Avengers, from Sean McKeever and Mahmud A. Asrar, the Young Avengers take center stage as Wiccan and Patriot are pushed to their limits!

Siege: Loki, from Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie, goes deep into the mind of Siege’s most devious major player! Nick Fury’s plans are revealed in Siege: Secret Warriors, from the team of Jonathan Hickman and Alessandro Vitti! Finally, Siege: Spider-Man pits Spider-Man against Venom, courtesy of Brian Reed and Marco Santucci!

With interconnecting covers by superstar Marko Djurdjevic, these all new stories provide insight into the major players of Siege and set the stage for the dramatic Siege finale!

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It should come as no surprise that actor Bill Paxton knows James Cameron and Kathryn Bigelow pretty well. After all, he’s been featured in most of Cameron’s films including Aliens, The Terminator, True Lies and Titanic and starred in Bigelow’s vampire film Near Dark. He even worked with both Cameron and Bigelow on a music video for his band Martini Ranch oh so many years ago.

So it’s been kinda odd that nobody has talked to Paxton about both Cameron and Bigelow, especially as the two directors used to be married and are both nominated for Best Director Academy Awards this year. Fortunately, the folks at The Jimmy Fallon Show have seen fit to remedy this situation with an interview of Paxton, which we’ve got the video of to share with you today.

As Paxton is a friend of both directors and owes much of his career to Cameron in particular, he doesn’t really spill the dirt and give us anything particularly revolutionary. Still, it’s interesting to hear him speak about a subject, and two people, he knows so well.

Check out the video after the break.

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When I grow up, I want to be Claudia Cardinale.

There are plenty of beautiful women in movies, but few goddesses. Cardinale is a goddess. Even when she’s sunburned and running around in a rag, as she is in The Professionals, she has more charisma, beauty, and sex appeal than most actresses working today. I hesitate to call her “sexy” because that word seems so Maxim Magazine these days — but Cardinale is sexy in such a powerful and womanly way that it’s not threatening, but inspiring.

She also had great hair. What demon do I have to bargain with to end up with a perfect bouffant every day? Hers looks good even in the desert. It’s unfair.

Watching old movies can be a bittersweet experience. They don’t make them like Cardinale anymore, and you’d be hard pressed to find a Lee Marvin or a Burt Lancaster on the big screen these days. I cherish retro crushes on both (especially Lancaster — what a grin he had!) and The Professionals is so chock full of old time machismo that turning it off may actually cause you to experience symptoms of withdrawal.

Which is, oddly, what The Professionals is kind of about.   It’s the kind of movie I love in any genre — the adventure story that’s sandwiched in between the heroes’ misspent youth and their retirement.   These are men with pasts.  They’ve had near misses, they’ve experienced terrible tragedies, and they’ve woken up in their union suits with nothing but a pounding headache to remind them of the night before.   They’re men who die with their boots on out of a sense of nobility and because they have nothing else to do.

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This week on The Flickcast Chris and Matt are joined by resident gaming expert John Carle for another round of discussions and debate. This week’s topics include the rather lame Superbowl ads, Smallville: Absolute Justice, Avatar being dethroned by Dear John, Betty White hosting Saturday Night Live, Microsoft stopping XBox Live for original XBox, reboots of Daredevil and The Thing and upcoming games such as Mass Effect 2 and the future of console gaming.

The boys also made some great picks this week including John’s pick of the animated X-Men series, Matt’s pick of Double Team with Jean Claude Van Damme and Mickey Rourke and Chris’ pick of John Carpenter’s 1982 horror/sci-fi classic The Thing.

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

Diversity seems to be the key this year at the SXSW festival, which takes place in Austin, TX from March 12-20, as they’ve now announced the full lineup of Panels and short films that will be at this years event. As with the feature films schedule, this list of panels and shorts should provide an almost endless supply of diverse and interesting programming for attendees.

Following sre some highlights of panels we think are worth checking out. For a full list and descriptions, head over to the SXSW official site. Also, be sure to check back here at The Flickast as we’ll be at SXSW this year to bring you all the details on these great events and much more.

A Conversation with Michel Gondry
The stratospheric rise of Academy Award-winning visionary Michel Gondry is one of the great success stories of modern film. Working with fellow travelers like Spike Jonze, Charlie Kaufman and Bjork, Gondry has made his mark on the film landscape with iconic work like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and The Science of Sleep. Come and enjoy what promises to be a fascinating discussion as Gondry discusses his latest, highly personal and emotionally raw documentary A Thorn in the Heart with TCM’s Elvis Mitchell.

Directing the Dead: Genre Directors Spill Their Guts
How does modern horror take gore beyond the purely grisly to the level of grand guignol art and imagination? How does bone-cracking violence and flesh-rending horror contribute to the hallowed pantheon of art and cinema? Join five of the most striking genre filmmakers in modern movies as they lock horns over the all-important issues of blood, guts and gratuitous gore. Featuring Ruben Fleischer (Zombieland), Matt Reeves (Let Me In) Eli Roth (Hostel), Quentin Tarantino (Inglorious Basterds), Ti West (House of the Devil), moderated by Scott Weinberg (Cinematical)

Filmmakers in TV: A Case Study
Carving a niche in the world of film is tough enough, and achieving the same feat on the small screen is no easier. Successfully mastering both is in yet another league, but somehow the creators of HBO’s Eastbound & Down are pulling it off with style. Find out how Danny McBride (Your Highness), and filmmakers David Gordon Green (Pineapple Express) and Jody Hill (Observe and Report) made it look easy in this illuminating, entertaining glimpse at the art of combining technical skill, sharp comedy writing and moving from the packed auditorium to the living room couch.

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This season of The Office has shown some interesting changes for our favorite cubical-living gang. Dunder-Mifflin has gone bankrupt, which has left the Scranton branch the last of the paper company. And now, they’ve been picked up by the company Sabre, which is run by guest star Kathy Bates.

This week, Bates makes an in-person appearance to check out the branch, and things get a bit difficult from there. From NBC:

The office is eager to welcome Sabre CEO Jo Bennett (guest star Kathy Bates) to Scranton, and are dazzled by her Southern ways. Butwhen Jo finds out there are two branch managers, she says either Michael (Golden Globe winner Steve Carell) or Jim (John Krasinski) must go back to being a salesman. Meanwhile, Andy’s (Ed Helms) Valentine’s Day plan backfires.

Check out 3 exclusive new clips from tomorrow night’s episode, “Manager And Salesman”, after the jump. Be sure to catch the full episode of The Office on NBC this Thursday.

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“The soldier of the future is an F-16 on legs.” Slated for fall of this year, gamers will get to take a look at just what the militaristic fantasy genius Tom Clancy sees in the next generation of soldier. Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier continues to press the limits of what we come to think of as war.

While the trailer below leaves a lot to the imagination and acts as only a teaser of what is to come, the eerie pretense of the soldiers is enough to bring our attention right to this game. After the success of Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter, affectionately referred to as GRAW, and its sequel, we know the reputation that Clancy games must live up to.

To further wet our appetites, it looks like there will be a multiplayer beta coming too this summer for anyone purchasing Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Conviction. Until then, take a peek at this great teaser trailer for the XBox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC.

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While he may look to be beating a dead horse with the upcoming spy comedy Day & Knight, Tom Cruise has announced that he’s returning to the Mission Impossible franchise for a fourth film. From Variety:

Cruise and J.J. Abrams — who co-wrote the “Mission: Impossible III” screenplay — will produce from a screenplay by Josh Appelbaum and Andre Nemec, a writing duo hired last summer to pen the script from an idea hatched by Cruise and Abrams. Appelbaum and Nemec spent four seasons with Abrams as co-exec producers of “Alias.”

Paramount made the announcement yesterday, along with news that the film’s planed release date will be next Memorial Day. This will put the film out on the same weekend as the planned Hangover sequel, and on the second weekend of the fourth Pirates Of The Caribbean film.

The previous Mission Impossible films pulled in just over $1.3 billion, but Cruise’s cost was far too high for Paramount to continue any further films at the time. It seems, with this news, that the studio has decided Cruise is well worth the money spent.

With the film set to hit theaters in just 15 months, you can expect to see casting and script details to leak online by the droves in the coming weeks. We’ll be sure to keep you updated with any information as it comes our way.

As it often does, this week brings a host of new movies and some great classics hitting Blu-ray for the first time. This week’s releases include the first time on Blu-ray The Time Traveller’s Wife, Couple’s Retreat, The Phantom, Bronson, Drop Zone and The Running Man.

There is also the first season of Stargate: Universe,  a couple seasons of JAG, season three of The Guild and the Blu-ray release of The Coen Bros.’  A Serious Man with Michael Stuhlbarg (pictured above).

Check out this week’s new releases:

Movies

A Serious Man ~ Michael Stuhlbarg, Richard Kind (Blu-ray and DVD)

Bronson (Widescreen Edition) ~ Tom Hardy (Blu-ray and DVD)

Couples Retreat ~ Vince Vaughn, Jason Bateman, Jon Favreau (Blu-ray and DVD)

Dangerous Man ~ Jerry Wasserman, Steven Seagal (DVD)

Dante’s Inferno: An Animated Epic ~ Mark Hamill, Victoria Tennant, Vanessa Branch (Blu-ray and DVD)

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Since it exploded onto the fighting game scene last year, UFC Undisputed became one of the surprise hits of last year. THQ, knowing they had struck gold, has been diligently working on a sequel slated for May 25th release this year for both the XBox 360 and PlayStation 3. A PSP version of the game is also expected for later this year.

According to THQ: UFC Undisputed 2010 will deliver the most advanced and superior virtual MMA action based on the world’s most prominent and respected organization in mixed martial arts, Ultimate Fighting Championship,” said Brian Coleman, Vice President of Global Brand Management, THQ. “Through enriched gameplay and extensive new options, players will understand and appreciate what it takes to be a real UFC fighter.

In addition to the screen shots below, cover athlete Brock Lesner has been announced to grace the box art for the game. Coming from a amateur wrestling and professional wrestling background where he also graced the cover of WWE SmackDown: Bring the Pain, Lesner quickly rose through the UFC ranks and currently resides as the company’s heavyweight champion. UFC President Dana White said, “Brock Lesnar’s intensity and relentless commitment to the sport of mixed martial arts, as well as to the UFC, make him a perfect candidate to be the cover athlete for UFC Undisputed 2010.”

Take a peek below at the first screens of this high octane upcoming title and stick with us for more news as it develops.

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