Netflix came one step closer to total entertainment domination today with its announcement of a new deal that will bring additional content from ABC, ABC Family and the Disney Channel to the company’s online streaming service. New shows will now be available on Watch Instantly 15 days after their initial air date.

Some of the new content coming to the service includes Grey’s Anatomy, Desperate Housewives and Brothers & Sisters. The deal also brings complete seasons of past shows such as Lost, Ugly Betty and Scrubs.

“TV content streamed from Netflix has proven to be immensely popular with our members,” Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos said in the release. “Adding to our existing Disney-ABC lineup with great network and cable shows, and opening up ABC Family for the first time, are important steps in creating a wide and diverse selection of content Netflix members of all ages can watch.”

Netflix’s “Watch Instantly” service allows DVDs-by-mail subscribers to stream an unlimited amount of TV and movie content to computers, compatible set-top boxes and other devices like Apple’s iPad and iPhone 4. The company also recently made available a stand-alone version without the physical media component for $7.99 per month.

Today’s deal with ABC/Disney is the latest in a series of deals Netflix has put together in an effort to increase the quantity of new content available to its streaming customers. We say keep up the good work and keep the content coming.

James Cameron will combine his signature 3D magic with the incredible acrobatics of Cirque du Soleil in an untitled film that is now in production. The film will be a narrative about a magical world that the lead character finds himself in.

Cirque du Soleil performances will be featured, and are being culled from various live performances of the troupe. Cameron is shooting the footage of the Cirque du Soleil in 3D.

Cameron serves as producer, the movie will be directed by Andrew Adamson (Shrek,Chronicles of Narnia). Cirque du Soleil financed part of the film, and there are plans to make a series of family-themed films using the performers.

Deadline reports that the film is about a third finished, and currently shopping distributors. It seems likely that Cirque du Soleil paired with well-done 3D might be pretty amazing to watch.

As for other Cameron projects, Avatar 2 and 3 are listed as being in the pre-production phase.

You may not have noticed but the country still seems to be in the midst of an economic “situation.” Things are not so great out there and as people tighten their belts entertainment purchases like comic books and graphic novels tend to decline. Given all that’s happening, it’s not much of a surprise that sales of comic books and graphic novels are down in 2010.

According to statistics from Diamond Distributors and compiled by ICv2, sales were off when compared with the first eleven months of 2009. Dollar sales of comics were down by 5.79% and graphic novels were down a bit less but still declined 4.35%. Total sales of comics and graphic novels are down 5.66%.

Even with sales down there was at least one bright spot. Sales of graphic novels, while down overall for the year, spiked upwards in November by 14.8% over 2009′s numbers. The reason? Robert Kirkman’s 13th volume of The Walking Dead was released.

In addition, the first volume also was a good seller in November and was in the top ten for overall sales. I guess it helps sales when you have a hugely popular TV series and people want to read all about it. Still, not so great news for the rest of the comics industry. Let’s hope things get better in 2011 — for all of us.

The week on The Flickcast Chris and Matt return once again with some new things to talk (and complain) about.  Some of the topics on this week’s show include the season finale of The Walking Dead, AMC’s Breaking Bad marathon, the latest Battle: Los Angeles and Tempest trailers, Spider-Man: Turn Out the Dark, the iPad 2, the Verizon iPhone, Adam Green’s Hatchet 2 and a whole lot more.

In addition, like they do every week, the bioys picked some stuff for your reading, viewing or otherwise entertainment pleasure. This week Matt picked Spaghetti With A Chance of Meatballs on Blu-ray and Chris picked The Lord of the Rings on Blu-ray.

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.

Since the epic Star Wars Kid YouTube explosion 4 years ago, and the inevitable lightsaber remix, practically everybody with a computer has been taking a whack at adding lightsabers to some of their favorite things.

Everybody from Bruce Lee to Monty Python to sexy lingerie models have been wielding lightsabers on the web for years now, so it’s a bit difficult to pick out a decent video when it comes through.

That is, until now.

Youtube user VFXFreak has managed to squeeze two timeless franchises together: Star Wars and The Princess Bride by making the duel at the cliffs one with lightsabers.

Check out the video after the jump, and keep your eye out for more great web videos like this one to emerge.

Continue Reading →

On Monday we brought you news of a report from Consumer Reports that according to the publications’ readers AT&T is the worst mobile carrier in the U.S. That wasn’t a surprise to us and neither is AT&T already fighting back and trying to downplay the report with a report of its own.

Late yesterday, AT&T released information that according to the Better Business Bureau (BBB), its network is the best in the country — 0r, at least, its subscribers complain the least. Verizon Wireless had 34% more complaints, Sprint had 115% more complaints and T-Mobile had 207% more complaints.

AT&T also says it has an A+ average rating nationally from the BBB, having received 107 A+ ratings, seven A ratings and one A- rating from local BBBs across the country. Our opinion? Sounds like AT&T is grasping at straws here.

What do you guys think? Let us know in the comments and check out the full press release from AT&T after the jump.

Continue Reading →

While the 3D element, amazing digital effects, and Jeff Bridges are all great reasons to see Tron: Legacy in theaters this month, one easily overlooked bonus is the excellent original score done by the Electronica group Daft Punk.

The group managed to combine some great digital elements with classic gaming sounds for a full (2 CD) album that would blow away most film composers today. Not only is the 2-disc album currently out and doing well, but the musical duo even has a cameo in the film as-yes-digital DJ’s.

In this new clip from the film, we get the very first meeting between our protagonist Sam Flynn and one of our digital baddies, Castor. Pay close attention to see if you can catch Daft Punk in their very first film role.

Click through to see the clip and catch Tron: Legacy in both 3D and 2D theaters on December 17th.

Continue Reading →

Costume dramas featuring sex, violence, intrigue and political machinations are always welcome if well done. This new one from Showtime called The Borgias and we’ve got a trailer for it right here.

The Borgias is set in Renaissance Italy and tells the story of the crime family’s rise to power and their eventual decline. It features Jeremy Irons, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Derek Jacobi and Joanne Whalley. It’s produced by Michale Hirst and Neil Jordan and many of the episodes are directed by Jordan as well.

Looks pretty interesting to us. Kind of like The Tudors set in Italy — which makes sense considering Hirst’s involvement. It could be cool and we’ll be tuning in.

Showtime hasn’t set an air date for the series as of yet but we’ll let you know when they do. In the meantime, take a look at the trailer after the jump.

Continue Reading →

No matter what happens in the world we can usually count on at least one good thing to happen during the week: new comics. This week is no exception as our friends at Marvel drop some new books on us for our reading pleasure.

Of the ones coming out this week we’re most interested in reading New Avengers #7, I am an Avenger #4, Thor #618 and Widowmaker #1. As with most weeks comics hit store shelves on Wednesday so hurry into your nearest comics book store early for best selection.

Don’t know where your nearest comic shop is? Use this handy guide to find one.

Check out the list of comics you can get below.

CAPTAIN AMERICA & THE KORVAC SAGA #1
CHAOS WAR: ARES #1 (CW)
DARK TOWER: THE GUNSLINGER – THE LITTLE SISTERS OF ELURIA #1
I AM AN AVENGER #4
INCREDIBLE HULKS #618
INCREDIBLE HULKS #618 TRON VARIANT
INVADERS NOW! #4
INVADERS NOW! #4 CHAYKIN VARIANT
NEW AVENGERS #7
NEW AVENGERS #7 TRON VARIANT
SHADOWLAND: AFTER THE FALL #1 (SHL)
SUPER HERO SQUAD #12

Continue Reading →

Sometimes it is frustrating when you haven’t watched a television series from the get-go, and you keep hearing how great it is.  You can’t exactly jump right in during the third season, especially if the show is a serial drama. Such is the case with Breaking Bad, arguably one of the best shows on television.

Well fortunatgely, AMC has you covered. Starting Wednesday, December 8, they will air back-to-back episodes of the Emmy award winning drama until March, when the brand new season will begin. In total, there are 33 episodes of Breaking Bad, spanning three seasons. Due to the writer’s strike, the first season consists of a mere seven episodes. Seasons two and three each have 13 episodes.

The series stars Bryan Cranston, Aaron Paul, Dean Norris, and Anna Gunn. Cranston and Paul have both won Emmy awards for their superb performances on the show. If you are not familiar with the show, it revolves around a High School chemistry teacher who finds out he has terminal cancer and turns to cooking meth as a means of making some quick cash to leave his family. Naturally, the drug world is more complicated than he ever could have imagined.

The show is unflinching in its depiction of the seamy side of drug manufacturing and distribution. Far from glamorizing the trade, the show serves as an excellent deterrent. It is gritty, raw, and ugly.  Now there are no excuses for missing out.

For more information, you can visit the Breaking Bad facebook page, follow Breaking Bad on Twitter, or check the AMC website for viewing times.

Another day another, Apple-related rumor with a slim thread of substantiating facts. On the plus side we do know that Apple will eventually release a new version of the iPad which will reportedly feature a thinner case, Retina Display, gyroscope and FaceTime support. It’s inevitable.

What isn’t is when said iPad 2 will actually start shipping. If you know Apple you know they are notorious for being tight-lipped about that sort of thing. However, a new report coming out from the folks at DigiTimes says Apple has let iPad manufacturer Foxconn know that initial shipments of the iPad 2 will begin in 100 days. Of course, this report is unconfirmed but it also suggests Apple’s initial order for the new device will be in the 400K to 600K range.

One of the many things that make this report seem less than reliable are those initial numbers. After all Apple sold more than 300K iPads on the first day it was available and went on to sell 1 Million of the shiny tablets in just 28 days. So, an initial order of 600K seems like not enough if they really want to sell a lot of them. Of course, that could just be for the first day with other shipments coming soon afterward.

However many Apple does end up making for the release you can probably expect lines of people waiting to get their hands on the devices. I’m not sure I’ll be one of them as the first gen iPad seems to do the job just fine for me. Still, it will be interesting, as always, to see what happens.

Now if Verizon and Apple could just get together and come out with the damn Verizon iPhone already that would be something I would wait in line for. Are you guys excited for the iPad 2 or are you going to go for a Verizon iPhone instead if it ever arrives? Sound off in the comments.

Shakespeare’s The Tempest may be one of the most contrived and story-heavy piece of work in his collection, but that’s not stopping director Julie Taymor, who plans on bringing a direct adaptation of the play to theaters next year.

Yes, this is the same Julie Taymor who is begrudgingly bringing Spider-Man to Broadway, but she’s also the director behind Across the Universe, which introduced a whole new generation to the music of The Beatles, and adapted Shakespeare once before with Anthony Hopkins in Titus.

Now she’s at it again, with a new gang of players including Helen Mirren, Russell Brand, Alfred Molina, Djimon Hounsou, David Strathairn, Chris Cooper, and Alan Cumming.

The premise is a bit confusing, so we won’t try to bog you down with the details. Instead, we have two great clips featuring Mirren, Hounsou, and Brand, which you can check out after the jump.

Catch Disney’s Tempest in theaters this Friday.

Continue Reading →