Yesterday, fans everywhere got treated to the DVD and Blu-Ray release of the latest film from the Broken Lizard comedy troop, The Slammin’ Salmon. The team had previously brought films like Super Troopers, BeerFest, and Club Dread into the “greatest hits” lists of college kids everywhere.

We recently got a chance to sit down with one of the members of the team, Kevin Heffernan, who is best known as “Farva” from 2001′s Super Troopers. Kevin also makes his directorial debut with Salmon, and he discussed some of the perils of being a first time director.

The Flickcast: So for those who weren’t able to catch the limited theatrical run of Slammin’ Salmon, what can you tell us about the flick?

Kevin Heffernan: It’s kind of a “down the middle” comedy. We return to the Super Troopers roots that we had, and made an independent film that we tried to pack as many laughs into as we could. I can’t give you a laugh per second quotient, but I think we got a lot of good laughs in there and we’re pretty happy with it.

Just to give you an overview of it, we play waiters in a restaurant, which is owned by a crazy former Heavyweight Champion of the World, kind of like a Mike Tyson guy (played by Michael Clarke Duncan). He sets up a contest over the course of one night, and says that he’ll give the top selling waiter $10,000, and the lowest selling waiter gets the crap kicked out of him.

We tried to pack as many jokes into that thing as we could.

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Not many people are fans of “reboot” news these days. Considering things like Real Genius and Laverne & Shirley are getting rebooted, it’s almost a wonder if anything good that can be called a “reboot” is in the works. That brings us to the pending remake of 1984′s Footloose.

Originally set for High School Musical director Kenny Ortega, he ended up backing out just five months before production was set to start over budget constraints and creative differences. Now, according to Variety, things seem to be back on track with the hiring of a new director.

Paramount’s redo of “Footloose” is back on course, with Craig Brewer set to direct the high-profile project from his rewritten script. However, Brewer will have to find a new lead now that Chace Crawford is exiting the project due to scheduling conflicts with the CW’s “Gossip Girl.” Par insiders said Monday that casting will commence immediately. Studio intends for Brewer to begin lensing this summer.

President of production Adam Goodman has stated that he wants a new and edgier remake, which should be what he’ll get by hiring Brewer, who’s previous films include Hustle & Flow and Black Snake Moan.

Hard to believe it’s been 13 years since Matt Stone and Trey Parker first put their cardboard-animated show about a group of boys from Colorado on the air, but tonight marks a true milestone, as the 200th episode of South Park airs on Comedy Central.

The franchise has been through quite a lot, between video games, films, direct-to-DVD specials, and more merchandise that you could shake a stick at. They may have become more socially conscious in the past few years, but the writing staff has never failed to push the envelope every week, which is one of the reasons 200 is a big number.

In tonight’s episode, the boys are in store for a Seinfeld-esque plot, as every celebrity they have ever mocked decides to file a class action lawsuit against the town of South Park.

Check out a brief preview of tonight’s episode after the jump, check in on some cool tribute videos over at their 200th Episode website, and be sure to catch South Park on Comedy Central, tonight at 10/9C.

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I was hooked on this show about New Orleans life three months after Hurricane Katrina as soon as I had watched the first five minutes and apparently, HBO feels even stronger about it that I do. Why do I say that? Because the cable network has already given a second season order to Treme after only airing the first episode.

According to reports, Treme, created by The Wire‘s David Simon and Eric Overmyer, is already tracking higher than Simon’s previous effort and has drawn 1.1 million viewers for its first airing. However, as HBO is a cable network and doesn’t really care that much about ratings, they have obviously given the show another season for a different reason.

“This is too good of a show and too important of a show not to invest in a second season,” HBO’s president of programming Michael Lombardo said. I could not agree more.

Production on the second season of the show, starring Wendell Pierce, Steve Zahn, Clarke Peters, John Goodman, Kim Dickens and Khandi Alexander, will start in the fall in New Orleans. Now if I can just get them to bring back Rome and Deadwood.

This week sees the release of several new movies and TV shows, some for the first time ever on Blu-ray. Of the ones coming out this week, we’re excited for a few of them in particular.

These esteemed examples of entertainment include A Nightmare on Elm Street, Pirate Radio, the debut of Voltron Beast King Golion, the thirteenth season of Dallas, the DVD release of the very funny Defendor and the 15th Anniversary Blu-ray of Apollo 13 (pictured above with Bill Paxton, Tom Hanks, Gary Sinise and Kevin Bacon).

Check them out:

Movies

A Nightmare on Elm Street ~ Heather Langenkamp, Johnny Depp, Robert Englund, John Saxon (Blu-ray)

Apollo 13 (15th Anniversary Edition) ~ Tom Hanks, Bill Paxton, Kevin Bacon, Gary Sinise (Blu-ray)

Creature of Darkness ~ Devon Sawa, Sanoe Lake, Matthew Lawrence (Blu-ray and DVD)

Defendor ~ Woody Harrelson, Kat Dennings, Sandra Oh, Elias Koteas (DVD)

Final Storm ~ Luke Perry, Lauren Holly (Blu-ray and DVD)

Gone With the Wind (The Scarlett Edition) ~ Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh (Blu-ray)

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It seems the prayers of geeks everywhere are going to be answered as Joss Whedon is reportedly in final negotiations to direct The Avengers movie for Marvel Studios. This comes after rumors have been circulating for weeks that the Buffy, Firefly and Dollhouse creator was on the short list of possible helmers that would take on the project.

Marvel’s Avengers is to be a massive superhero team-up film featuring characters such as Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, The Incredible Hulk, Nick Fury and many others all assembling to fight bad guys and rally to save the world. Needless to say this film will be a huge undertaking for all involved and a giant, expensive release for Marvel.

I have to say that this news is still somewhat surprising given Whedon’s track record. His shows (Dollhouse, Firefly) get canceled by the networks, his one decent-sized feature film, Serenity, performed modestly at the box office and he seems to have a tendency to get kicked around a bit by “the powers that be” in Hollywood — which, of course, is one of the reasons fan’s love him. However, he is a tremendously talented writer, of that there is no doubt. Plus, he can direct.

It just seems like a very large and important project for a studio to take a chance on someone that’s never done a very large project before. Hollywood is not known for taking chances. They definitely prefer as much of a sure thing as they can get. And make no mistake, if Whedon is getting this job, somebody is taking a chance.

That said, I firmly believe he can do it and do it extremely well. He’s a smart, talented and thoughtful man. Plus, I’m just pretty damn psyched for the idea. I’m just still sorta amazed its actually happening. Maybe some of those “powers that be” in Hollywood are not as lame as I thought?

How about you guys? Do you think Joss Whedon is the right man to direct The Avengers? Assemble and sound off in the comments.

While most comic fans are getting ready for this Friday’s release of Kick-Ass in theaters, they can get into the average-guy-superhero today, as the indie super hero flick Defendor hits DVD stores everywhere.

The film stars Woody Harrelson as a regular guy-turned night crusader. Also starring is Kat Dennings, Elias Koteas, and Sandra Oh. It’s got a great message, some funny moments, and a tone that’s very reminiscent of classic Batman stories.

We recently got a chance to sit down with Nicholas Tabarrok, producer of the film, and he shed some light on Defendor, as well as where he and writer/director Peter Stebbings plan on taking the character from here.

The Flickcast: For those who aren’t aware already, what can you tell us about your new film, Defendor?

Nicholas Tabarrok: It’s about a regular guy (Harrelson) who read comic books as a kid. Kind of a slow guy who lives in a bit of a fantasy world, and he thinks that he’s a super hero. So he’s got a homemade costume and homemade weapons, and at night he goes out there and patrols the streets looking for bad guys. All he wants to do is help people and do some good.

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As I was reading all about the controversy surrounding Hit-Girl in the movie Kick-Ass, I wondered why all this hullabaloo? There have been a ton of sidekicks in the past that no one has said boo about. My favorite sidekick of all time, is also the first in comics: Robin, the Boy Wonder.

Robin was a sweet, acrobatic kid until he was trained to be a super-soldier by his caring and crazed “parental guardian” Batman. Albeit, he didn’t kill, but he still had bullets whizzing by his head. He was captured every other week and the Joker even killed one version of him.

Where was the parental outcry for my beloved Boy Wonder then? Instead of my dad decrying the shoddy parenting skills of Batty, he crafted a bat cave out of our sewing room, devised numerous bat-inspired gadgets for our utility belts, and together we trolled the streets of the cul-de-sac in search of evil.

In between ridding the streets of crime by returning a lost cat back to our neighbor, I read copious comic book adventures and looked forward to seeing a kid thwart crime on the mean streets of Gotham. It’s a wonder Robin has survived at all. His mentor, old Bats is a little Batty himself. He’s either sleeping at the office, obsessing in his bat cave over the latest baddie, or being all angsty, dark, and solemn.

The only time he does pay attention to Robin is when he trains him as a soldier to fight crime in grungy alleys. Not exactly, a nice afternoon in the park. Especially since the “superhero” by Robin’s side refuses to carry a gun against super-villains who have many distinct plans on how to torture and kill them. If I was Robin facing a coo coo for CoCo Puffs super-villain, I would certainly be packing a boatload of ammo and not be afraid to use it.

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Like it is when pretty much anything new is released by Apple, their online Apple Store was down for a bit this morning. Now, the store is back and with it are new, improved MacBook Pro models for your purchasing pleasure. These updates were rumored to come for the last months and now they have and provide an impressive array of new features and models from which to choose.

The 15″ and 17″ models now use the i5 and i7 Intel dual-core processors (at 2.4, 2.53GHz or 2.66Ghz, respectively), giving them a big performance boost and permitting hyperthreading (up to 4 virtual cores). They also include the GeForce GT 330M graphics chip, and the NVIDIA-driven Optimus technology to switch from the high-end video subsystem to integrated graphics on the fly to improve power management.

Users of previous generation MacBook Pros will remember that this process used to involve logging out and in to switch, but now simply requires the click of a mouse. The improved power handling lets the 15″ and 17″ models supposedly go 8-9 hours on one battery charge. That, of course, remains to be seen. In addition, all models now include 4GB of RAM standard.

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Actor Joel Gretsch has been making the rounds in the televised science fiction world since Steven Spielberg’s Taken miniseries back in 2002. Since then, we’ve gotten Joel in The 4400, Journeyman and the film Push. Gretsch can now be seen as Father Jack Landry on ABC’s V. We recently got to talk to Joel about his role on the show, his ties to the world of sci-fi, and even got a response to a question that fanboys and girls have been asking for years.

The Flickcast: Starting off, what can you tell me about the things coming up on V?

Joel Gretsch: Wow, what a question. [laughs]. Lots of things. It’s really ramping up. Scott Rosenbaum, the showrunner, is writing a lot of fast, neck-breaking reveals, and you’re going to learn a lot of things of things about where each character comes from, why they are who they are. Why is Father Jack a priest? Stuff like that.

Anna’s moving. She’s got a reason why she’s here, and all that is going to get revealed. Also backstories. Erica’s relationship with Tyler is going to be revealed some more, as well as her relationship with her husband. A lot of emotional things will be happening, people will get hurt, my faith will be compromised even more than it already has, and it also gets more solidified. There is really a lot of stuff going on.

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The more I see previews for the new Doctor Who, the more I’m interested in this new version of the show. Sure, Matt Smith has yet to prove himself a worthy successor to great Doctors of the past, but he does seem to have something going for him. Plus, what I’ve seen of his feisty sidekick Amy Pond (played by Karen Gilllan), she seems very capable, cute and, well, feisty — which doesn’t hurt one bit.

So, to help you get more interested in the show too, we’ve been bringing you all sorts of information about it for the last couple months. Today is no exception as we’ve got two more videos, one interview and one featuring footage from the premiere episode, to share with you.

In the first one, the cast and production team discuss the Doctor’s particular attachment to humans and why he seems to love Planet Earth in a special way. In the other video, the Doctor meets his new sidekick, Amy Pond, for the first time and discovers she looks very nice in a police uniform and also can swing a mean cricket bat.

Doctor Who premiers this Saturday at 9/8C on BBC America. Before that, check out the two videos after the jump.

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You have to give it up for Marvel. They truly seem to be embracing the online and “digital” new media. They’ve got an iPad application that lets you read comics on the device, they offer comics online at Marvel Digital and they’ve released a series of very well done motion comics, which you can play on your iPod Touch or iPhone.

They don’t just phone it in or do a half-assed job on the motion comics either. Everything is professional and of the highest quality. Heck, they even get superstars like Joss Whedon and Brian Bendis to write the motion comics and artists such as John Cassaday and Alex Maleev to draw them, so they must be taking these projects pretty seriously.

The latest character to get the full Marvel treatment is Iron Man in the new Iron Man Extremis motion comic, which is written by Warren Ellis and Adi Granov. To commemorate this event we’ve got a behind the scenes video of the making of the new moco, courtesy of Marvel. As we’ve done in the past, here’s the synopsis provided by Marvel:

Experience Iron Man in a whole new way – IRON MAN: EXTREMIS Motion Comic. From the story by Warren Ellis & Adi Granov, this incredible epic blends seamless motion, dynamic voice acting, and stunning special effects, bringing to life the story that redefined Iron Man for the 21st Century. Now you can get an exclusive sneak peek at this breathtaking visual breakthrough in motion comics with a brand new behind the scenes video! The first episode of IRON MAN EXTRMIS goes on-sale Friday, April 16th!

Check out the video after the jump and just like it says above, get your own copy of Iron Man Extremis this Friday.

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