Even though this is technically a blog, we like to think of ourselves primarily as writers here at The Flickcast. Many of us have even been paid to write over the years and you can bet that pretty much everyone here has one or two screenplays, comic books or other literary works they are currently working on. It’s just the nature of things.

So, when the Writer’s Guild of America announces the nominations for outstanding writing for Television, we take notice and bring you all the details. That’s especially true when the top nominees are shows we really like.

One such show is Showtime’s freshman drama Homeland, which received 3 nominations including best drama series, best new series and best episodic drama. Homeland tied with perennial favorites Modern Family, Breaking Bad and Boardwalk Empire for the most nominations.

In addition to Homeland, Game Of Thrones, The Killing, New Girl and the Matt LeBlanc comedy Episodes all received nominations with Showtime getting a first time record of six for its shows. You may be wondering where Mad Men is in all of this?

Sadly, as the fifth season of the show was delayed, it didn’t make the cut for eligibility for this year’s awards. That’s probably okay as it gives a few other shows, like Homeland and Game of Thrones, a chance to shine. Can’t have Mad Men taking up all the awards, now can we?

The winners will be announced at the 2012 Writers Guild Awards on Feb. 19, 2012, at simultaneous ceremonies in Los Angeles and New York. Click through for the full list of nominee.

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When you happen to be one of the biggest comic book and media companies in the world and you have all these characters you’ve created over the years, it must be difficult to figure out what to do with all of them. Well, if you’re Marvel, it seems like they’ve found an answer: have them fight each other.

Much like they did during the “Civil War” event from a few years back, a bunch of characters from the Marvel U, The Avengers and X-Men specifically, are being pitted against each other in a brand new upcoming comics event.

Here’s all the scoop directly from Marvel:

The Avengers and X-Men have learned that the all-powerful embodiment of both death and rebirth known as the Phoenix Force is on a crash course for Earth…and it needs a new host to unleash its immeasurable power. But what is the shocking decision tied to the Phoenix’s return that will pit the Avengers against the X-Men? And when good friends become bitter enemies, what does this mean for the future of the Marvel Universe?

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Let’s face it, there’s a lot of apps out there for the iPad and iPhone. Many of them are even useful and, on occasion, fun to use. You can add Flipboard to that list.

In case you haven’t tried it yet, Flipboard is a very popular magazine-style news application which, up until today, was available only for the iPad. Now, those of you who want the same experience on your iPhone or, for some reason, don’t have an iPad yet, can now enjoy Flipboard on your iPhone because it’s now available.

The app allows users to flip through a single feed of articles and photos that have been shared across various social networks. It can also display stories from a variety of news categories including technology, design, “Flipboard picks,” photography, business, sports, style, travel, food and more.

It’s a great app that really helps you digest a lot of information quickly and easily and does it inside a very user-friendly interface. It’s definitely worth checking out.

Flipboard for iPhone is free and available in the App Store now.

It’s hard to face it, but we are neck-deep in the heart of the Award-getting part of the film year. When studios and actors try their hardest to tug on the heartstrings of audiences and try to set their footing for this year’s Oscar race.

With that, one film that surely has reason to win some awards is the new 9/11 drama Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close. The film stars Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock and just the synopsis alone may get you to choke up.

Based on the acclaimed novel of the same name, “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close” tells the story of one young boy’s journey from heartbreaking loss to the healing power of self-discovery, set against the backdrop of the tragicevents of September 11. Eleven-year-old Oskar Schell is an exceptional child: amateur inventor, Francophile, pacifist.

And after finding a mysterious key that belonged to his father, who died in the World Trade Center on 9/11, he embarks on an exceptional journey–an urgent, secret search through the five boroughs of New York. As Oskar roams the city, he encounters a motley assortment of humanity, who are all survivors in their own ways. Ultimately, Oskar’s journey ends where it began, but with the solace of that most human experience: love.

Even the 11 year old protagonist’s name is Oskar, so there you have it. Take a look at the new trailer after the jump, and catch the film in limited theaters on Christmas Day.

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Fans of the Marvel franchise had a pretty big feast this year with Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger hitting theaters back to back this year. Now that those stories have been established, it’s time to look forward and see what the sequels have in store for us.

The first getting ready for production is Thor 2, which has already lost original director Kenneth Branagh before the film even went into pre-production. Now we’re getting word from THR that the film is losing its second director in Patty Jenkins (The Killing).

The filmmaker was to have been the first female director of a Marvel Studios movie.

Alas, “creative differences” are being blamed.

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This year marks the 10th anniversary of one of the most revolutionary video games of all time. Grand Theft Auto III changed the way people played games, offering an open world that was just as fun to explore as it was to progress through the game. GTA also changed the perception of games, showcasing more mature game play a themes that resonated with the public at large.

So to celebrate the event, Rockstar is releasing the game for the mobile marketplace this winter. This new release is the full, open world game that took the world by storm in 2001. Not only is the game hitting phones and tablets, but it also going to be sold for the low, low price of five bucks. That is a great deal for a great game.

Grand Theft Auto III is not the first GTA game to hit the app store, Chinatown Wars was ported over last year. That game, however, was in the top down perspective and was always meant to be a side note portable game. The opportunity to have the full and complete version of the classic third game is potentially groundbreaking for phones and tablets.

Check out a list of compatible devices after the jump.

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We told you last month that Harry Potter director David Yates was gearing up to make a Doctor Who feature film. At the time there was some ambiguity as to where it would stand in relation to the current, and extremely popular, British series that just finished up it’s sixth season. Yates seemed to suggest that this would be a new incarnation, with no relation to the current Doctor or his television show.

Current show runner Steven Moffat thankfully provides some more information that should be great news to all the Doctor Who fans out there. He recently tweeted:

“To clarify: any Doctor Who movie would be made by the BBC team, star the current TV Doctor and certainly NOT be a Hollywood reboot.”

Leave it to the Grand Moff to assuage fans the world over in a concise 140 characters or less.

Of course this is far from official, there are still several years before this movie hits the screens, and we are still over a year off from a very big 50th anniversary year for the Doctor, which I am assuming will come with it’s ample share of surprises. Still, it is good to know some one deeply involved with the project has his head screwed on strait.

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The Hunger Games is shaping up to be one of next year’s most interesting films. Based on it’s source material and fan base it would have been easy for the filmmakers to pump out a cheap looking Twilight cash in, but a funny thing happened along the way. The movie actually looks visually intriguing and competently constructed.

One of the more exciting aspects about the behind the scenes of this movie was the inclusion of Danny Elfman as it’s composer. Elfman is always capable of crafting a memorable theme and in recent years he has shown the ability to stretch his musical muscles. Alas, the new Tim Burton movie, Dark Shadows, and Men in Black III are keeping Elfman too busy next year and he has to bow out as the composer. Enter James Newton Howard.

Newton Howard is one of the most consistent film composers working today, he is capable of making a phenominal score for any movie, no matter it’s quality. Heck, the man’s score for Lady in the Water is one of the best things no one has heard in the last decade. He is much like Jerry Goldsmith in that regard.

The movie might have lost one high profile composer, but it gained another master. One who is more likely to give us something great, no matter the final quality of the film itself.

That’s right. You heard it here last. It seems that the newest film featuring our favorite Henson classics The Muppets is yet another “plan for the left to bad mouth affluent businessmen” as the film’s main antagonist is an evil oil baron.

According to a report (yes, they felt the need to do an entire segment on this) from Fox Business, Jason Segal’s Muppet film is guilty of negatively portraying a simple business owner in the form of Chris Cooper’s “Tex Richman”, an evil baron who’s set on destroying the Muppet studios to drill for oil.

The fact that Fox, or anyone for that matter, would think that it’s news that The Muppets, a creation of Jim Henson, is just now taking aim at the aptly labeled 1%, is just preposterous.

Note that the news report barely mentions the existence of Statler and Woldof, who were doing the “old, rich, white antagonist” act before this reporter was able to walk. Take a look at the downfall of modern journalism in true form after the jump, and catch The Muppets in theaters now, or the oil barons of the world win.

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Now that video games have surpassed films in terms of original storytelling, there are tons of properties that are ripe for adaptation. A bunch of those are already coming to fruition, but one that fans have decided not to wait forever for is the first person shooter Bioshock.

There has been talks about Gore Verbinski taking on the film, but in the meantime, Internet filmmaker Jared Pelletier has decided to take things into his own hands with his very own live action Bioshock film set for the spring of 2013. To get fans ready for the film’s release (and expected production diary leading up to it), he has posted the first teaser for the film online.

Full of classic swingy goodness, and maybe a few shots of action, the teaser is more than enough to hold fans over for a bit of time.

Take a look at it after the jump, and subscribe to the official Bioshock fan film channel on YouTube. Here’s to hoping we can beat Hollywood to the finish line!

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It’s been said that if you screw up once, it’s a mistake, but if you do it three times it’s a style.

Don’t get me wrong, Submarine is a good film with a strong voice, but that’s not to say it’s not without pros and cons.  With a unique tone, interesting characters, and distinctive editing, director Richard Ayoade obviously had a strong vision for this film from the beginning.  The only problem was with the main character, Oliver Tate, who was written as such an offbeat character that there were times at which he was hard to relate to.

Submarine is a film full of feature film newcomers.  Ayoade makes his narrative feature debut as writer/director, a departure from his career as a TV actor and director.  Both of the young actors, as well, come fresh to the big screen.  Craig Roberts, playing Oliver Tate, takes on his first feature lead in this film (he has since starred in Jane Eyre), and Yasmin Paige, coming only from small parts in obscure films, gives a surprisingly beautiful performance as his love interest, Jordana Bevan.

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Remember that movie The Cabin in the Woods we first told you about over two years ago? What ever happend to that one?

It had a lot going for it, coming from Cloverfield writer and director Drew Goddard and co-written by the man himself Joss Whedon. It also stars Chris Hemsworth, who went on to be in Marvel’s Thor and the upcoming The Avengers.

Sadly, the movie fell victim to MGM’s money troubles and ended up being put on the shelf until the company emerged from its money troubles or found another company to distribute the film. Fortunately, both of those things seems to have happened and now it’s set to be released on April 13.

To get people ready for the occasion the first trailer for the film has been released. We have it for you right here, of course.

In addition to Hemsworth, the film features Kristen Connolly, Anna Hutchison, Fran Kranz, Jesse Williams, Richard Jenkins, Bradley Whitford and Brian White.

Take a look at the trailer after the break.

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