It’s no surprise that director Matthew Vaughn likes to work with people he’s established a relationship with. He used actor Jason Flemyng in Layer Cake, Stardust and even Kick-Ass. Vaughn brought writer Jane Goldman onto Kick-Ass and now X-Men: First Class after they worked together on Stardust. Now he’s doing it again as Kick-Ass star Aaron Johnson has just been cast to play Cyclops in First Class.

It’s really not much of a surprise, given Vaugn’s casting decisions with previous roles. According to a tip received by Aint it Cool, the part is pretty much 100% locked down for the Kick-Ass star.

This would be the second comic book role for Johnson, even though he put down critics who were asking him about doing another film in the genre, saying that “just because I’m doing one, doesn’t mean I’ll do others.” It seems that the right amount on a check made him eat those words.

Johnson will be joining an already star-studded cast of James McAvoy as Professor X, Alice Eve (She’s Out of My League) as Emma Frost, and Michael Fassbender (Inglorious Basterds) as Magneto. Other rumored casting names Amber Heard as Mystique, and Benjamin Walker as Hank McCoy aka Beast.

With the film expected to hit theaters in less than a year — June 3, 2011 — you can be sure we’ll hear plenty of casting news in the days leading up to this year’s San Diego Comic-Con. Of course, we’ll be sure to bring them to you.

It’s Emmy time and the nominations were announced this morning in LA at the Academy of Arts & Sciences for the 62nd annual awards show. It was a big day for HBO as it’s show The Pacific received the most nominations with 24.

Other shows nominated for several awards include Fox’s Glee with 19 nominations, AMC’s Mad Men with 17, NBC’s 30 Rock and HBO’s Temple Grandin and You Don’t Know Jack with 15 each, ABC’s Modern Family with 14 and NBC’s Saturday Night Live with 12.

Also nominated in a big way was ABC’s Dancing With The Stars with 9, Showtime’s Nurse Jackie with 8, CBS’ Two And A Half Men with 6, CBS’ Big Bang Theory with 5. HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm, CBS’ How I Met Your Mother and NBC’s The Office all tied with 4.

As it often does, HBO led with 101 nominations total. ABC, with 63 nominations, received the most for any broadcast network followed by CBS with 57, NBC with 48, FOX with 47, and mighty PBS with 32.

All in all it seems like quite a diverse group of shows were nominated this year and we congratulate all of the nominees. Plus, it’s nice to see people finally get recognized for their work including Kyle Chandler of Friday Night Lights as well as Betty White with her 20th nomination for hosting Saturday Night Live.

Click through for more nominees and be sure to check out the official Emmy site for more. The 62nd annual Primetime Emmy Awards air on August 29, 2010 on NBC.

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We’re all pretty big fans places and things where technology and Hollywood meet, so we felt it was pretty necessary to bring attention to this brand new mobile app from Best Buy. It’s called Movie Mode, and it’s a new way to enjoy films in the theaters, starting with this Friday’s release of Despicable Me.

The app syncs directly with the audio of the film, and will enhance the experience by giving you a little something to do during the end credits, aside from waiting for the expected post-credits sequence. From a Best Buy:

Available as a free download, Best Buy Movie Mode comes to life via “The Minionator,” created as part of an exclusive collaboration with Universal Pictures and tied to the July 9 release of its must-see RealD 3-D CGI feature “Despicable Me” produced by Chris Meledandri.

“The Minionator” is Movie Mode’s first film enhancing experience and offers fans a deeper connection to “Despicable Me” by translating for audiences what the film’s mischievous little yellow characters, the Minions, are saying. The app acts as a translator during the 3-D theatrical end credits for the special language of the Minions. The app will also translate the Minion language throughout the entire movie on Best Buy’s exclusive “Despicable Me” DVD released later this year.

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It’s nice to see when a classic-style sitcom still has a place in a world of shows like Community and The Office. It seems that there are still fans out there of timeless in-studio laughter as TV Land has given another 20 episodes to the new sitcom Hot in Cleveland starring Betty White and Valerie Bertinelli.

The premise surrounds a group of shallow, attractive women living in Los Angeles who get stranded in Cleveland, Ohio after a plane delay. They come to realize that they’re the best looking women in the small town, and are worshiped as such.

Whether it’s the ongoing popularity of Betty White or the continuous guest stars the show has brought in such as Carl Reiner and George Newbern, It’s hard to say what sparked the massive fan response, but the show debuted with an incredible 4.8 million viewers, making it the most-watched sitcom on cable history.

Beyond that, the following episodes have still landed numbers in the mid 3 million range, which is still quite impressive for a cable network. TV Land, which is hoping to use this as a springboard for much more original content, has given the series an amazing 20 episodes in the upcoming season, which is currently scheduled to air in January of next year.

There are many things you can say about the fans of the Twilight franchise, but they are most certainly loyal. It will be quite interesting to see how far that loyalty goes, as the creators of Meet The Spartans and Disaster Movie set their sites on the world of Vampire Romance with Vampires Suck.

Folks may remember writers Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer as two of the original writers of the Scary Movie franchise who broke off to take on other popular genres in such films as Date Movie and Disaster Movie. The films don’t cost very much, and are done relatively quickly and vampires and Twilight are hot right now so why wouldn’t a studio greenlight a film like this?

Vampires Suck pretty much takes on Twilight in all of it’s sparkly vampire glory, with a few other popular topics thrown in there for good measure such as Jersey Shore and Lady Gaga. Thankfully, the film features Ken Jeong, which may just be a redeeming factor…for some.

The film is set to release on August 18th, and you can check out the very first trailer after the jump. Enjoy.

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“I’m a dying man, scared of the dark.”

I’ve put off watching The Shootist for a long time.  It has such a weighty legend hanging over it.   It’s John Wayne’s final film, and features melancholy appearances from a lot of  greats such as Jimmy Stewart and Richard Boone. Even Humphrey Bogart’s ghost looms over it because of Lauren Bacall’s sad and spare performance.  Even the horse figures prominently — Dollar was Wayne’s favorite horse, and its appearance was a condition of his doing the film.

My goal was to watch (or rewatch) all of Wayne’s Westerns before tackling this one.   But it’s been hanging on my DVR for a few weeks, tempting me, and I decided to stop putting it off.  Wayne died several years before I was born. There’s a finite amount of his movies any way you slice it, and why put off the inevitable?

Which is, of course, what The Shootist is about.  Acceptance.   It’s a powerful film. No matter how you feel about Wayne, it’s a moving portrait and one of his best performances.   We all know Wayne wasn’t the most nuanced or gifted actor. He played himself.

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Last week in ‘Countdown to …’ we launched a new Q&A format, exploring what San Diego Comic-Con is like for the typical exhibitor. You know, those hard-working and creative artists that manage to secure a booth every year? This week, The Flickcast sat down with Melody Severns, a veteran skater with the L.A. Derby Dolls who has worked on ‘King of the Hill,’ both  ’The Simpsons’ TV show and ‘Simpsons Movie’ as well as being the founder of GirlsDrawinGirls, a group of  over 90 active female artists.

The group provides collaborative projects for its artists (such as book collections, group art shows, and opportunities to participate in charity art events such as the Pasadena Chalk Festival), in addition to promoting each member’s individual artistic endeavors through cross-promotion and marketing prints, original artwork and other art-related merchandise. You can find Melody and many of the girls at booth #5429, or look them up in the official guide under ‘GirlsDrawinGirls.’

Without further ado, let’s find out what the Con is like from Melody’s perspective as an exhibitor, what are some of her likes and dislikes regarding the Con itself and what she looks forward to this year at SDCC 2010.

The Flickcast: San Diego Comic-Con 2010 is less than a month away, what are you and your artist associates doing to get prepared as an exhibitor?

Melody Severns: Right now we are currently waiting with great anticipation for the release of our new book, ‘GirlsDrawinGirls: Vol. 3: Sugar and Spice.’  The book will be released along with our opening reception on July 9 at the Animation Guild’s gallery in Burbank, CA.

The book will also premiere at comic con.  I’m really excited about it.  We got stunt woman, and actress, Zoe Bell to write the foreword, and I’m telling you, this looks like our best book yet!

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Feeling left out of the Twitter fun as a user of a Blackberry device? Are you a bit jealous of your iPhone and Android using friends who get to have fun using the official Twitter app for their respective devices? If so, your day has finally come because the folks at Twitter have released the “official” app for Blackberry too.

Late last night, Twitter for BlackBerry smartphones started to roll out into a full launch. The application reportedly features many user requested bug fixes, tweaks and feature additions received from users during the app’s long Beta period.

Here’s what you can expect from this app:

“Go to User” – the ability to access any user’s profile from anywhere in the application using auto-complete functionality for followers.
Push Notifications for Direct Messages
Timeline Support
Following and Followers
Posting, Sending, Deleting , Replying and Retweeting Tweets
User/Saved/Keyword/Proximity Search
Tweet Photos/Links
Trending Topics
Seamless integration into core BlackBerry applications
URL Shortening
Auto-Update

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Being in the movie game, there is very little that surprises us anymore. We hear about a sequel to Avatar or a reboot of Spider-Man and it barely garners a raised eyebrow. On the opposite of that, sometimes a movie comes along completely out of left field. That movie is called Operation: Endgame and we can’t wait to see it.

Originally titled Rogues Gallery, the film is an action comedy about two rival spy factions that face off in an epic spy game. Are you ready for the exciting part? The cast consists of the following names: Rob Corddry, Zach Galifiniakis, Odette Yustman (Cloverfield), Bob Odenkirk, Jeffrey Tambor, Maggie Q, Adam Scott (Party Down), Emilie de Ravin, and Ving Rhames. Think of it as a live action version of FX’s Archer.

The most shocking part? You won’t be rushing to the theaters to see this film. It’s actually going straight to Blu-ray and DVD on July 27th. That’s right, possibly one of the most exciting films we’ve heard about in a while isn’t even getting a theatrical release.

Check out the first red band trailer (thanks to Trailer Addict) for the film after the jump, and you’ll know what we’re talking about. We’ll be sure to keep you posted on any and all news about this upcoming action comedy.

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From the very announcement of the title, Transformers: War for Cybertron had a lot of pressure on it. For the first time in easily over a decade, fans of the original series have been given a chance to experience a new canonical tale of the true Transformers universe. And this story isn’t one that real fans would want taken lightly.

Transformers: War for Cybertron covers what happens before Optimus and his Autobots come to Earth and continue their war against the Decepticons. This game is almost like what the Phantom Menace is to Star Wars… Scratch that since I actually like Transformers: War for Cybertron.

Gameplay

Transformers: War for Cybertron plays out as a third person shooter with the addition of transforming robots. The gameplay comes across as almost brutally simple at times. There is no character advancement throughout levels and most of the characters play very similarly with only a few changes in weapons and special abilities.

With a push of the left analog stick, characters transform into their vehicle form which are basic variations of cars and tanks, except for the two levels of the campaign where players play as the jet fighter Transformers. These play very similarly to all other vehicles except for the ability to stop and hover in mid-air.

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This week on The Flickcast, after a week off last week, the boys are back with an all new show. This time around things area bit different as Matt is now a resident of the West Coast and both he and Chris are doing the show in the same room. Let the hilarity ensue.

In addition to all the comedy, topics such as the new Spider-Man, problems with the iPhone 4, the new Harry Potter movie, Twilight: Eclipse, The Last Airbender, Hollywood’s strange accounting practices and a whole lot more get discussed and debated. Chris and Matt also make some new picks this week including Matt’s pick of the TNT’s new show Memphis Beat and Chris’ pick of the 1973 Charlton Heston starrer Soylent Green.

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.

During The Flickcast’s set visit to USA Network’s new series Covert Affairs we spoke with Executive Producer Doug Liman about the origins of the show. Following that we had the opportunity to speak with three of the show’s regulars, Christopher Gorham (Ugly Betty, Harper’s Island), Anne Dudek (House, Mad Men) and Piper Perabo (The Prestige, Coyote Ugly).  All the interviews took place on the Covert Affairs sets in Toronto, Canada.

Playing to the extreme opposite of Christopher Gorham’s CIA Officer, Auggie Anderson, is Anne Dudek as Danielle.  Older sister to Piper Perabo’s lead character of Annie Walker, Dudek balances the intense CIA action with a life in which the biggest challenge is getting her kids to school on time.

Don’t let the pedestrian existence of domestic bliss fool you, Dudek explains the critical part she plays in the world of Covert Affairs:

“I mean you know the sisterly relationship that, it’s a little more than that because Danielle sort of feels motherly in a way that’s a little inappropriate towards Annie.

But then also, Annie really needs Danielle and they really do need each other.  And so I think it’s sort of like well, there’s this huge lie in the middle of this really vital relationship.

And what would happen if that really came out?  But everything Danielle knows about her sister is like a complete lie and that’s what’s being built is this web of lies.  And so it is a support system that if it breaks down, I mean, it’s going to be really, really bad news.”

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