Wanted actor James McAvoy has agreed to portray young Charles Xavier in X-Men: First Class, the origin story focusing on the friendship and eventual fallout between Professor X and Magneto. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Fox has characterized the film as the “epic beginning of the X-Men saga”

The film reportedly covers the time before Charles Xavier and Eric Lensherr became Professor X and Magneto. They were two young men discovering their powers for the first time and before they were archenemies, they were the closest of friends, working together, with other Mutants (some familiar, some new), to stop the greatest threat the world has ever known.

In the process, a rift between them opened, which began the eternal war between Magneto’s Brotherhood and Professor X’s X-Men. Plus, its spawned several movies, TV shows and comics.

Fox anticipates filming this summer in London, with the movie tentatively scheduled for a June 3, 2011, release.

Stay tuned to The Flickcast for the latest news on this X-Men origin story.

By Chris Ullrich

Reprinted from Fantastic Fest, 9/30/09

As a big fan of horror movies and the zombie sub-genre, I really wanted to like George A. Romero’s Survival of the Dead and was prepared to give it the benefit of the doubt as much as possible. Although, my expectations were pretty low after Romero’s last two zombie movie efforts Land of the Dead and Diary of the Dead. Sadly, this film didn’t even manage to rise up to the level of my lowered expectations and is, instead, a heavily flawed and often very bad addition to Romero’s body of work.

Still, this is the man who basically invented the zombie film genre, so attention must be paid and respect given for his enduring legacy as one of this country’s innovative artists. But something has obviously gone a bit off kilter and the writer/director seems to have lost his way. I’m not sure how this phenomenon works exactly, but somewhere along the way a director seems to lose his vision.

After several great and innovative films the later films start to get worse and worse. Unfortunately, George Romero seems to have fallen into that trap, much like another acknowledged master of horror John Carpenter seems to. Look at Carpenter’s last few films and tell me they are as good as his earlier work in The Thing, Starman, Escape from New York and, of course, the original Halloween.

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Though Jon Favreau’s Iron Man 2 is pretty far in the back of our collective minds by now, it’s still worth it when we come across an impressive fan film that pays homage to the multi-million dollar movie franchise. And really, who doesn’t love baby versions of your favorite characters?

It worked at a TV series for The Muppets, and even a (mildly) successful comic series for The X-Men. Now, it’s Tony Stark’s turn, as we introduce Iron Baby.

The concept is pretty straightforward. Super-genius baby who develops a suit to take down bad guys (in this case, evil Easter bunnies). The thing worth watching the video for is the CG work. The film was done by Patrick Boivin, with graphics done by the French company STROB.

Check out Iron Baby after the jump, which stars Boivin’s daughter. It’s pretty amusing, and quite visually impressive. Only one question remains at this point: How soon before Nickelodeon picks it up?

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Speaking at the Time Warner investor day, Warner Bros. chairman and CEO Barry Meyer announced that  Sherlock Holmes 2 is slated for a December 16 2011 release. If that wasn’t enough to make your day, Meyer also revealed that the studio is getting close to giving the go-ahead for a movie about beloved DC Comics superhero Flash.

Based on reports from Meyer, 2011 is shaping up to be a huge year for Warner Bros., with roughly 25 movies slated for release. Among the biggest and most anticipated releases are:

– Red Riding Hood: April 22, 2011
– The Hangover 2: May 26
– Green Lantern (3D): June 17
– Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II (3D): July 15
– Journey to the Center of the Earth 2 (3D): Sept. 23
– Happy Feet 2 (3D): Nov. 18
– New Year’s Eve: Dec. 9

Meyer also made an important note that DC Comics characters are key parts of Warner’s future, teasing a July 20, 2012 release date for the Christopher Nolan’s latest Batman film, as well as a holiday season 2012 Superman film. Films featuring Wonder Woman, Aquaman and Mad magazine characters also in development.

Warner Home Video has issued its first press release in connection with the upcoming straight-to-video release of ‘Batman: Under the Red Hood.’ Available for pre-order now, but due to release on DVD and Blu-Ray July 27, 2010, the story deals with the return of Jason Todd, the second Robin who was brutally beaten to death by the Joker.

In the film, Batman faces his ultimate challenge as the mysterious Red Hood takes Gotham City by firestorm. One part vigilante, one part criminal kingpin, Red Hood begins cleaning up Gotham with the efficiency of Batman, but without following the same ethical code. And when The Joker falls in the balance between the two forces of justice, hard truths are revealed and old wounds are reopened.

Within the press release, there is some great Q&A with John DiMaggio, who was announced would be portraying  the Joker, and how his approach to giving voice to this iconic villain differs from previous efforts. Best known for his previous work as ‘Bender’ in the long-running ‘Futurama’ franchise, DiMaggio has an extensive voice-over career spanning the past decade.

With credits like Kim Possible, Samurai Jack, Teen Titans, Batman: The Brave and the Bold, The Spectacular Spider-Man, Duck Dodgers, Jackie Chan Adventures, The Penguins of Madagascar and Chowder, DiMaggio now sets his sights on the much darker role of the Joker in this all-new DC special.

Speaking specifically to his motivation and inspiration in this new role, DiMaggio’s comments give us a sneak peek at this new twist on the Joker, while paying homage to the iconic bad guy’s long and storied past. Check out some quotes straight from the man himself after the jump.

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We don’t often cover straight business news here at The Flickcast, but this one is pretty amazing. Sure, as Apple fans, we expected it to happen eventually, but not quite this quickly. As of yesterday, Apple, Inc.’s market capitalization now exceeds that of longtime “friendly” rival Microsoft.

Yes, you read that right. Apple is now worth more than Microsoft. As of the close of market yesterday, Apple’s total share value stood at $222.5 billion, while Microsoft was at $219.53 billion. What does this mean? Well, it means that in terms of market capitalization (determined by multiplying all outstanding shares by their value) the only company based in the U.S. that’s more valuable than Apple is Exxon, who’s market cap is at $278 billion.

Although this news is pretty impressive, it’s not entirely due to the awesomeness of Apple. In fact, it probably has more to do with Microsoft’s problems than Apple’s successes. Recently, Apple’s market cap has grown by less than $10 billion, while Microsoft’s has shrunk by almost $40 billion.

So, even though Apple is doing many things right, obviously Microsoft is doing more things wrong — or it is at least perceived that way by investors. But no matter how you look at it, the news is still pretty impressive. Made even more so by the fact that we can still remember a time, not that long ago, when most business stories about Apple were discussing its impending death. Nice work Mr. Jobs. Nice work indeed.

Can’t wait until November for Conan O’Brien’s red-headed mug to appear on TBS? Fear not. O’Brien, his sidekick Andy Richter, and O’Brien’s writers will be part of a one-hour TBS special  to be taped during a Chicago comedy festival next month.

Early reports state that the working title of the show will be “Team Coco Presents Conan’s Writers Live” and will be taped on June 17. Tickets for the show go on sale this Friday.

So, what will “Team Coco” be all about? According to Richter, “the writing staff will create the personality of the new talk show, so the special will give the audience a taste of what the TBS show will be.”

“Team Coco Presents Conan’s Writers Live” is scheduled to air on TBS on June 27.

For a time it looked like director Brian Singer was going to bring a reboot of Logan’s Run to the big screen. But then, the project seemed to stall as Singer’s interest turned to other projects (like Superman Returns or Battlestar Galactica). But now, it would seem the project is back on the fast track at Warner Bros. and even has a new director: Carl Rinsch.

Don’t worry if you can’t quite place the name because although he’s a big name in the commercial directing world, Rinsch has never done a feature film before. Logan’s Run would be his first. Although, he has been attached to films previously including the Alien prequel, before Ridley Scott decided he wanted that one, and 47 Ronin for Universal.

For those of you who don’t know about Logan’s Run, it was already a 1976 film starring Michael York, Jenny Agutter and Farrah Fawcett and is based on a 1967 novel by William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson. The story concerns a future society that decrees death to anyone reaching a certain age. If you try to fight this edict, you are dubbed a “runner” and hunted by a pseudo police force known as Sandmen. Logan is a Sandman who is forced to go on the run. Hence Logan’s Run.

Now that Rinsch is supposedly on board, development will turn to crafting an acceptable script. If all goes well, expect to see Logan’s Run hit theaters late next year.

Film fans everywhere probably have go-to scenes from their favorite R-rated movie running through their heads at one point or another. Pixar artist Josh Cooley took his favorite scenes one step further and turned them into classic cartoon-style in the form of a children’s book.

Cooley has been with Pixar for years now doing the storyboards for their films going as far back as Cars in 2006. His animated style has been the skeleton for many of the Pixar films, most recently Up. Now, Cooley has turned to his own blog with a series of R-Rated scenes converted to Classic Books-esque storytelling.

For the past year, Cooley has given us scenes from films such as The Professional, T2: Judgment Day, Goodfellas, and Godfather. It seems that even a publisher has taken interest in Cooley’s work and are pulling together his one-sheets to put together a full book titled Movies R Fun!

The book will reportedly be available at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con in July and possibly also at November’s APE-Con, with a release online to follow shortly thereafter. Check out some of Josh’s pieces after the jump, and keep an eye out for the book’s eventual release.

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Who doesn’t love lists? Starting this week, we’ll be bringing you a brand new regular feature in which many members of The Flickcast staff will contribute to The Flickcast Five, a list of five films, TV shows, characters, plots, or other pop culture related items that we love (or hate) the most.

This week, one of the bigger films in this year’s Summer Blockbuster season gets its national release, when Disney’s Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time hits theaters. Many know that the film is based on the classic 1989 side-scrolling game. In keeping  with the cross-genre of gaming and films we bring you our very first Flickcast Five: Video Game Movies. This time, it’s ones we love.

There have been plenty of flops in the genre, from films like Super Mario Brothers with Bob Hoskins, to Double Dragon with Scott Wolf and Alyssa Milano. While not all of them are watchable, most of them are enjoyable, and some are even accurate to the source material that we’ve spent hours, if not days and weeks, trying to complete.

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Earlier this week, we brought you three exciting new clips from the upcoming Disney blockbuster Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. We got our first look at the drama between Dastan (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Nizam (Ben Kingsley), as well as some of the immense action that the film plans to deliver.

Today, we’re bringing you even more. The screenplay comes from Boaz Yakin who was set to originally write the Batman Year One project directed by Darren Aronofsky. That film later became Chris Nolan’s Batman Begins. Also, the team of Doug Miro and Carlo Bernard helped move the Prince script along. They also wrote the script for Disney’s upcoming The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.

In the clips today, we get our first look at Alfred Molina in the film, sporting a spiffy tan. Also, we get a bit more action and roof-jumping from Gyllenhaal’s Dastan, and a cool “Sand Trap” scene showing off some of the CG effects of the film.

Check out those clips after the jump. Catch Disney’s Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time as early as midnight tonight across the U.S.

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It looks like we can add Oscar winner Diane Keaton to the list of actors making the transition from big to small screen. According to EW, she will be teaming up with Ellen Page for a new HBO half-hour comedy called Tilda.

The show, which in produced by Bill Condon, centers on a powerful and much-feared Hollywood blogger who may or may not be based on Deadline’s Nikki Finke. It will also feature Page as Carolyn, Tilda’s “morally conflicted” assistant.

The case reportedly came together after months of negotiations. What finally sealed the deal may never be publically known but whatever it was, HBO must have offered quite a lot to secure Keaton’s participation. Not to take anything away from Page but as stars go, Keaton is on another level entirely.

Tilda will start shooting next month in Los Angeles with a planned launch on HBO sometime early next year.