With anticipation for the start of Comic-Con 2011 at a fever pitch (It’s tomorrow!) one of the things we’re really looking forward to is some Avengers news and appearances by some of the cast and director. To help us, and those of you attending the Con, Marvel has released it’s signing schedule for the upcoming film.

Keep in mind that each signing is a ticketed event, which means that attendees will have to make their way to the Marvel booth as soon as the convention opens on Thursday to secure their free (but limited) tickets. So, in other words, if you want to get something signed by one of these guys, get their early and be ready to wait in line.

Here’s the schedule:

Thursday, 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
Chris Evans (Captain America)

Saturday, 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 a.m.
Clark Gregg (Agent Coulson)

Saturday, 6 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Joss Whedon, writer/director

The Avengers, which opens May 4, 2012, also stars Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Jeremy Renner, Mark Ruffalo, Scarlett Johansson and Samuel L. Jackson. Obviously, they were too busy to come to San Diego from New Mexico for the Con. Sad, but true.

Over the last couple days an unofficial bootleg of the new The Amazing Spider-Man teaser trailer has been making its way around the Interwebs. We waited to bring you the official, real one so that we could put it up and not have to take it right down again.

Anyway, it’s here and for the first time we get to see Andrew Garfield in sort of action as Peter Parker and his alter ego, your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. Reaction to the teaser has been mixed around The Flickcast offices (especially where Garfield is concerned) but still, the teaser is pretty good and does help convey some of what it must be like to have Spider-Man’s powers.

It also delves more into the character moments of the upcoming film, which is probably due to director Marc Webb’s background and his stated desire to make a “smaller” film. Sadly, it is still an origin story even though it seems to be told in a different, yet very familiar to almost anyone alive, way.

Obviously, we’ll have much more time to judge the film as its release gets closer. Meantime, check out the new teaser after the break.

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If you haven’t been watching HBO’s Game of Thrones, an adaptation of the novels by George R.R. Martin, you’re really missing out. It’s a great show full of amazing characters, action, drama, sex, violence and more all in a world that’s fully realized and seems all to real. Even with the show on hiatus until next season that hasn’t stopped the producers from adding new cast members to the show.

The latest major casting announcement is that Irish actor Liam Cunningham has been been set for the part of Davos Seaworth for the show’s second season. In case you’re not familiar with the actors’s work, check out the recent series Camelot on Starz and the Clash of the Titans remake. He was one of the many actors that was much better than Sam Worthington.

In the books, Davos is a former smuggler. He earned the nickname “The Onion Knight” after successfully getting food into Stannis Baratheon’s besieged castle during the war that put Robert Baratheon on the Iron Throne. In season two, Stannis enlists Davos to help him seize the Iron Throne from the punk King Joffrey.

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As expected, Apple today updated it’s best selling laptop, the MacBook Air, and its smallest Mac, the Mac Mini. In addition, the company released the latest version of its operating system, known as Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, for devices that are not iPhones, iPads or iPods.

The MacBook Airs now feature Intel i5 or i7 processors as well as better storage options, a Thunderbolt port and a backlit keyboard. The Mac Minis also feature i5 or i7, Thunderbolt and similar new specs bringing them in the line with the rest of Apple’s current hardware.

Here’s the specs on the new Mac computers:

• Mac mini Base model: 2.3GHz CPU with 2GB of RAM, and 500GB of storage
• Mac mini: 2.5GHz CPU with 4GB of RAM, and, 500GB of storage
• Mac mini server: 2.0GHz CPU, 4GB of RAM, and two 500GB hard drives
• MacBook Air 11″: Base model: 1.6GHz CPU, 2GB of RAM, and 64GB of storage
• MacBook Air 11″: 1.6GHz CPU, 4GB of RAM, and 128GB of storage
• MacBook Air 11″: Built to order model: 1.8GHz CPU, 4GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage
• MacBook Air 13″: Base model: 1.7GHz CPU, 4GB of RAM, 128GB of storage
• MacBook Air 13″: 1.7GHz CPU, 4GB of RAM, 256GB of storage
• MacBook Air 13″: Built to order: 1.8GHz CPU, 4GB of RAM, 256GB of storage

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This one comes directly from what we like to call the “Meh” department. Sure, some people may be huge fans of the Captain Planet and the Planeteers cartoon show, believe in its positive message and think it should be made into a live action feature film. And really, that’s fine. Positive messages are good.

However, some others, and a few around The Flickcast offices, see this news as yet another in a series of developments where it just seems like Hollywood has compleely run out of ideas and is now grasping at anything that even remotely seems to have the smallest chance of being made into a film. Yes, that’s a long sentence but you get the idea.

I supoose it could have something to do with the producer of the proposed live action Captain Planet adaptation: Don Murphy. In case you’re not familiar with his work he produced, most recently, Transformers: Turn off the Dark (or whatever its called). Obviously, the fact that his last movie made a butload of cash probably has something to do with his being able to get most anything (even a Captain Planet movie) greenlit.

Says Mr. Murphy: “We are extremely excited about bringing the good captain back to life. [The Captain's] adventures are known worldwide and he is recognized across generations.”

Ah hell, what do I know? I’m sure it will turn out to be the greatest movie since, well, the last Transformers. Although, that’s not much to live up to.

As a fan of all-things X-Men I was slightly worried about a movie featuring the origin of the group and the lives of the young and future X-Men. Turns out I really had nothing to worry about because X-Men: First Class was awesome and director Matthew Vaughn did a bang up job.

Now, the movie is soon to arrive on Blu-ray, which is the only way to see it. We’ve got all the info on this release for you below, straight from the official press release. Plus, read carefully (especially if you’re attending Comic-Con in San Diego) for a special prize commemorating the film’s arrival on Blu-ray.

X-MEN: FIRST CLASS

The Ultimate Blu-ray and DVD Experience Arrives on First Class Friday, September 9th

BONUS OFFER: First 1,000 Fans to Pre-Order A Blu-ray or DVD

During San Diego Comic-Con Receive a Limited Edition X-MEN: FIRST CLASS T-Shirt!

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Portland, OR based Oni Press is probably most well know for it Scott Pilgrim Versus the World comic series and feature film. They also have many more projects in what Hollywood likes to call “various stages of development” so that means they need a bit of help getting those set up.

Enter the William Morris Agency which has just signed Oni Press for (here’s another Hollywood term for you) “Representation in all areas.” What does that mean? Well, it means the agency will work with Oni and its sister company Closed on Mondays Entertainment to develop more Oni properties into film and television shows.

At the moment, those projects include feature film adaptations The Last Call with producer Barry Josephson, The Leading Man with producer Marc Platt, Frenemy of the State with Imagine Entertainment, The Return of King Doug starring Ben Stiller and produced by Red Hour Films and Ciudad with Joe and Anthony Russo writing and directing.

Closed on Mondays also has what’s called a “first-look deal” with CBS TV Studios to adapt Oni properties for the small screen. That means Oni takes its stuff to CBS first and if CBS decides to make it, great. If not, they can take it somewhere else. In exchange for that right, CBS pays Oni some sort of fee and more if the projhect actually goes into development, is made or ends up on the air.

As someone who’s spent some time with the guys and gals at Oni, I’m always happy when I hear they are doing well. They have some great comics and it would be nice to see more of them brought to the small or big screen.

In proving that they are truly a separate entity than Cartoon Network, Adult Swim has been creating more and more non-animated content such as Robot Chicken, Children’s Hopsital and Eagleheart. Now they’ve got another, new show which spoofs procedural action/dramas called NTSF:SD:SUV

Also known as the National Terrorism Strike Force: San Diego: Sport Utility Vehicle, the team is made up of some of the funniest people working today, such as Paul Scheer, Rob Riggle, and more. Here’s the full breakdown of the show.

In the same vein as Childrens Hospital spoofing medical dramas, NTSF:SD:SUV’s season of 15-minute episodes is ripped from the headlines and full of suspense, action, drama, cliffhangers, yelling, passionate love-making, more yelling, death and plenty of pregnant pauses.  NTSF:SD:SUV:: is created by Paul Scheer and stars Scheer, Rebecca Romjin, Rob Riggle, Kate Mulgrew, Brandon Johnson, June Diane Raphael, Martin Starr and S.A.M., the first sentient robot on television.

The first episode is set to debut this Thursday at 12:15 ET/PT on Adult Swim, but we’ve got just enough to get you ready with a brand new extended trailer. Check it out after the jump and keep it here for more coverage of what is sure to be a hilarious new series!

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Two summers ago, the world was first introduced to ‘Splosion Man, an ADHD platforming antihero with a penchant for cake just trying to escape a spanning scientific lab where he was being held. And as much as we loved him, (**Spoiler**) he didn’t end up fully escaping at the end of ‘Splosion Man. The opening of Ms. Splosion Man shows the origin of this new breed of estrogen fueled insanity. Ms. Splosion Man takes the core concepts of the original title and, much in the way that Ms. Pac Man became a more challenging version of Pac Man, ups the ante for 2D platformers yet again.

Gameplay:

Ms. Splosion Man is one of the most complicated simple games of the last generation. In the same way that ‘Splosion Man and Super Meat Boy had incredibly simple mechanics, jump and blow stuff up and jump and don’t die (respectively), Ms. Splosion Man leaves players with a controller with a bunch of buttons that all do the same thing: ‘splode. What Ms. Splosion Man did do however was come up with new ways to ‘splode and objects to ‘splode into, out of and on to.

The treadmills have returned as well as the atomic green barrels that launch Ms. Splosion Man across levels. But new items have found their way in to the mad labs. Jetson like flying cars populate the world, giving moving (and crashing) platforms for Ms. Splosion Man to traverse.

There are also rotating cannons, much like those exploding barrels of Donkey Kong Country, requiring both timing and aiming of players to shoot their little pink lady across levels. Barrels sometimes descend slowly with propellers being added to them and floating, rotating atomic green platforms that sort of resemble an original metroid can be found throughout the game as well.

As a result of these and other new mechanics, levels feel fresh and new and have tons more challenge and replayability. The game also now includes a Ghost Mode where they can compete against their friends and leaderboard high scorers as well.

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It’s a great day for those of you currently using Googles new Google+ service and also Apple’s iPhone. Why? Because it’s the day Apple finally approved the Google+ app for the iPhone of course.

This has been a point of some contention among iPhone using Google+ testers and now it looks like Apple has heard their requests and let this one through. Of course, when the Google+ serrvice launched on June 28th there was an app for Android available immediately. Makes sense, right?

Now we’ve got the iOS version. Google+ for iOS is supported on the iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 as long as the device is running iOS version 3.1 or later.

Ready to get it? Head on over to the iTunes Store and go nuts!

UPDATE: As of a few minutes ago the app has been updated in the iTunes App Store. So, if you’re not using version 1.0.1.1809 (you can tell by touching the gear at the top left of your screen in the app) then you should uninstall the old version and then download and install the new one. You’re welcome.

While he’s obviously more of a household name for creating and running 3 years of Fox’s hit high school musical series Glee, before that Ryan Murphy was known as the man who created Nip/Tuck. That series, obviously very different than Glee, was his real masterpiece, bringing 100 episodes of drama, horror, and intrigue.

Now that things look to be settling down for his series on Fox, their raunchier network sister station, FX, has picked up 13 episodes of Murphy and his co-creator Brad Falchuk’s American Horror Story. THR has the scoop on the premise and who we can expect to see on the show:

From 20th Television, the mysterious drama revolves around Ben and Vivien Harmon (The Practice’s Dylan McDermott, Friday Night Lights’ Connie Britton) who move their family from Boston to a haunted San Francisco home in an attempt to rebuild their family after a miscarriage and affair.

Murphy is said to be revising the initial script to increase the role of the nosy neighbor once Jessica Lange (Grey Gardens) signed on to the project in April. Denis O’Hare (True Blood) co-stars as Larry the Burn Guy, a former resident of the haunted estate; with Frances Conroy (Six Feet Under) and Alexandra Breckenridge (Life Unexpected) both playing Moira O’Hara, a housekeeper who has worked at the home for years and appears as a young woman to Ben and an older woman to Vivien.

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What’s the only thing that can make the once-a-year event where fans, geeks, and celebs join to celebrate all things nerdy? The only thing left to add…zombies! That’s exactly what BOOM! Studios has planned with what looks to be one of the coolest show exclusives for this year’s San Diego Comic-Con 2011: a one-shot issue of the book Fanboys Vs. Zombies.

Originally conceived by The Office producer Ben Silverman, the book takes some regular guys and throws them in the most horrifying of situations, in which the dead run wild at Comic-Con! Here’s the official synopsis.

They’ve been called geeks, nerds, and social outcasts, but when a group of fanboys take their annual trip to Comic-Con International they’ll find one of their greatest nightmares turned reality as San Diego becomes zombie ground zero. Armed only with the undead know-how they’ve gained from comic books, video games and horror movies, it’s up to one group of friends to navigate the Comic-Con feeding frenzy, and make it out alive!

But will the zombie hordes be deadlier than they ever imagined? Can they save their friends along the way, and still make it out with some Comic-Con exclusives? Find out when the dead rise at Comic-Con International in the chilling and side-splitting epic, FANBOYS VS. ZOMBIES!

Jabs at Hall H? Jokes about the crowds and high-priced bottled water? A Joss Whedon dig? You can expect all of these things and more in the one-shot, which can be obtained by anyone heading to the show this year — just make your way over to the BOOM! Studios booth at #2743.

Take a look at the full cover after the jump.

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