Let the speculation and artist renderings end as we now have the first “official” look at Chris Evens in costume as Captain America in the upcoming film. The pic, which graces the cover of the upcoming issue of Entertainment Weekly, shows Evans in costume, mask off and shield at the ready.

Based on this pic it seems his costume design is quite close to the early concept sketches that leaked online earlier this summer. But its not only the cover of the magazine we’re interested in as Evans also spoke about accepting the role in the film and admitted his reluctance about taking it on.

“At the time, I remember telling a buddy of mine, ‘If the movie bombs, I’m f—ed. If the movie hits, I’m f—ed,’” said Evans, who admitted that his reluctance was based entirely on fear. “I realized my whole decision making process was fear based, and you never want to make a decision out of fear.”

“I was just scared,” he added. “I can’t believe I was almost too chicken to play Captain America.”

Director Joe Johnston, however, had no such reservations about Evans as he described the character as “. . .  an everyman who in the course of a few minutes become a perfect human specimen. That has to create some interesting personal issues.” Good point Mr. Johnston.

Now that we’ve seen Evans as Captain America, what do we think? Also, take a look at a slightly bigger version of the photo after the jump.

Continue Reading →

Back at Comic-Con, Castle creator Andrew Marlowe spilled the beans on a Nick Fury script he had written for Marvel. Last we heard he was still tweaking it and about to hand it over to the studio, and it looks like that’s exactly what he’s done.

We recently got a chance to catch up with Marlowe in between scenes on the set of ABC’s Castle to discuss his plan for the first agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. and he believes a Fury movie based on his script has great potential.

It’s been in Marvel’s hands for a while. They’re point of view is that Nick has never supported his own comic book. It’s only been special runs or one-shots.

I think that they have questions whether the audience will show up for a character if they spent $150-$200 million on a movie. Crashing the helicarrier? Very expensive.

My script was more along the lines in a Steranko mode. Like the American James Bond. I think with Sam Jackson, they’ve gone in a different direction from my script, but I think that if that character continues to excite audiences, I think that there are ways to do it. I haven’t read The Avengers script yet, but I know they guys at Marvel are smart in terms of the intersection of the creativity, the fun, and the commerce of it all.

Right now, it’s in their very capable hands, and I have faith in them.

Continue Reading →

Popular book-seller Barnes & Noble has announced a new successor to their color-screen e-reader dubbed the ‘NOOKcolor.’ Retailing for $249 and expected to begin shipping on November 19, the newest version sports some interesting improvements over the first model.

Unlike Amazon’s Kindle, which is a pure e-reader fitted with a dedicated high-contrast E Ink Screen, the NOOKcolor has eschewed the excellent legibility and glare-resistance of such a display, instead opting for a 7-inch color touchscreen. And the differences don’t end there. The latest Nook device is truly more of an Android Tablet than e-reader, which from a product-positioning standpoint seems a little odd. It’s almost as if Barnes and Noble decided to position their product somewhere between the Kindle and the iPad, but in the process are losing the primary advantages of a dedicated e-reader: low-cost and extreme legibility even in direct sunlight.

I will leave it to consumers to decide if they need yet another Android-powered tablet device and instead focus on what the NOOKcolor brings to the table. Sporting a 7″ full-color touchscreen, the NOOKcolor comes standard with a full browser, the LendMe™ feature which allows owners of the devices to lend each other books, some social networking hooks to easily recommend books to your friends on Twitter or Facebook, and of course, access to over two million titles.

Continue Reading →

Just when you think Robert Rodriguez is going to zig, he zags. Unlike his friend and mentor, Tarantino, who puts out an artistically written film once every four years, Rodriguez is constantly reinventing himself, claiming domain over genres ranging from ultra violent exploitation films to 3D family flicks.

It looks like he’s doing a bit of fan service in both directions now with the casting for Spy Kids 4: All the Time in the World. It’s been recently confirmed that Rodriguez has obtained Jessica Alba, Jeremy Piven, and Community’s Joel McHale to star in the film, with actors like Alexa Vega, Antonio Banderas, and Danny Trejo to return. Here’s the rundown of the film from the studio.

On the surface, Marissa Cortez Wilson (Jessica Alba) has it all…married to a famous spy hunting television reporter, a new baby and intelligent twin step kids. But in reality, trying to mother Rebecca (Rowan Blanchard) and Cecil (Mason Cook), who clearly don’t want her around, is her toughest challenge yet. Also, her husband, Wilbur (Joel McHale), wouldn’t know a spy if he lived with one which is exactly the case – Marissa’s a retired secret agent.

Marissa’s world is turned upside down when the maniacal Timekeeper (Jeremy Piven) threatens to take over the planet and she’s called back into action by the head of OSS, home of the greatest spies and where the now-defunct Spy Kids division was created. With Armageddon quickly approaching, Rebecca and Cecil are thrust into action when they learn their boring stepmom was once a top agent and now the world’s most competitive ten year olds are forced to put their bickering aside and rely on their wits.

With a little help from a couple of very familiar Spy Kids, Carmen (Alexa Vega) and Juni Cortez (Daryl Sabara), and some mind-blowing gadgets, they just may be able to save the world and possibly bring their family together while they’re at it.

Continue Reading →

Every once in a while, Chris and Matt go off and gallivant, leaving their hosting duties in the dust for a brief period of time. That may be the case this week, but we didn’t want to leave you hanging.

In it’s place, we present to you a short list of some great classic episodes of The Flickcast to hold you over until next week, when we return with a brand new episode. Check them out, and be sure to subscribe to us on iTunes!

The Flickcast – Episode 73: Waiting for Superman

The Flickcast – Episode 67: A XXX Parody

The Flickcast – Episode 34: Avengers Assemble

The Flickcast – Best of 2009 Special

The Flickcast – Episode 42: Absolute Justice

The Flickcast – Episode 54: First Class

The Flickcast – Episode 49: Go Go Godzilla

The Flickcast – Episode 17: Comic-Con or Bust!

The Flickcast – Episode 16: The Quest for Peace

The Flickcast – Episode 11: Beyond Cyberspace

James Cameron’s been a busy guy. Between raking in millions for Avatar, and talking about his plans to recreate that with another sequel or two, the man’s got plenty going on. So why wouldn’t he want to executive produce a brand new adventure about a few folks trapped in a cave?

There aren’t any aliens in this one, but the synopsis and trailer do give a bit of an Abyss vibe. Here’s the rundown.

When a tropical storm forces them deep into the caverns, they must fight raging water, deadly terrain and creeping panic as they search for an unknown escape route to the sea. Master diver Frank McGuire (Richard Roxburgh) has explored the South Pacific’s Esa-ala Caves for months. But when his exit is cut off in a flash flood, Frank’s team–including 17-year-old son Josh (Rhys Wakefield) and financier Carl Hurley (Ioan Gruffudd)–are forced to radically alter plans.

With dwindling supplies, the crew must navigate an underwater labyrinth to make it out. Soon, they are confronted with the unavoidable question: Can they survive, or will they be trapped forever?

Before you even ask, you had better believe that the film will be in Real D 3D (now a Cameron trademark), so be prepared to pop on those bulky plastic glasses on February 4th. In the meantime, check out the trailer after the jump.

Continue Reading →

Yesterday, we brought you 3 clips from tomorrow night’s episode of Community in which the students of Greendale Community College become members of the living dead. Today, we’ve got a few more lighthearted clips for you in which the gang get to try out some of their favorite costumes for this year’s festivities.

We all remember some of the great costumes from last year’s Halloween episode, such as Chevy Chase’s Master of the Universe, Donald Glover’s Eddie Murphy, or even Danny Pudi’s Christian Bale. This year, things only get better with even more obscure costumes.

Community may not be doing as well as it could in the ratings, but that hasn’t stopped this season from being one of the funniest shows currently running on TV. Be sure to support it by catching this all-new episode Thursday night at 8/7C on NBC.

In the meantime, check out these three new clips from the episode after the jump.

Continue Reading →

In a time when it sounds like a good idea to studio executives to rerelease classic films in 3D, it’s nice to see a simple gesture done to a classic set of films like upgrading them to 1080p that really makes you appreciate the times we live in.

That’s exactly what 20th Century Fox’s Home Entertainment brand did when they released the original Robocop trilogy in Blu-Ray. And you can believe that these classic sci-fi films still hold up to this day.

There isn’t much to the discs except for the film. There are very little special features, with the exception of some great old trailers. Though if you’re going to shell out money on films like these, you’ve got to do it purely for the fact that you can now add the Robocop films to your fancy new Blu-Ray collection.

For those who were in a cave from 1987 to 19992, the films are about the murder of Officer Alex Murphy by a group of drugged up thugs. The officer is brutally gunned down, with only part of his brain and chest still intact. Scientists from the ubiquitous company OCP rebuild Murphy into a state of the art crime fighting cyborg called Robocop who is built to clean up the town, avenging his death along the way.

If seeing Peter Weller blow stuff up and walk through fire in 1080p isn’t enough, consider how the storytelling of acclaimed directors Paul Verhoeven, Irvin Kershner, and Fred Dekker will look in these cleaned up prints and digitally remastered audio.

Continue Reading →

Love it or hate it Microsoft’s Office suite of applications which include Word, PowerPoint and Excel are pretty much the go-to for most offices these days. Fortunately for the Mac users out there the Redmond Giant, and specifically its Mac Business Unit, have been putting out versions of the suite for the Mac as well that mostly have feature parity with the Windows versions.

With the Windows version of Office already at the 2011 milestone, we can now announce that Office 2011 for the Mac is available and shipping. Like its Windows counterpart, the Intel only Office for Mac has all the usual applications including Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

But wait, there’s more. Not since the days of OS 9, the suite also includes Microsoft Outlook, which replaces the Entourage email client. Finally, right?

Office for Mac 2011 pricing breaks down as follows:

Microsoft Office for Home and Student 2011 (single license): $109.99 – $149.99

Microsoft Office for Mac Home and Business (single license): $174.99 – $279.99

With the inclusion of Outlook, the Office suite is now a good deal for Mac using companies or individuals in a Windows dominated environment. Kudos to Microsoft for finally doing the right thing here.

Not that this news will do much to silence the haters but James Cameron has reportedly agreed to make sequels to Avatar his next two films. Cameron will begin working on the scripts for the two films early next year.

According the the article, the director hopes to start production later in 2011 but won’t make the decision on if he will film both sequels simultaneously until after he completes work on the scripts. Obviously, Cameron is pretty excited about the prospect of returning to the world of Pandora.

“In the second and third films, which will be self-contained stories that also fulfill a greater story arc, we will not back off the throttle of ‘Avatar’s’ visual and emotional horsepower, and will continue to explore its themes and characters, which touched the hearts of audiences in all cultures around the world,” Cameron said. “I’m looking forward to returning to Pandora, a world where our imaginations can run wild.”

With worldwide box office of over $2.8 Billion, it’s hard to argue with Avatar‘s mass appeal and sequels were to be expected. With the technology pretty much perfected now and the visuals of the world established, we can only hope that Cameron will spend a bit more time on the characters and story (And Sam Worthington’s “acting”) with these next two films, which will hopefully make them a bit easier to watch.

Currently, Cameron and Fox are looking at a December 2014 release for Avatar 2 and a December 2015 release for Avatar 3. Of course, we’ll bring you all the news on these sequels as it comes to us.

After months of speculation about the sequel to The Dark Knight, at least now we have some info that’s confirmed. In a new interview over at Hero Complex, Christopher Nolan reveals that the title of the next Batman film will be The Dark Knight Rises, which seems to suggest the film will be about Batman reclaiming his hero status in Gotham City after ending the previous film as a wanted man.

Sadly, for some of you at least, Nolan also said the Riddler will not be the main bad guy in the third film. Although, he didn’t rule out the Riddler making some kind of appearance. In addition, Nolan also said in the interview that Warner Bros. has agreed to not go 3D with The Dark Knight Rises. Instead, Nolan will do what he did with The Dark Knight and use a combination of high-definition and IMAX cameras to give the film its distinctive look.

Finally, Nolan revealed some tidbits on what other characters may be appearing in the film. “We’ll use many of the same characters as we have all along, and we’ll be introducing some new ones,” Nolan said, without revealing any names. Of course, we can assume some of the characters that will appear in the new film which have to include the core group of Batman/Bruce Wayne, Alfred and Commissioner Gordon.

For my money, I would like to see Catwoman make an appearance with, perhaps, some support by the Riddler. With Nolan’s take on the Joker working so well, I’m sure he can help Catwoman become the big screen villain she deserves to be. What about you guys? Who do you think we’ll see in the film?

Since the title was leaked for Michael Bay’s upcoming third installment of the Transformers franchise, people everywhere have been scratching their heads trying to figure out how a title as silly as Dark of the Moon will apply to our favorite robots in disguise. Thankfully, we now have a bit of a plot outline that will help us link the two. Or not.

In a recent synopsis for the upcoming novel companion to the film, the plot (or at least something close to it) was spelled out.

In this new movie, the Autobots and Decepticons become involved in a perilous space race between the U.S. and Russia, and once again human Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) has to come to the aid of his robot friends. There’s new characters too, including a new villain in the form of Shockwave, a longtime ‘Transformers’ character who rules Cybertron while the Autobots and Decepticons battle it out on Earth.

Continue Reading →