If you’re hearing the ominous sound of clinking spurs, hissing rattlesnakes, and squeaking saloon doors, well, you’re probably crazy. But it also means it’s  Western Wednesday, and you’re just really excited!

I’m afraid I have to be a bit of a no-good yellow cheat this week due to a previous embargo engagement with one Mr. J. W. Hex.  (He just rides into town so rarely ….) but it never hurts to visit an old favorite, especially one that’s as much fun as The Quick and the Dead.

But first, I have to take you back into a sepia-tinted time of 1995.  I was 13, and I hated Westerns. I was all about sci-fi and fantasy, and no history was interesting to me unless it was medieval and European.   Westerns were a dusty, dull genre where everyone just drank whiskey,  had silly shoot-outs, went on cattle drives,  and visited brothels.

My family rented The Quick and the Dead, and my world was rocked. This Western starred a woman — a mysterious woman with no name.  She rarely spoke, and when she did it was always snarly.  She smoked a cigar.   It was the most original character I had ever seen. If more Westerns were like this, I thought, I would like them all.

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The alliance between Verizon and Google just seems to be getting stronger. First, they partnered to offer several Android powered smartphones like the Moto DROID and the HTC DROID Incredible and now the two companies are reportedly teaming up to being a tablet computer to market to compete directly with Apple’s iPad.

According to reports in the Wall Street Journal, Verizon and Google’s partnership aims to bring the “next big wave of opportunities” to the U.S. wireless industry. The Verizon-Google tablet is intended to “clip the wings of the ever-soaring iPad” Nice.

Sadly there’s no word on who will make the hardware for the tablet or when it may be available. Still, it’s interesting to speculate. What I would love to see is a tablet device made by HTC, featuring Android OS topped with HTC’s Sense UI to make it look cleaner.

Plus, a wireless card from Verizon that did combo 3G/4G. Now that would be a tablet I would be interested in and one that could give the iPad a definite run for its money.

As with most every week, this week sees the release of more new movies and TV shows on Blu-ray and DVD. Of the titles dropping this week we’re most interested in Edge of Darkness, Legion, Daybreakers, the first time Blu-ray release of Karate Kid I and II, the release of the Kurosawa collection and the debut of Mel Brook’s History of the World Part One on Blu-ray (pictured above with Mel Brooks and Harvey Korman).

Check them out.

Movies

Daybreakers ~ Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe (Blu-ray and DVD)

Edge of Darkness ~ Mel Gibson, Ray Winstone, Danny Huston (Blu-ray and DVD)

Essential Art House: Kurosawa Collection (Hidden Fortress/Ikiru/Throne of Blood) (Blu-ray and DVD)

Father of the Bride 1 & 2 ~ Steve Martin (Blu-ray and DVD)

Hang Em High (Two-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo) [Blu-ray] ~ Clint Eastwood, Ed Begley, Bruce Dern, and Dennis Hopper (Blu-ray – 2010)

History of the World Part 1 ~ Mel Brooks, Dom Deluise, Harvey Korman (Blu-ray)

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For years, members of both genders have cowered in the shadows with their secret interest in what goes on behind the closed doors of Clark Kent’s apartment, or on the wedding night of Spider-Man and Mary Jane. Kevin Smith even built a career on the former. Now, fans everywhere will get to witness as the two worlds of Porn and Comic Books cross over.

With the rise in comic book popularity, there also comes the realization from the adult industry (finally) that there is a market for this type of movie. Using the protection of the “parody law”, stating that anything deemed a parody can not be considered an infringement on copyright, industry leader Vivid Entertainment recently announced their newest Superhero imprint.

“The parodies under this new imprint will pay tribute to the world’s most popular comic heroes,” said Steven Hirsch, Founder/Co-chairman of Vivid. “Axel already started pre-production on a parody of Superman, which will be followed by those of The Green Hornet, Spider-Man, Wonder Woman, Captain America, Thor, and The Incredible Hulk.

We made the decision to create the imprint after working with Axel on “Batman XXX: A Porn Parody”, an Axel Braun Productions movie to be distributed by Vivid. Axel truly did an amazing job with it, and we agreed that together we could mine the really rich treasure of superheroes and have a lot of fun doing it.”

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This week on The Flickcast Chris is back and the duo get right to it with a whole bunch of new topics. Some of these topics include the success and relative merits of Iron Man 2, Captain America in 3D rumors, Logan Lermann potentially as the new Spider-Man, J.J. Abrams upcoming sci-fi thriller Super 8, other upcoming 3D titles and Betty White hosting Saturday Night Live.

The boys also made some picks again this week including Matt’s pick of the movie Legion and Chris pick of the Mel Gibson film Edge of Darkness.

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.

It didn’t come as much of a surprise to many people when Fox announced Matthew Vaughn as director of the upcoming prequel X-Men: First Class. He is a hot commodity right now due to the mild success of Kick-Ass, and they had always had their eye on Vaughn, even back as far as The Last Stand.

With that in mind, it should come as even less of a surprise that Vaughn is bringing on screenwriter Jane Goldman to tweak the First Class script a little bit. Vaughn and Goldman worked together on Stardust and most recently wrote the ending to Kick-Ass (as the ending was unfinished when Mark Millar brought the script to Vaughn).

In a recent tweet from Goldman’s husband and BBC Media Mogul Jonathan Ross, he confirmed the rewrite:

“Also, for those who need to know, my wife IS currently writing X men First Class.”

What could this mean for the X-Men: First Class film is unknown just yet. Last we heard, Chuck and O.C. creator Josh Schwartz, who wrote the original comic, was stepping in to write the script. This could be the same script that’s getting “retooled”, or Goldman and Vaughn could be taking it back to square one.

With a release date of Summer 2011, you can expect more answers to come through soon.  Let’s just hope there isn’t an epic “flying through the city on a jet pack” scene at the end of this comic book adaptation.

In a follow-up to my previous article about Andy Whitfield, whose epic battle with a treatable form of non-Hodgkin Lymphoma has delayed Season 2 of Starz hit series Spartacus : Blood and Sand, Starz has announced that pre-production is underway on a new six-part prequel to the show.

While Andy Whitfield, who played the title role in the series, will briefly appear in two episodes of the prequel, it will be Lucy Lawless and John Hannah who take center stage. The story will center on the rise of the House of Batiatus and its champions before Spartacus arrives as a captured Thracian slave. With the title still to be determined, the prequel will begin production this summer in New Zealand, and is slated to air on Starz in January 2011.

Other returning actors include Peter Mensah (Doctore), Manu Bennett (Crixus), Antonio Te Maioha (Barca), Nick E. Tarabay (Ashur), Lesley-Ann Brandt (Naevia) – and others. New characters will also be added – most notably the gladiator who was champion of the House of Batiatus before Spartacus or even Crixus – who will help fill in the story about the people and politics in the House of Batiatus and ancient Capua as a whole.

“The prequel story maintains the excitement and entertainment value of the first season of ‘Spartacus,’ giving audiences the engaging experience they’ve come to expect,” said Starz President and CEO Chris Albrecht. “We look forward to continuing the Spartacus story.”

Produced by Rob Tapert, Sam Raimi, Joshua Donen and Steven S. DeKnight, Spartacus: Blood and Sand was the highest rated show for the 18-49 demographic among all cable networks for 12 of the 13 Fridays on which it aired based on coverage rating. The production team remains intact for the six-part prequel which is expected to air later this year or in January of next year.

As we’ve done with the last two episodes we’re pleased to bring you a preview of the next episode of the Iron Man Extremis motion comic. The episode, which will be available at Apple’s iTunes Store today, continues the Warren Ellis written story of a military-sponsored nanotechnology called “Extremis” that Tony Stark must take to save his own life.

It’s an interesting take on Iron Man as we explore Stark’s character and his guilt over creating weapons and being one himself. I’m enjoying it and if you haven’t checked it out, you should — especially if you’re a fan of Iron Man.

And, as we agree to do to bring you these little video treats, here’s the scoop on the video from Marvel’s own virtual lips:

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 a sneak peek at the third episode of this breathtaking visual breakthrough in motion comics! IRON MAN EXTREMIS episode 3 goes on-sale Wednesday, May 12th!

Check out the preview of Iron Man: Extremis after the jump.

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If you’re a Mac user and also love to game, today is your lucky day. Why? Well, Valve has decided to release its Steam platform officially for the Mac today and also will be bringing two of their best games along with it.

The first games is the awesomely simple Portal where you solve puzzles by teleporting from place to place using the “portal gun.” The best part, the better you do the more you get rewards in the form of cake. And who doesn’t love cake?

The next game coming out is Runic Game’s Torchlight which is a hack and slash in the tradition of Diablo where you explore dungeons and search for treasure. It’s also a great game and will probably do well mostly because, like Portal, its simple.

Steam, which has around 25 million users, was launched in 2004, allowing PC owners to buy and download games to play on their computer. The library of games soon expanded, and there are now more than 1,000 titles available. Even though its taken a few years, I’m glad to see the platform is finally available for the Mac. Thanks Valve, its about time.

Sad news for fans of The Sarah Silverman Program as Comedy Central has finally given the show the axe after three seasons. The show had been bounced back and forth in just about every possible timeslot over the past three years, but still wasn’t able to pull the ratings that the comedy cable network was hoping for.

The final deathblow was Comedy Centra’sl change of the show’s timeslot to Fridays at 10:30PM. Apparently it was hoping for an audience that either owned DVR’s or had no social lives. Co-creator Dan Harmon should be OK with the news, as he’s got a hit NBC series to cry about with Community. Rob Schrab may be a different story.

The series hit an all-time high last season with record ratings and even an Emmy nomination to lead Silverman. It seems that in a world where fans can squeeze another season out of networks with the power of Twitter (see Chuck and Dollhouse) they were no match to Comedy Central’s final word on the matter.

The network still plans to air reruns of the show until the broadcast contract is up at the end of the year, but beyond that, you will have to take solace in the first three season of The Sarah Silverman Progam on DVD.

When this Mel Gibson starrer came to theaters, I didn’t get a chance to see it so my first exposure to it was on Blu-ray. I won’t go into a full review of the film here (I’ll leave that to our own Shannon Hood) but suffice it to say I liked director Martin Campbell’s mix of cop procedural, revenge tale and conspiracy thriller. Gibson plays Boston Detective Thomas Craven who’s daughter is brutally murdered right in front of his eyes after a rather brief homecoming.

This horrific act spurs Gibson’s character on a path of revenge and a quest for justice that takes him in many different directions as he crosses paths with all manner of characters. Of course, things are not as they seem and the crime is not s simple assassination gone wrong, nor was Craven the target as everyone, except him, suspect.

During the course of his investigation Craven discovers a wider conspiracy that leads to the power corridors of the highest levels of government. Into this mix comes Ray Winstone’s Jedburg, a shadow operative who ‘s motivations and loyalties are unclear.

Is he a friend or foe and who does he work for? These questions arise as the film progresses and as Craven and Jedburg have several scenes together. Even though the other actors in the film, including Danny Huston, Shawn Roberts and Bojana Novakovic, are quite good, Gibson and Winstone elevate their scenes together and make this movie, at times, a real pleasure to watch.

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It’s been a long time since Philip K. Dick’s novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep hit the shelves in 1968 and inspired a generation of Sci-Fi fans. In the novel, Dick imagined a post-apocalyptic world wherein earth and much of its population have been decimated by nuclear fallout after a massive world war.

Most animals were either forced into extinction or are now extremely rare due to the radiation poisoning resulting from this so-called World War Terminus. The book’s plotline follows the protagonist, Rick Deckard as a police bounty hunter, racing through a near-future San Francisco on the trail of six dangerous androids.

Many of us Sci-Fi fanatics know this story intimately from Ridley Scott’s 1982 masterpiece, Blade Runner. Now, almost thirty years later, writer Chris Roberson and artist Robert Adler have imagined a prequel that will be available for the iPad in comic form. Taking place immediately after World War Terminus ends, the problems with artificial life – androids – become apparent.

The government decides they must become targets, hunted down, but who will do the dirty work? Two men are assigned: Malcolm Reed, a ‘special’ human with the power to feel others’ emotions, and Charlie Victor, who’s the perfect man for the job – or is he? Meanwhile Samantha Wu, a Stanford biologist, fights to save the last of the world’s animals.

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