by Matt Raub, Aug 12 2010 // 9:00 AM
It feels like only yesterday when we were cursing the names of Jay Leno and NBC for what happened to Conan O’Brien and the entire Tonight Show fiasco. Here we are, 8 months later and Conan is already getting prepped for his new home on TBS.
The late night comedian signed a deal back in April to be the host of his very own show over on the cable network. The show pushes George Lopez’s show to midnight every night, but Lopez was more than happy with the deal as long as it meant O’Brien got to be his lead-in.
While the show is set to start as early as November, TBS has already started prepping their audience with a new 10 second spot. It may only be 10 seconds, but it manages to promote Conan in a bizarre Monty Python-esque way, which seems to be right down our alley.
O’Brien has already stated that he’s bringing his sidekick Andy Richter along for the show, as well as many of his writers that came with him from Late Night and even The Tonight Show. You can expect to see an official premiere date to draw closer, but as for now, we’ll just have to take our Conan dose in the form of a 10 second ad.
Check it out after the jump.
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Posted in: Comedy · Late Night · NBC · Networks · News · TBS · TV · TV Ratings · Video
Tagged: Andy Richter, Conan O'Brien, Jay Leno, Late Night, NBC, TBS, The Tonight Show, Very Funny
by Joe Gillis, Aug 12 2010 // 8:00 AM
Some could say that one of the best elements of 2008′s Cloverfield was the immense viral marketing and alternate reality games that lead up to the film’s release. It seems that the same marketing team behind that film is at it again for J.J. Abram’s upcoming sci-fi thriller Super 8.
The film’s plot is shrouded in a good amount of mystery, but what we’ve gleaned is that the story follows two young men who capture something they weren’t meant to see on a super 8 home video camera, which leads to all kinds of chaos.
A few months back, an ARG popped up site that seems to be made for the film over at www.scariestthingieversaw.com. Once clicked on, the site becomes a vintage code screen that takes you to a dead end after about 5 minutes of execution lines. There are tons of different commands that take you to several puzzling files, but overall the site was done as a major viral marketing plan.
One of the cool things at the viral site is if you enter the command .PRINT SCOM8. Two sheets are sent to your printer of a vintage newspaper with an ad for The Rocket Poppeteeers. If you signed up, you’d get a letter welcoming you as a new member of the Poppeteer Astronaut Program.
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Posted in: Action · Movies · News · Paramount · Sci-Fi · Thriller · Viral Marketing · Web
Tagged: Cloverfield, J.J Abrams, Movies, Rocekt Poppeteers, Steven Spielberg, Super 8
by John Carle, Aug 12 2010 // 7:00 AM
At Comic-Con, we had some time to spend talking with the developers and getting some more hands on exposure to DC Universe Online. In addition to talking to Executive Creative Director on the game Jim Lee, we also got to talk to some of the more hands on members of the team.
Up until this point, the focus of the DC Universe Online message has been your own character’s adventure with interaction with the iconic characters. What they are looking to do now is have a mentor method where to learn from the Iconic characters such as Batman, players must experience what it’s like to be them.
The result is the competitive versus mode that allows for players to take on the role of characters like Batman or the Joker and go up against other players in order to advance as characters. The theory is that by playing as these characters, players will better understand their strengths and weaknesses, their strategies and their tactics. These matches go from 2 vs. 2 to up to 16 vs. 16. The game modes will include territories, capture the flag and sabotage.
It also allows for quick jump in and jump out gameplay for a player who only has a few minutes to play and doesn’t have the time to complete a full thirty or more minute quest in the game. Players gain PvP points that can be spent later on unlocking other characters or their character’s raid suit.
At release, Robin and Harley will be available for players for the heroes and villains sides respectively. Gaining currency, players can then unlock Nightwing, Bane and Huntress, eventually unlocking the Joker at the highest levels. As a bonus to people pre-ordering the game, Batman will be available to them from the start.
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Posted in: Comic-Con · Games · Hands-On · News · PC Games · Playstation 3 · PlayStationNetwork · Sony · Trailers · Video Games
Tagged: DC, dc comics, DC Universe Online, Hands On, Harley Quinn, Lex Luthor, MMO, Nightwing, PC Games, Playstation 3, Robin, San Diego Comic Con 2010, SDCC, SDCC 2010, SDCC10, SOE, Sony Online Entertainment, Super Man, Tagged: Batman, Video Games
by Elisabeth Rappe, Aug 11 2010 // 4:45 PM

As I’ve made way through the Western genre, I’ve had one silly hope — that I’d stumble on some awesome, forgotten, cultish series that centered on a female gunfighter. The Quick and the Dead couldn’t be the only one, could it? Surely Sam Raimi had a stash of some spaghetti westerns he drew from?
Obviously, there isn’t such a series. I’ve met many a tough broad in the genre (I mean that in the most complimentary of ways) but other than Doris Day’s Calamity Jane (a write up that will come eventually) or Jane Fonda’s Cat Ballou, lady gunslingers are in short supply. Thankfully, Sharon Stone has some competition in Raquel Welch and Hannie Caulder.
Hannie Caulder’s origin story is predictable pulp — her husband is killed, and the outlaws responsible promptly gang rape her. Caulder strides out of her burning house with only a blanket to her name, and vows to get revenge.
Luck delivers her a bounty hunter in Thomas Luther Price (Robert Culp) who reluctantly agrees to train her in the art of killing. He also buys her a pair of pants (but not, it seems, a shirt) and takes her to Mexico where she can have a pistol made by Bailey the gunsmith (Christopher Lee).
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Posted in: Features · News · Reviews · Western Wednesdays
Tagged: Christoper Lee, Hannie Caulder, Raquel Welch, Robert Culp, Western Wednesday, Western Wednesdays
by Chris Ullrich, Aug 11 2010 // 3:00 PM
It’s poster day here at the site and now we’ve got another for you. Previously, we brought you the first trailer for the latest, and presumably last, installment of the Saw franchise now known as Saw 3D. In that trailer we were treated to a lot of the same torture porn images, intricate traps and the rest of what you would expect from a Saw film.
The biggest difference with this latest one is that it brings back some of the cast of the other films including Carey Elwes, Betsy Russelly, Costas Mandylor and Jigsaw himself Tobin Bell. To demonstrate that, we’ve got a new poster for the movie (sent to us by Lionsgate and first debuted on MTV.com) featuring Bell in glorious 3D and complete with exploding head.
The movie tells the story of Jigsaw’s survivors who seek the support of self-help guru and fellow survivor Bobby Dagen (Sean Patrick Flanery). Unfortunately, Dagen is a man with his own secrets and dark past and as a battle for Jigsaw’s legacy ensues, a new wave of terror is unleashed.
Director Kevin Greutert returns for this movie as well as previous Saw franchise writers Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton, who wrote Saw IV, Saw V and Saw VI as well as the very good The Collector.
Check out the full poster in all its 3D glory after the jump. Saw 3D takes your lunch money and tortures you to death on October 29th.
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Posted in: Horror · Lionsgate · News · Posters · Prequels and Sequels
Tagged: Carey Elwes, Costas Mandylor, Horror, Jigsaw, Kevin Greutert, Lionsgate, Marcus Dunstan, Patrick Melton, Saw, Saw 3D, Sean Patrick Flannery, The Collector, Tobin Bell, Young Indiana Jones
by John Carle, Aug 11 2010 // 2:00 PM
In the competitive video game industry, companies like to be able to brag about the accomplishments they have achieved. Nintendo was able to proudly say that they have reached the milestone of selling 30 million units of the Nintendo Wii in North America alone. What does that mean? It means that even if you only took into effect a $200 price point, which a majority of Wii’s still sold at the original $250 price point, Nintendo has banked over $6 billion in sales. Just try to fathom that number. That is more than the GDP of many small nations.
The Wii also sets the record for being the fastest selling console to reach 30 million mark in only 45 months. The next fastest selling console took a full 60 months to reach that same number, over a year longer.
It’s quite an impressive milestone for a console that doesn’t appeal much to the hardcore market since they are often the ones spending the most on luxuries like video games during a down economy. It is also kind of shocking at of the top 10 First and Third Party games in terms of sales (shown below), most of the titles are geared at the casual market. While Microsoft and Sony battle back and forth over the hardcore audience, forcing them to split their funds picking one side over the other, Nintendo has the casual market all to itself.
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Posted in: Games · News · Nintendo · Video Games
Tagged: News, Nintendo, Video Games, Wii
by Chris Ullrich, Aug 11 2010 // 1:00 PM
Let’s be honest, Hollywood puts out a lot of crap these days. Sure, they do manage to bring out a few interesting or compelling ones but for every Inception, Star Trek or Toy Story 3 you get countless other movies like Twelve, The Last Airbender, Dinner for Schmucks or pretty much anything featuring Nicholas Cage.
Another movie that belongs on the “good” list is Gareth Edwards’ Monsters. I first saw the film at this year’s South by Southwest Film Festival and gave it a very positive review. The film was subsequently picked up for distribution and as a result we’ve started to get promotional materials for it, starting recently with the first trailer.
Now, we’ve also got the first official poster for the film to share with you today. In it, we get a sense of what the film is about and also get a look at the main characters. Having seen the film already, I feel this poster does a good job of capturing the film’s essence. Kudos to the marketing department for putting this together.
Monsters is a very good film worth all the attention it will most certainly get. Check out a larger version of the poster after the jump and be sure to see Monsters when it hit theaters on October 29th.
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Posted in: Horror · Movies · News · Posters · Sci-Fi
Tagged: Gareth Edwards, Horror, Magnet Releasing, Monsters, Posters, Sci-Fi, Scoot McNairy, Vertigo Films, Whitney Able
by Matt Raub, Aug 11 2010 // 12:00 PM
There aren’t a lot of movie or TV franchises that help shape the world of science fiction for all future properties. Star Wars and Star Trek obviously had a lot of influence, as did others like Blade Runner or even, to a lesser extent, the more recent Avatar. One show that should not be overlooked on this list is the 1980′s series Max Headroom.
The show took the concept of cyber terrorism and technological advances to a whole new level at the time, opening the doors to loads of references to the subject of subliminal messages in a media driven world. Taking place “20 minutes in the future,” the show follows hard news journalist Edison Carter, who gets taken out during a sting to uncover a new subliminal commercial that kills it’s viewers.
The company that obtains Carter attempts to expose downloads his memories into a computer-generated program (years before this was common to us geeks) which calls itself Max Headroom. From there, the show’s focus falls mainly on Headroom and his comedic “Greek chorus” narration of the episode.
The cast alone was enough to get any non-fan interested. Featuring a pretty geek-friendly cast lead by Matt Frewer, who true nerds remember from Watchmen and the Fox TV movie Generation X. Along for the ride is the late SNL member Charles Rocket, love interest from the epic Flash TV series, Amanda Pays, and the always lovable Jeffrey Tambor as “Murray.”
The show became more than law to many sci-fi and fiction fans at the time, years before things like Quantum Leap and VR-5 dominated the minds of fans everywhere. For years, people would have to get their Max Headroom fix from brief clips on YouTube and rundown copies in basement comic conventions. Not any more, as Shout! Factory released the complete series on DVD for the first time yesterday.
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Posted in: Action · Comedy · Drama · DVD · DVD Reviews · Exclusive · Fandom · Features · News · Sci-Fi · TV
Tagged: Amanda Pays, Arrested Development, Charles Rocket, Generation X, Jeffrey Tambor, Matt Frewer, Max Headroom, Shout! Factory, The Flash, Watchmen
by Joe Gillis, Aug 11 2010 // 11:00 AM
This week on The Flickcast Chris and Matt dive into a whole bunch of topics for your listening pleasure. Among these are the new Netflix movie deal, the first pictures of Green Lantern’s mentor, the awesomeness of Gamefly, the original Star Trek pilots, the leaked final episode of Lost, the last season of Entourage, new True Blood info, Fringe season three and much more.
The boys also made some new picks this week including Matt’s pick of Rob Corddry’s Children’s Hospital and Chris’ pick of the Showtime series Dexter, featuring Michael C. Hall, Julie Benz and James Remar.
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.
Posted in: Podcasts
Tagged: Dexter, Entourage, Episode 66, Fringe, Gamefly, Green Lantern, Julie Benz, Leonard Nimoy, Lost, Michael C. Hall, Peter Sarsgaard, Rob Corddry, Ryan Reynolds, Showtime, Star Trek, True Blood
by Joe Gillis, Aug 11 2010 // 10:00 AM
This year at Comic-Con, one of the cooler features of the show didn’t actually take place on the con floor, but just outside of it, as Universal set up a machine outside that released several people-shaped bubbles into the heavens. Nobody had any idea what this meant, or what the movie even was, until now.
The first trailer for Skyline directed by The Brothers Strause, visual effects masters involved with such films as Iron Man, Jonah Hex, 2012, Bedtime Stories, Avatar and more, has hit the Interwebs. And we, of course, have it for you to watch.
Basically the film is about two guys who, hungover, walk outside after a late night party to see their world overrun by alien spacecrafts. People are drawn outside of their homes by a light that then sucks them up into the air.
The imagery itself is quite impressive, so we’ll see if the rest of the film can carry the weight. Even though the brothers have little directing experience, at the very least, you know the film will look pretty.
Check out the first full trailer of the film after the jump. Be sure to catch Skyline in theaters everywhere on November 12th.
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Posted in: Action · Movies · News · Sci-Fi · Trailers · Universal Pictures
Tagged: Aliens, Brothers Strause, Eric Balfour, Rogue Pictures, Sci-Fi, Skyline, Trailers, Universal Pictures
by Erik Jensen, Aug 11 2010 // 9:00 AM
Seems like there’s been a non-stop parade of hot new Android-powered phones releasing in 2010. We reported on the Droid Incredible back in April, the ginormous Droid X with its drool-worthy screen back in June, but check out what Motorola is about to release on Verizon customers now. The all-new Droid 2, an update on the Droid that started it all.
Unlike the Incredible and the X, the new Droid 2 has an improved flip-out keyboard, a must for texting and emailing enthusiasts. I have to say, as a Droid Incredible user, I long for a real keyboard every single time I have to pound out more than a few words on my virtual keyboard. The Droid X at least has a much larger screen and consequently a much larger virtual keyboard, but there just is no comparison to how efficient you can be with a real keyboard.
The specs are reminiscent of the original Droid, but updated in some key areas: Android 2.2 (AKA “Froyo”), 3.7″ touch-screen, 3G Mobile HotSpot capability, Flash Player 10.1, an enhanced 5MP-cam with image-stabilization, dual LED flash and DVD-quality video capture, 8GB of onboard memory and a 8GB microSD card and onboard DLNA media sharing.
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Posted in: Gear · Geek · News · Star Wars · Tech
Tagged: Android, Droid 2, Google, HTC, Motorola, Motorola Droid 2, R2D2 Droid, Smartphones
by Matt Raub, Aug 11 2010 // 8:00 AM
We all love seeing what antics Vinnie Chase and his crew get into every week on HBO’s long-running series Entourage. But it seems that the network has had enough, as their bringing the show to an end after a short-run of episodes next season.
The show, which started back in 2004, follows actor Vincent Chase (Adrian Grenier), a rising star in the center of Hollywood, and his rag-tag group of friends he brought along from his Queens neighborhood. The highlights over the past 6 years have been watching Vince star in the fictitious blockbuster adaptation of Aquaman, sleeping with just about every popular actress in her twenties, and watching the tirades of Chase’s eccentric agent, Ari Gold (Jeremy Piven).
According to HBO programming president Michael Lombardo, the next season will be a short run of only about 6 episodes, but this may not be the last we see of the Entourage world.
“[Creator Doug Ellin] is appropriately reserving — he wants to write a film, but wants to do it when the story will make sense. He’s pitched other shows to us. I will expect that within the next couple years [he'll have another show on HBO].”
With the show having a huge success on HBO, the transition to film wouldn’t be that difficult. Though, this could be the same thing we heard about a possible Sopranos spin-off film a few years back. It looks like for the immediate future, we’ll have to take in as much as we can of Vince, E, Turtle, Drama, and Ari every Sunday at 10:30 on HBO.
Posted in: Comedy · Drama · HBO · Movies · News · TV
Tagged: Arian Grenier, Doug Ellin, Entourage, HBO, Jeremy Piven, Kevin Connolly, Kevin Dillon, Michael Lombardo