While most eyes are on Austin, Texas this week for SXSW, many people on the East Coast eagerly await a closer show as this year’s Tribeca Film Festival kicks off on April 21st. The festival is mainly for indie pictures, rather than the larger, blockbuster films, but is also a great place for up-and-coming directors and writers to showcase their work.

With the festival coming up in just over a month, they are already rolling out this year’s schedule and have announced the first 34 films out of a total of 85 feature length and 47 shorts screening at this year’s fest. Among the titles were those submitted to the World Narrative and Documentary competition, as well as the Showcase and Special Events.

Some of the titles look to be quite intriguing, and could include some of the bigger names of the next decade. Be sure to check out the first 34 films to be announced after the jump, and keep it here, as we bring you extensive coverage of this year’s Tribeca Film Festival.

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In additon to the awesome Psych season finale airing tonight, another of our favorite shows is airing a new episode as well: Ghost Hunters. This week, in an episode eititled “Fort Ticonderoga” the team heads a famous revolutionary war battleground in search of one thing: ghosts.

As they are in a place where thousands of men fought and died you can imagine thie are is probably full of ghosts just waiting to scar the crap out of the team. In the clip we get a glimpse of the area where the battle took place and follow the team as they attempt to uncover the secrets buried there. Fortunately for us, the viewing audience, those secrets don’t stay buried for long.

Check out the preview after the jump. Ghost Hunters airs tonight at 9/8C on Syfy.

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Continuing our recent previews of upcoming SXSW films brings us to our latest, Leaves of Grass. The film, written and directed by Tim Blake Nelson and starring Edward Norton, Kerri Russell, Susan Sarandon, Richard Dreyfuss and Edward Norton, is being released by First Look Studios and we’ve got a trailer and info about the film for you today.

The film concerns Ivy League professor Bill Kincaid who receives news of the murder of his estranged identical twin brother, Brady (both played by Norton), in a pot deal gone bad. He leaves the world of academia to travel back to his home state of Oklahoma. But once he arrives he finds things are not what they seem and reports of his brother’s death are greatly exaggerated.

Soon Bill is caught up in the dangerous and unpredictable world of drug commerce in the Southwest. In the process, he reconnects with his eccentric mother (Sarandon), meets a wise and educated woman who’s chosen the simple life (Russell), and unwittingly helps his brother settle a score with a drug lord (Dreyfuss) who uses Tulsa, Oklahoma’s small Jewish community for cover.

With a cast such as this and under the direction of Nelson, who’s previous films The Grey Zone and Kansas proved his directing talents, Leaves of Grass manages to be at times dangerous, compelling and poignant. It follows a somewhat simple narrative but still provides some potential answers to a complex question: What does it mean to live a happy and constructive life?

Leaves of Grass will be released in New York and LA on April 2nd. Check out the trailer after the jump.

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“A Western like you’ve never seen before … An exciting new look at the Old West.”

Oh, taglines. I like when you do my work for me. You just described what Silverado isn’t!

I’ve had this one on my queue for quite awhile. I’ve anticipated it greatly. It was written and directed by Lawrence Kasdan, who is no slouch with pulp-oriented films like The Empire Strikes Back and Raiders of the Lost Ark to his credit. If there’s one thing Kasdan knows, it’s action adventure, right? Not when it came to Silverado, a film that misses the mark so often that I fail to see how it’s garnered 2-disc collector sets and such enthusiasm among Western fans.

I suppose it’s all due to Costner. Little baby Costner. This is the film that made him a star and a dreamy genre successor to John Wayne and Clint Eastwood. They seem to have costumed him with that very idea, because he’s wearing a variation on every famous Western and cowboy look ever filmed.

At one point, he even wears a serape. He’s a weird, goofy character — I can’t tell if he’s special or just supposed to be extremely young — and the highlight of the film is undoubtedly when he decides his horse needs to wear a hat.  It just comes out of nowhere.  Costner walks down the street, happy as a clam, and his horse is wearing a cowboy hat.

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In what should be great news for any fans of Battlestar Galactica and MMO online games, it was announced yesterday by NBC Universal that a massively multiplayer game based on the popular sci-fi tv series is in the works. The game will be powered by the Unity engine, which is the same technology used by EA’s browser-based Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online, and will lunch later this year.

According to the announcement, the game will be client-free, browser based and pack “state of the art graphics.” Norwegian studio Artplant, who’s previous work includes Riding Club Championships, is handling development for the game. Regarding actual details about the game itself, here’s what it known so far:

“Players will be able to choose to play as cylons or humans in a constant struggle to control the universe or just survive its perils. A blend of tactical space combat, exploration, and mission-based gameplay will provide a diverse experience. The dramatic missions will define the game’s overall storyline, enabling the player to delve into mysteries of the Battlestar universe.

Battlestar Galactica Online will create a new standard for web games, with beautiful 3d graphics and innovative game mechanics bringing a new level of game play to browser based MMOG. Assets from the television production will be integrated into the game to deliver an even more authentic experience.”

The game will launch worldwide this Fall exclusively on Syfy.com for 30 days and then will be published by content provider Bigpoint.

Tonight marks a pretty big night for fans of the USA Network series Psych as it finishes off another successful season. Ending the fourth season will be quite a big episode, as 80′s star Ally Sheedy reprises her role as the serial killer Mr. Yang in “Mr. Yin Presents.” The episode will also stand as a send up to many classic Alfred Hitchcock films in a half-spoof half-homage episode.

We were lucky enough to talk to star James Roday and Sheedy about the episode, and they were able to give us some insight on what we can look forward to seeing. Be sure to catch the season 4 finale on USA at 10 PM EST.

Clearly in this episode there is a lot of Hitchcock references.  James I was wondering if there is anyone else you drew inspiration from – influences from when you were directing this episode?

Roday: You know, I really do try to stay as faithful to Hitchcock as I could both aesthetically and in pacing and I just shamelessly ripped off four or five shots straight out of his films, quite frankly.  It was an homage episode and I’m a Hitchcock fan, and Andy Berman who wrote the episode with me, is a Hitchcock fan.  As much as we could get away with doing Hitchcock in a Psych episode that’s definitely what we set out to do. 

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This week on The Flickcast, Chris and Matt are again joined by resident gaming expert John Carle to talk about a whole slew of new topics. Some of these include the recent Oscars, upcoming video game releases, the recent Infinity Ward controversy, the Iron Man 2 and Tron Legacy trailers, Captain America casting rumors, XBox and PS3 hardware and the timeless classic Bosom Buddies.

The guys also make some picks this week, as they usually do, including John’s pick of the comic book Chew, Matt’s pick of the book Abe Lincoln Vampire Hunter and Chris’ pick of the Apple iPad.

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.

What can we say, there’s a brand new preview of the trailer for the upcoming third chapter in The Twilight saga, which is better known as Eclipse, and we’ve got it for you today. Courtesy of the fine folks at Extra, the teaser doesn’t really give us all that much to go on because, basically, it’s just a preview.

Still, what it does do is provide yet another reason to show shots of the cast of the film, which includes all your favorites such as Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner, and have them walking, standing, talking and otherwise looking as good as possible. The preview also clues us in just a bit on some plot points of the film, which, if you’ve read the book, you probably already know by heart.

Still, seeing even this short preview reminds us in some way why these movies are just so damn popular. They feature attractive people going through emotional times and doing it with a certain sense of urgency.

While I’m not much of a fan of these books or movies, I can certainly understand the appeal to their target audience. People love them and these characters and in the end, that’s all that really matters.

Check out the new teaser after the jump. The full trailer will debut on Friday at 9AM ET. The Twilight Saga: Eclipse hits theaters June 30th.

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While most believe that the wins for The Hurt Locker and Kathryn Bigelow were the most deserving and biggest upsets of this years Academy Awards, those are nothing in comparison to the pure excellence of this year’s winner for Best Animated Short Film, Logorama.

From a collaborative effort of directors François Alaux, Herve de Crecy, and Ludovic Houplain, the short is approximately 17 minutes long (3 of those minutes being the end credits alone) about a twist on a modern day Los Angeles, in which everything from the buildings to the cars to the people are made up of popular logos.

The short film would be quite impressive without a story, just a series of shots and pans of this impressive city, but instead we’re thrown into an epic crime noir story that turns into an even more epic disaster film. I’m sure there are tons of social remarks and jabs at Corporate America to be found here, but it’s still pretty cool to see a high speed chase between Ronald McDonald and the Michelin Man.

A Belgian website entitled Garage TV has thrown up the entire short film online, for free, to watch. Check it out after the jump before it goes away, and be prepared to be impressed.

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Corey Haim, star of the ’80s favorites The Lost Boys, License to Drive, and Dream a Little Dream (all three also starring his friend and frequent collaborator Corey Feldman), was pronounced dead at 3:30 this morning at Providence St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, California, of what is believed to be an accidental drug overdose.

Born in Toronto, Canada, Haim rose to prominence with the 1986 film Lucas, also starring Charlie Sheen and Winona Ryder. From there, he won a role on the 1987 television series Roomies before going on to be in cast in perhaps his best-known role in Joel Schumacher’s teenage vampire horror/comedy The Lost Boys.

Throughout the ’90s he starred in a number of direct-to-video releases including the sequel to Dream a Little Dream, Dream a Little Dream 2. He also starred in the independent action/comedy Fast Getaway, as well as its sequel Fast Getaway II.

In the ’00s he reunited with Feldman to create the reality television show The Two Coreys, which ran on A&E for two seasons before a rift between the two, resulting from Haim’s addiction to Valium soured their relationship, and the network deciding against pursuing a third season.

Though Avatar didn’t pick up the best picture award at the Oscars on Sunday, the filmmakers can console themselves by sobbing into the ridiculous pile of money the film is still making and a few technical awards. Even without a big Oscar win, the 3D juggernaut in Hollywood keeps rolling along, as word is now coming in that Warner Bros. is planning on rebooting the holiest of classics: The Wizard of Oz.

And yes, it will be in 3D. From The LA Times:

The studio is examining two existing “Wizard of Oz” projects, with an eye toward giving one of them a modern gloss and moving it toward the screen.

One project, called “Oz,” currently lives at Warner’s New Line label. It’s being produced by Temple Hill, which is behind a little franchise called “Twilight,” and has a script written by Darren Lemke, a writer on the upcoming “Shrek Forever After.”

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For the first time in nearly nine years, WWE’s Monday Night Raw went head to head with opposing wrestling programming. TNA, who’s normal timeslot runs on Thursday night from 9 to 11, has made the jump to Monday nights in hopes of going head to head with Monday Night Raw much like WCW Nitro did for the first time back on September 4th, 1995. This rivalry lead to some of the greatest programming in wrestling history in the eyes of its fans.

TNA Impact’s first weekly Monday night episode drew a 0.98 cable rating and drew 1.4 million viewers. This rating was down 12% and it’s viewership down 6.1% compared to the preview week’s Thursday edition of Impact. Surprisingly headlined by some of the very same performers from Nitro like Sting, Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair, it is likely that TNA and Spike TV officials were not thrilled with only a 1.0 rating.

On the other hand, WWE’s Monday Night Raw counted in a 3.4 cable rating and 5.1 million viewers based on the overnight reporting. Raw saw a 7.4% drop in ratings and a 4.2% drop in viewership showing that TNA’s move may have affected Vince McMahon and USA Network’s Monday night programming staple.

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