Would have gotten this sooner but was at a Starbucks where, curiously, the AT&T provided WiFi was not working. Conspiracy? Mmmmm.

Anyway, on to the important part. During a media event in New York City today, Verizon Wireless announced what many have reported and what has been rumored for months that it will be carrying Apple’s iPhone and that said Verizon iPhone will be available starting February 10th, with pre-orders beginning on the 3rd.

Lowell McAdam, Verizon Wireless’ president and CEO, saying “if the press writes about something for long enough and hard enough, eventually it comes true.”

The iPhone 4 will be pretty much the same as it is with AT&T, with the addition of a “CDMA optimized” antenna and mobile hotspot capabilities. The device will be available at the same price as we had for AT&T as well: $199 for 16GB and $299 for 32GB

It’s a great day for those of us waiting for the iPhone to hit our favorite wireless network. I’ll be getting one as soon as possible. How about you?

Check out the full press release is after the jump.

Continue Reading →

While the Pixar/Disney partnership has been one for the record books, one film that touches the hearts of anyone who has ever picked up a comic book is 2004′s The Incredibles. The film withstands it’s 7 years of release, and will now be getting a brand new breath of life as it makes it’s way to Blu-Ray this April.

The release is said to be a combo pack, which means you’ll not only get the Blu-Ray disc, but a standard definition disc as well as a digital download. The Blu-Ray disc will also be state-of-the art in high definition, bringing you 6x the resolution of a regular DVD.

In promoting this release, Pixar and Disney Home Video released a new trailer, featuring the voice of director Brad Bird reprising his role as the lovable fashionista Edna E. Mode. Check out the trailer after the jump, and get ready for the Blu-Ray combo release on April 11th.

Continue Reading →

Just in time for awards season, it looks like celebs and fans will get one more night to celebrate the business of show, as Comedy Central and MTV Networks are putting together the first annual Comedy Awards, set to air this April.

The awards will be as unbiased as other established ceremonies such as The Academy Awards and The Emmys, and given to both big names and up-and-coming workers in the genre of comedy. Here’s the official press release.

A night for comedy of all kinds, “The Comedy Awards” will be taped at New York City’s Hammerstein Ballroom on Saturday, March 26 and will premiere on Sunday, April 10, 2011, simultaneously across MTV Networks’ COMEDY CENTRAL, Spike TV, TV Land, VH1 and Nick At Nite.

Continue Reading →

This week’s pick is a unique look at behind the lines action during the North African campaign in the early days of World War II. Zoltan Korda directs the 1943 Columbia Pictures release of Sahara, a morale booster of a film which was based on a 1936 Soviet film called The Thirteen.

The film stars Humphrey Bogart as the tough and grizzled Sergeant Joe Gunn who is in command of an American tank, which was apart of a small American task force which was sent to get combat experience, and to help the British Eighth Army turn back the famed German Africa Corp during the Western Desert Campaign in June 1942. This occurred just five months before American ground troops landed in North Africa to help turn the tide of the war. The film is dedicated to the American IV Armored Corp which assisted in the technical aspects of the film.

Rounding out the cast of Allied soldiers and the Axis are Dan Duryea (Jimmy Doyle, An American radio operator for the tank), Bruce Bennett (‘Waco’ Hoyt, Tank Driver), Richard Nugent (Captain Jason Halliday, Royal Army Medical Corp), Lloyd Bridges (Fred Clarkson), Patrick O’ Moore (Osmond ‘Ozzie’ Bates), Guy Kingsford (Peter Stegman), Carl Harbord (Marty Williams), Louis Mercier (Jean ‘Frenchie’ Leroux, a Free French soldier fighting with the British forces), Rex Ingram (Sgt. Major Tambul, a Sudanese soldier and desert guide).

Continue Reading →

With just a month away from its release date, Marvel vs. Capcom 3: The Fate of Two Worlds is still dropping announcement bombs all over the fighting game world. With members of the final roster still to be revealed, Capcom announced two new characters this past weekend at the Consumer Electronics Show.

Making her debut to the Capcom fighting genre is Jean Grey, better known as Phoenix. With the power to literally rip worlds in half, the Phoenix force is considered one of the strongest entities in the Marvel universe. Now, the Phoenix comes to the Marvel vs. Capcom 3 arena with the cosmic power to take on man and immortal alike. Take a peek below at the new footage of Jean Grey in action, including her hypercombo Dark Phoenix finish.

Continue Reading →

There may have been plenty of mixed emotions about Funny People, but before that film, writer/director Judd Apatow struck comedy gold with Seth Rogen and Katherine Heigl in Knocked Up.

The film also starred plenty of Apatow regulars, such as Paul Rudd and Apatow’s wife Leslie Mann. Now, word is coming in that Apatow is planning on returning to the world of Knocked Up through the film’s B-story characters played by both Rudd and Mann. From Variety.

Apatow will write and direct the film, the first he’s helmed since 2009′s “Funny People.” Apatow, Barry Mandel and Clayton Townsend will produce.

In “Knocked Up,” Mann played Katherine Heigl’s older sister, who is married to Rudd’s character. Plot details are vague, and it’s not clear whether Heigl or Seth Rogen would reprise their roles from 2007′s “Knocked Up,” one of Apatow’s biggest successes with $200 million in worldwide box office.

The film is set to hit theaters in 2012, with Universal backing it. Expect to see some interesting viral stylings from both Apatow and Rudd, as they both frequent Funny Or Die.com, a site that Apatow is partnered with.

Today the Director’s Guild of America announced its nominations for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in feature films 2010. As the DGA nominations are traditionally considered an indicator of who might end up with the Oscar in the same category, these nominations, and the winner, are watched pretty closely.

The nominations are :

Darren Aronofsky, Black Swan
David Fincher, The Social Network
Tom Hooper, The King’s Speech
Christopher Nolan, Inception
David O. Russell, The Fighter

I’m a little surprised that the Coen brothers were not nominated for True Grit. They’ve won the award before three years ago, for No Country for Old Men, so I thought they may be nominated again this year. I would bet they were choice number six on the list and just didn’t make the cut. Besides, I think Fincher is a lock for this, and probably the Oscar as well, so it’s not such a bad thing.

The winner will be announced at the DGA’s annual awards dinner Jan. 29 at the Grand Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland. Who do you think will win, and who do you want to win?

If you were one of the many Wonder Woman fans eagerly awaiting the debut of the new show featuring your favorite female Amazon, sad to say but you’re going to have to wait a bit longer. The TV reboot of Wonder Woman that we told you about previously is being postponed.

Set to be written and produced by big time TV guy David E. Kelley, the show had gone out to various networks after Kelly’s script was finished but as if often the case with high-profile and expensive projects like this (superheroes in WWII), the major networks decided to pass or couldn’t reach a consensus decision. According to reports, this is not a reflection on Kelly’s take on the material (which is said to be good) but more on the current state of network TV and the timing of the project.

Supposedly, here’s how things went. This will give you a bit of insight into how Hollywood works. The project was supposedly taken to the networks on Wednesday night. Fox and ABC passed and the CW couldn’t afford it. This left CBS and NBC. The execs at CBS could not make a decision and with no real person in charge at NBC yet (new chief of programming Bob Geeenblat has yet to start) it was a no go there as well.

So, for those keeping score, that was a pass (because we don’t like anything good), a pass (because we’re owned by Disney who owns Marvel), a too expensive, a we can’t make up our minds and a we can’t make a decision because we’re afraid to do so before a new boss starts. Yes, I added those little items in parenthesis but after being around Hollywood for many years I have learned to read between the lines.

Besides, between the lines is where all the interesting stuff happens anyway. And no, that pic of Lynda Carter has nothing to do with David E. Kelly’s Wonder Woman TV show. I just like it, so there.

It’s no mystery that we here at The Flickcast offices are huge fans of the Starz original series, Spartacus. Having followed the original season, Blood and Sand, as well as keeping tabs on titular character actor Andy Whitfield’s ongoing battle with a recurrence of cancer, we eagerly awaited the dynamic show’s return for its second season. Well, it’s almost here, as the 2nd season, in prequel form, is set to air on Starz January 21st at 10PM EST/PST, so be sure to set your DVR.

The events of the prequel to Blood and Sand occur 5 years prior and was filmed last year without Whitfield. With only a shortened six-episode season, Gods of the Arena tells the story of the original Champion of the House of Batiatus, Gannicus whose skill with a sword is matched only by his thirst for wine and women. Check out the full official synopsis of the new season after the jump.

Continue Reading →

It’s very rare for a film to hit the number one spot at the box office several weeks after its release, but that is exactly what the Coen Brothers’ True Grit accomplished this weekend. The film finally shook the monkey (Little Fockers) off its back for a clear shot at the number one slot.

Grit made about $15 M over the weekend, and because it was a god-awful weekend at the box office, that was good enough for a first place finish.  Business was down almost 30% from last weekend. Entertainment Weekly reports that it could be the worst January weekend since 2000!

The good news is that the Coen Brothers just surpassed the $100M milestone for the very first time.  This is the first film they have made that has made it to into the club, so to speak.  Good for them. True Grit will surely continue to succeed in theaters, particularly if the film receives any Oscar nominations.

Continue Reading →

At CES, one expects to see sexy new computing devices and ever-thinner flat-panel HDTVs with the latest and greatest specs, but what about household appliances that tweet? Or refrigerators that text? Clearly, a trend is developing at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, and that trend is to spread the “smart” treatment around the household.

No longer content to let smartphones and other mobile devices steal the thunder at CES, appliance makers like LG and Samsung are getting updated with features that allow them to communicate important information to their owners. Who hasn’t dreamed of  a smart refrigerator that could alert you when its water filter needed replacing? Or what about a dryer that texts you when your clothes are dry?

Personally, I’d love to see a gas range that let me know if I’ve left the burner on after making breakfast in a pre-coffee haze. It’s either that, or I’ll surely burn the house down one day.

At CES 2011, household appliance makers had devices with just these sort of capabilities on display. Withings, a french company, showcased their Wi-Fi enabled bathroom scale, which ratchets up the peer pressure by tweeting its owner’s weight as well as graphing one’s weight-loss progress via an iPhone app.

Continue Reading →

Tech writers love to compare each and every new tablet computer that hits the market to Apple’s wildly successful iPad. And it makes sense, considering Apple’s device is truly the one to beat within the tablet niche. With almost a year under its belt and millions of sales, Apple is unlikely to yield its advantage in this important product sector anytime soon.

With that said, Motorola’s just-announced XOOM Tablet ($TBA), might just be the device to do it. Billed as the first 4G LTE upgradeable tablet, the specs speak for themselves:

• 10.1-inch widescreen HD display
• Dual Core 1GHz processor
• Android “Honeycomb” software
• 1080P HD Video Content Support
• HDMI out
• Forward-facing 2MP camera for video chatting

Continue Reading →