This week On the Radar a bunch of gaming news about Halo and Gears of War, Red Sonja switches up celebrity hotties, Mark Strong talks Sinestro in Green Lantern and Tom Arnold takes to the sea to fight aliens!

Court dismisses Marvel, Stan Lee law suit.  Excelsior!

While Stan Lee has been working overtime on film cameos and convention appearances he’s also been dealing with legal fights.  This one was between Stan Lee Media Inc. and it’s former board members.  At it’s most basic level the case was over ownership of mainstream characters like Spider-Man, the Hulk, and Fantastic Four.

The judge dismissed the case based on two primary factors.  First, the shareholders did not acquire their shares until a year after the issue of ownership occurred and second, said shareholders should not have waited nearly a decade to file their case.  No word yet on whether the decision will be appealed so until next time true believers…

Halo movie will be happening at some point

What should be an easy sell as far as a video game adaption, Halo has struggled to gain traction with studios.  However, Frank O’Connor of Microsoft Game Studios has said the film will happen eventually:

“We’re going to make a movie when the time is right,” he said. “We own the IP. If we want to make a movie, the scale of all the other stuff that we do changes dramatically. We make tens and tens of millions of dollars on ancillary stuff, toys, apparel, music and publishing. If we do a movie all of that will grow exponentially. We have some numbers if we do a movie, but it changes everything. It also changes our target and age demographic.”

Continue Reading →

As we have seen, tons of you have been closely following the Flickcast’s coverage of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. We even love it so much, we are giving away a download code for the Stimulus Package on the next episode of the Flickcast.  And luckily, there seems to be more news every day for us to cover about Modern Warfare 2.

First off, anyone who hasn’t played Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, immediately drop what you are doing and head over to Steam for the chance to play the game’s multiplayer for free all weekend. Everyone can immediately download the full multiplayer version of the game with absolutely no obligation to purchase the game. For the PC gamers out there who are clamoring for something to play other than World of Warcraft, this is it boys and girls.

In XBox 360 news, the recently released Stimulus Package set records for XBox Live. Despite technical glitches with its launch, the downloadable content sold more than a million units sold in the first day and over 2.5 million units in its first week. At $15 a download, Activision rang in over $37.5 million dollars in just a single week. With the positive response and sales, players are already looking forward to the second timed exclusive pack to make its way to the XBox 360.

Continue Reading →

If heading out to the typical summer blockbusters (Iron Man 2, The A-Team, Toy Story 3 and The Twilight Saga: Eclipse) is already a given and you’re looking for other movies to occupy your time, or if you’re looking for film to take the kids to, Disney is hoping that a live action adaptation of a portion of Fantasia will be just what the doctor ordered.

The decision to adapt the iconic moment (and THE image of Mickey Mouse in the minds of fans around the world) into a full-length, live action film has its roots in Cage’s fondness for the film (he watches it every year) and a quick, on-set conversation with a former producer.

“When I came up with this idea, I was on Next. I was talking with (producer) Todd Garner and I said, ‘Man, I really want to play a magician. I want to play a sorcerer.’ He came in the next day and said, ‘Nic, I got it. Let’s do Sorcerer’s Apprentice.’ Then I went to my partner at the time, Norm Golightly and we got a script out of it.

We all thought, ‘You know who would really put this on a fast track, who would give it all the panache and all the big entertainment style, nobody better than Jerry Bruckheimer.’ So we went to Jerry and being the good friend and great producer that he is, he read it and he said, ‘Hey, we’re doing it.’ We just got off of National Treasure 2 and that was a great experience. We thought the only man that could really do it and make this unique, bring the comedy into it and the humor into it and make it really connect with big audiences like kids and adults was Jon Turteltaub. That’s how it happened.”

Continue Reading →

I had a great time at Date Night. You would be hard pressed to find more likable leads than Tina Fey and Steve Carrell, who have great chemistry together as boring New Jersey couple Claire and Phil Foster. Stuck in a serious domestic rut that many of you will recognize all too well, the two decide to shake up their usual date night of frequenting the same restaurant and ordering the same dishes on the same night every week.

They get dolled up and head to Manhattan to the über trendy seafood restaurant, “Claws.”  A rude host scoffs at their hopes for getting a table, and the two head to the bar.  Just as they are getting ready to leave, another hostess goes through the bar, calling out for “Tripplehorn, party of two.”

Phil decides to seize the moment and do something spontaneous for once in his life, and he says that they are the Tripplehorns. The two enjoy a fancy dinner with wine, delight over a Will.i am celebrity sighting and make fun of stuffy restaurant patrons.

They are approached by two strange men who approach the table and tell the couple that they have something to discuss with them.  Outside the restaurant, Claire and Phil immediately discover that the real Tripplehorns are messed up with some bad people, and those bad people want a flash drive that belongs to them back.  Guns are drawn, and the Fosters try to explain that it’s a case of mistaken identity, but the thugs don’t believe them, and the Fosters have to improvise their way out of the predicament.

Continue Reading →

As you may have heard on this week’s edition of The Flickcast podcast (if you aren’t listening to it, you should be), the next edition of the the show will feature the first installment of the Mailbag. What’s that mean? It means that we are inviting questions and comments from our readers and listeners to participate in our weekly podcast. Just email mailbag [at] the flickcast dot com with literally anything you want to ask.

The best question which will be answered on the April 14th edition of the podcast will be awarded a free download code for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2′s Stimulus Package for the XBox 360. All we ask is that you keep it clean and only one entry per person. Other than that, there are no limits. We want to encourage you to be a contributing member of our site community and being a part of our weekly podcast is a great way to do that.

After hitting a momentous fifty episodes of the podcast, over 2000 articles and being online for a full year, you readers and listeners are what matters most to us and having you as a part of our show and giving you guys prizes is just our way of saying “thank you.”

I remember being seven years old, sitting in the movie theater and watching the very first trailer for the original Toy Story. I was in awe. So it’s no real surprise that, in my twenties, I’m still just as awed and excited for all the footage I see for the third installment of the Toy Story franchise. So far we’ve seen a few trailers, gotten a glimpse at some new characters, and more. You’re in luck, because today we have a brand-new clip of Toy Story 3 for you to enjoy.

In this short-but-great clip, we meet the infamous Ken (played by Michael Keaton), and watch as he and Barbie (Jodi Benson) fall in love at first sight. And what better way to fall in love than to Gary Wright’s “Dream Weaver”? Ken also gives Woody, Buzz, Jessie, and the rest of the toy gang a tour of their new home, Sunnyside Daycare. Along the way they see some new faces, such as Lot’s-O Huggin-Bear (Ned Beatty) who we introduced you to a while back.

Check out the small sneak peak at the world of Toy Story and Sunnyside Daycare after the jump, and be sure to catch Toy Story 3 in theaters and IMAX 3D on June 18th.

Continue Reading →

We haven’t given you much info on ABC’s upcoming mystery show Happy Town so far. However, ABC must really have confidence in the show because they’ve put the first fourteen minutes of it online over at Hulu. Of course, we’ve got the video for you here as well so no need to click the link.

In this clip we don’t really learn much of what the show is about, only that it features an attractive and quirky cast of mostly familiar faces. Among the citizens of this town are Sam Neill, Amy Acker, Steven Weber, Lauren German and Lost alumni M.C. Gainey.

We do learn one or two other things including the fact that people are missing from the town and a presence called “The Magic Man,” who is probably not a good guy, needs to be dealt with. The first bit of the show held my interest to I suppose I’ll tune in for the entire thing when it premieres, if only to satisfy my curiosity about what happens in the rest of the premiere episode — and because I love Amy Acker. After that, we’ll see.

Happy Town premieres on ABC at 10/9C on April 28. Until then, check out the video after the jump.

Continue Reading →

Dakota Fanning is all grown up and delivers an impressive performance in this bio-pic that skims the story of the origins of The Runaways. The all female rock band was a novelty in the 70′s, when founder Joan Jett (played by Kristen Stewart) was told on more than one occasion that “women don’t play electric guitar.”

Eschewing this advice, Jett strong-armed her way into meeting music producer Kim Fowley (Michael Shannon), who saw a glimmer of talent and encouraged Jett to work the all-female angle of her band. The first step was finding a charismatic lead singer.

Enter Cherie (Dakota Fanning), an androgynous David Bowie enthusiast all of 15 years old. Cherie is brought into the band, sexed up a bit, and soon is growling the infamous “Cherry bomb” song, which was inspired by Cherie.

It is notable to mention that Cherie was hand picked on her look alone, actual talent seemed to be of secondary importance. Seems some things about the music industry never change, huh?

Continue Reading →

While a few of The Flickcast team  got to see Matthew Vaughn’s adaptation of the popular comic Kick-Ass at SXSW, the rest of us are still pretty excited for its US release next Friday. We’ve been bringing you some great stuff from the film, including clips and the official music video, so why not bring you even more?

We’ve got two brand new clips that are hot from the studio, waiting for you to check out. In one, Kick-Ass (Aaron Johnson) enters into his very first fight and, well, gets his ass kicked. You can pick up on Vaughn’s British directing influence here, as Prodigy’s “Omen” plays in the background.

In the second clip, Dave Lizewski decides to don the costume of his heroic alter ego in order to surprise and impress the girl of his dreams, played by Hot Tub Time Machine’s Lyndsy Fonseca. Things get a big violent from there.

Check out the two new clips after the jump, and be sure to catch Kick-Ass when it hits theaters next Friday.

Continue Reading →

While the world has no idea when Blizzard’s highly anticipated follow-up to Starcraft will be released, somehow the StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty Collector’s Edition has already been priced. According to Kotaku, the set will cost you a hefty $100.

Why one hundred smackaroos? This box set will include an art book packed with illustrations and concept art, a 2GB USB flash drive replica of Jim Raynor’s dog tag loaded with the original StarCraft and the StarCraft: Brood War expansion, a behind-the-scenes DVD, and a 14-track soundtrack CD.

But the most interesting inclusion to the special edition is a mini-Thor in-game World of Warcraft pet. Blizzard must be counting on us Warcraft players to switch over to StarCraft II while we wait impatiently for the next WoW expansion, Cataclysm. Those just waiting with baited breath for StarCraft II:Wings of Liberty can pick up the game for $60.

We’ll be bringing you the latest StarCraft II news, including its release date, in the coming weeks.

With both Stargate Universe and Merlin back on Friday night’s Syfy schedule, we’re going to be able to keep bringing you new preview clips for these shows each and every week. This week is no exception and we’ve got two previews for you this time around, courtesy of Syfy.

Beginning with Stargate Universe, this preview clip features Young and Scott as they search for a tracking device while division in the crew grows. And believe me, having been in space so many times, division is not something you want.

Next up is Merlin. In today’s preview clip Arthur’s entry into a tournament puts more than his life on the line. Seeing as he’s the king, that’s probably not a great idea.  Check out all the action starting with Stargate Universe at 9/8C followed by Merlin at 10/9C on Syfy. Check out the previews after, as always, the jump.

Continue Reading →

We’re all pretty big fans of comedy here in The Flickcast offices. From our love of this year’s Hot Tub Time Machine, to our obsession with shows like Community, Modern Family, and The Big Bang Theory. One show that has also grown on us since its first season is Comedy Central’s Tosh.0.

The show is an internet clip show, but unlike The Soup or its G4 cousin, Web Soup, this one is hosted by one of the funnier comedians working today, Daniel Tosh. For its second season, Comedy Central announced that they were giving Tosh.0 a whopping 25 episodes, which is more than the cable network normally gives a show, let alone in its sophomore season. From a recent press release, it seems that their decision has paid off.

“Tosh.0″ is currently in its second season which consists of 25 episodes (nine aired from January 13 through March 10, 2010) with new episodes returning on Wednesday, June 2 at 10:30 p.m. ET/PT helmed by newly appointed executive producer Charlie Siskel.

The second season of “Tosh.0″ is averaging 1.8 million total viewers and is the most watched show in its time slot among Men 18-24 and Men 18-34.  Since the first season, ratings have enjoyed a meteoric rise in the following demos: Persons 18-49: +83%; Men 18-34 +85%; Men 18-24 +84%.

Fans of the show have not only been following Daniel on Tosh.0, but also on his Twitter, Facebook, and their constantly updated Tosh.0 Blog.

New episodes start back up in June, and you can expect to see season 3, which will consist of at least 29 episodes, grace the airwaves on January 12th.