Even though filming is still some time away, recently director Joe Johnston told MTV Splashpage a casting decision on who would portray Captain America in The First Avenger “was weeks away.” Well, weeks have gone by and according to Deadline Hollywood, the list of actors for the titular role has been narrowed down to five finalists.

The five front-runners for the role of Captain America are, according to the site, Chace Crawford (Gossip Girl), John Krasinski (The Office), Scott Porter (Friday Night Lights), Mike Vogel (Cloverfield) and Michael Cassidy (Smallville). All five actors have reportedly agreed to test deals with Johnston and Marvel Studios to try out for the role.

Not only must these actor agree to test for the role, if eventually cast, they must also sign for nine other options, including potential sequels to The First Avenger. This makes sense considering the upcoming Marvel movies and their desire to team them all for a potential Avengers movie in the future. Still, that’s a lot to negotiate.

Of course, fans everywhere have their personal favorites and I we have ours. Picking from this list as if these were the only choices, our first choice would be Smallville‘s Michael Cassidy. He’s able to do the action as well as being a pretty good actor as well, so he’d be good for the part.

Sadly, our favorite choice of all and not on this list, Joel Gretsch (The 4400, V), is probably too old now, even though he would be great in the part. No matter who they choose, let’s hope they take this movie as seriously and do as great a job on it as Marvel did with Iron Man. Cap deserves no less.

Who do you think should play Captain America in The First Avenger?

About a month ago, we brought you news of the first new character to be revealed from Disney’s upcoming Toy Story 3. His name was Mr. Prickelpants, and he was a porcupine in lederhosen, voiced by Timothy Dalton. As if the characters couldn’t get any better than that, we just got word of the next four to be revealed.

Disney has even gone as far as to give descriptions of each new toy, staying in the context of the Toy Story Universe. Each of our favorites are still back, including Tom Hanks as Woody, Tim Allen as Buzz, Wallace Shawn as T. Rex, and John Ratzenberger as Piggy Bank.

Check out each of the descriptions, with exclusive new pics, after the jump. Catch Toy Story 3 in theaters and IMAX across the country on June 18th.

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We’ve said it before, but this season has to go down as one of the best years for new comedies on TV. Between NBC’s Community, ABC’s Modern Family, and FX’s The League and now Archer, this year has kept most TV junkies in stitches since September. It now looks like FX has noticed the same, and will be giving more time to the animated spy comedy, Archer.

The series stars Home Movies voice actor H. Jon Benjamin, along with SNL vet Chris Parnell, Jessica Walter, and Aisha Tyler about a ne’er-do-well spy and his comical shenanigans. The show is outlandishly funny, and delivers every week. FX seems to think the series is a hit, as well.

FX has given the go ahead for a second season of its critically acclaimed animated series Archer, announced Nick Grad, Executive Vice President of Original Programming, FX Networks.  The network increased the episode order to 13 for season two, which is scheduled to debut in 2011.

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This week on The Flickcast, Matt is back home from his trip to sunny LA and he and Chris are back in action with a whole bunch of new topics. Some of what gets discussed in this episode includes Mark Strong as Sinestro in Green Lantern, Conan in 3D, Wal-Mart buying Vudu, Betty White on SNL, Call of Duty and its many incarnations, Ian McShane as Blackbeard, the sale of Action Comics #1 and a whole lot more.

They both also made some good picks again this week incuding Matt’s pick of the short film The Legacy and Chris’ pick of the classic 80′s TV series Tales of the Gold Monkey, featuring Stephen Collins and Roddy McDowall.

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

Here they are once again, the list of all comics on sale this week from out friends at Marvel. Of the books hitting today we’re pretty excited about Deadpool #20, X-Force #24, Secret Warriors #13 and the latest The Marvels Project.

Remember, comics are on sale this week so get to your nearest comic shop early for best selection. Don’t know where your nearest comic store is, use this handy guide to find one.

Check out all the comics below.

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #622 (GNTLT)
AVENGERS: THE INITIATIVE #31 2ND PRINTING VARIANT (S)
AVENGERS: THE INITIATIVE #33 (S)
AVENGERS: THE INITIATIVE #33 DEADPOOL VARIANT (S)
DARK AVENGERS #13 2ND PRINTING VARIANT (S)
DARK TOWER: THE BATTLE OF JERICHO HILL #4
DARK TOWER: THE BATTLE OF JERICHO HILL #4 KURTH VARIANT
DARK WOLVERINE #82 2ND PRINTING VARIANT (S)
DARK WOLVERINE #83 (S)
DARK WOLVERINE #83 DEADPOOL VARIANT (S)
DEADPOOL #18 2ND PRINTING VARIANT
DEADPOOL #20

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With Kevin Smith causing all kinds of controversy both on land and (almost) in the air, many people feel this could all have something to do with the fact that his film Cop Out hits theaters all over the country this Friday. While that may be the case, we got our hands on some new clips that may speak for themselves.

The film, starring Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan, was originally titled A Couple of Dicks, and revolves around two New York City cops trying to take down an international drug lord. The premise and comedy solely depend on the “buddy cop” formula, with their dynamic running the entire film.

After the jump, check out three brand new clips from the film. In the first, Paul Hodges (Morgan) questions the fidelity of his wife (Rashida Jones). In the second, the partners observe while a victim explains her crime to a translator. Finally, Paul shows off his acting skills in the interrogation room.

Cop Out hits theaters everywhere this Friday.

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It may come as a suprise to some of you but in addition to kicking lots of butt and being a martial arts genius, Jackie Chan can actually act — at least judging from the new trailer for the upcoming reboot of Karate Kid. In the trailer, Chan instructs his student, played by Will and Jada Pinkett Smith’s progeny Jaden, in the ways of Kung-Fu and reminds him that “Everything is Kung-Fu.”

Watching Chan deliver his lines, and this one in particular, actually makes me believe his character and what he feels. In short, it’s just good acting. I’m not saying Chan is ready for an Oscar just yet, but if this trailer is any indication of his conviction and effort in this movie, I may have to rethink my stance on this whole remake. Well, maybe.

Click through to see the trailer in SD or head over to Yahoo for the HD vesion. Karate Kid sweeps the leg once again on June 11.

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We at The Flickcast are sad to report on the unexpected passing of Capcom Chief Operating Officer Mark Beaumont Tuesday morning.

Capcom issued the following statement:

“Dear friends of Capcom,

Our COO and dear friend, Mark Beaumont, passed away this morning. This sudden loss has left us with deep sadness. Our hearts go out to his family and loved ones.

We will remember him for his humor, passion and commitment to Capcom and our industry. He was a great leader and visionary and his spirit will carry on in everything that we do. Please join us in memory of Mark.”

The sympathies of all at The Flickcast go out to the Beaumont family and those at Capcom for their loss. Rest in peace.

I’m a girl who just happens to love World of Warcraft and cute stuffed animals. So when they’re combined I totally geek out. Kotaku just brought to my attention these brand-new WoW plushies, available in the Blizzard Online Store.

These cuddly critters are both modeled after the Horde and Alliance transportation mounts in the game. Not only will you receive a fuzzy new friend when you buy one of these, you’ll also get a code redeemable for a matching in-game pet, which judging by the previews on the website are just as adorable.

Players already dish out cash every month in order to play WoW in the first place, but if you’ve got a geeky girlfriend like me (I’m looking at you, boyfriend) or all the time indoors in front of the computer has made you lonely, these plushies seem well worth the $24.99. Especially since the other pets, priced at $10, don’t even come with something real and tangible to hold on those lonely nights when your guild doesn’t have enough room to bring you to a raid.

Right off the bat, I should point out that HBO’s Rome was the best TV series ever made. That’s right, ever made. I’m a huge fan of Roman history and mythology.

I was extremely impressed by the creators of HBO’s Rome because they took their accuracy seriously. So seriously in fact that even the craftsmen in the bazaar were actual Roman craftsmen. The money spent to create a truly accurate atmosphere just may have had a tiny bit to do with why it was canceled after 2 seasons.

Spartacus: Blood and Sand, however, doesn’t care nearly as much about history. What it does care about is blood and sand. The title does not disappoint. Within the first episode, I swear, a gladiator spewed gallons of blood on a very sandy plane of death.

A human body holds around 8-10 pints of blood, so it’s quite a feat for a gladiator to expunge even a few gallons. These men must have been built very tough and it seems very liquidity.

While the mono-syllable, shoddy dialogue is straight out of 300 or perhaps G.I. Joe, the view is stunningly breathtaking (for TV).  Spartacus is wholly gratuitous in a cheesecake, soft-core sort of way, but it’s worth noting that it is equally gratuitous. There are plenty of raunchy shows that panhandle to men in the audience with oh-so-classy shots of women come undone. These same shows forget that perhaps some women might be watching.

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The number one seller of DVDs in the country, Wal-Mart, has apparently seen the writing on the wall and is again getting into online distribution of movies and other video content by purchasing Vudu, the four-year-old-company that has deals with every major movie studio and 40 independents. According to the article, Wal-Mart is paying an undisclosed sum for Vudu, which abandoned its hardware business a few years ago and instead is focusing on software embedded in millions of televisions.

As you may know, Wal-Mart has tried this kind of thing before. In February 2007, it announced it was becoming the first major retailer to offer digital movie downloads. Sadly, that didn’t work out so well with the company shuttering the business in the first year. Wal-Mart also launched a by-mail DVD service to compete with Netflix, but gave up on that as well when it partnered with Netflix later.

Now, with Vudu, Wal-Mart competes not only with iTunes and Netflix but also with Blockbuster, TiVo, Amazon and others that allow consumers to rent or buy movies digitally. Vudu currently has 20,000 titles in its library, 3,000 of which are in HD or HDX, a proprietary format Vudu says is comparable in quality to Blu-ray.

Having only seen Vudu in stores and at trade events, I can’t really vouch for the quality of the video. It just seemed okay. Plus, this seems a little late to the game what with iTunes and Netflix already having a large foothold into the living room. Still, Wal-Mart is a giant retailer with years of experience growing a successful business so it will be interesting to see how they utilize this latest acquisition.

When David Tennant and Russell T. Davies left Doctor Who this past Christmas, many fans vowed that they would not like the newest incarnation of the good Doctor, especially the new actor, Matt Smith, who would be taking on the role.

The first promo, which aired right after the Christmas special, got us interested, showing us some cool new stuff like the new eleventh doctor with a gun, a cute new companion, and lots of big action sequences.

With the newest promo that was released just this week, we get a bit of a different spin. BBC has been known to do their own promos for their original programming lately, such as Misfits and last season of Doctor Who. That’s exactly what we get with this newest TV spot, as it doesn’t really show any new footage, but rather gives us a glimpse at what we may see this season, while doing it in a quirky and artistic way.

Check out the new spot after the jump, and catch the all new season of Doctor Who, starring Matt Smith and Karen Gillam, will start up this Easter on the BBC.

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