That’s right. The mega gaming franchise Call of Duty is going back to the beginning. Well, to the 1940’s to be exact with the newly released trailer for Call of Duty: World War II.

Here’s some more info from the official press release: “Over two years in the making, Sledgehammer Games delivers a gritty, personal experience in the setting of the largest worldwide conflict in history to a new gaming generation in Call of Duty: WWII.

Play through the story of ordinary men turned soldiers in the 1st Infantry Division as they fight to preserve freedom in the face of tyranny.”

We’re in. Check out the trailer after the break. Call of Duty: World War II hits the beaches (and stores) on November 3rd.

With all the uncertainty in the world, at least there’s one thing we can pretty much always count on: new Call of Duty games. The latest one is called Call of Duty: Black Ops III.

This new chapter in the franchise takes place in “a dark, gritty future where a new breed of Black Ops soldier emerges and the lines are blurred between our own humanity and the cutting-edge military robotics that define the future of combat.” That does sound cool.

Judge for yourself by watching the first trailer for the game, which has just been released. Look for Call of Duty: Black Ops III to arrive on November 9.

The trailer is after the break.

On January 24, 1984 the first Macintosh computer from Apple was launched. And the world was never the same again.

Regardless of your personal feelings towards Apple or its products, there’s no denying the company changed the personal computer world forever with the introduction of the Macintosh. And in the 30 years since, many of us here at The Flickcast (and elsewhere to be sure) couldn’t imagine going through our day, or getting work done, without one.

To commemorate this milestone, Apple has a special home page on its website and a video to celebrate “30 years of Mac innovation.” The company has also created a special section on its website dedicated to the 30 years of Mac.

On one of the many pages at Apple’s website dedicated to the Mac, there’s a quote from Steve Jobs which helps set the stage and encapsulates fully the lasting legacy that is the Mac.

“We’re just in the beginning stages of what will be a truly remarkable breakthrough for most people — as remarkable as the telephone,” said Jobs.

How right he was. Check out the video after the break. Happy 30th Mac!

Even though we don’t really care all that much who or what wins an Academy Award, the rest of Hollywood does. It’s also likley many of you care as well.

So, in that spirit, here’s a list of the nominations that were announced this morning. There’s a lot of them and, to put it bluntly, not that many surprises. The movies and performances that seem “Oscar-worthy” were nominated. It was kinda a no-brainier year.

Of course, there’s also a few regulars who made the cut, like Meryl Streep, you would expect to see on the list. One notable exception is Tom Hanks, who seemed to be a shoe-in for a nomination for his role as Captain Phillips. He got nothing.

I guess every Oscar nominations list needs at least one surprise, just to try and keep it interesting and prove the Oscar voters don’t just vote for whomever or whatever wins a Golden Globe. Of course, Hanks didn’t win the Golden Globe either, but I’m sure it was just a pleasure to be nominated.

Anyway, here’s the nominations list (stolen from the folks at Deadline):

Believe it or not, the actors in a movie or TV program don’t just make up their dialog on the spot (well, sometimes). Nor do the director or producers just make up the story as they go along (well, not very often).

In most cases, a person (or more than one) has to write a screenplay so the rest of the team can get together and make something. That person is called a writer. And most writers in Hollywood use a program called Final Draft to work their magic.

And now the makers of Final Draft have released a new version, Final Draft 9, and it’s got over 30 new and improved features to help writers (and the rest of the team) take care of the business of show.

Here’s some of them:

• New look and feel for both Mac and Windows users
• Navigator feature now offers story development tools for Scenes, ScriptNotes, and Characters
• Watermarks for PDFs and printing
• Improved Spell Checkers
• Mac specific features like retina display compatibility, dictation support and full screen mode

For more, check out the website right here.

Before I go too far with this review of the Blu-ray Combo Pack release of director Dennis Villeneuve’s film Prisoners, I need to make a couple things clear. First, I’m a Hugh Jackman fan. I think he’s a very good actor who’s almost always a pleasure to watch.

Even in less-than-stellar movies, he usually stands out. That’s not to say Prisoners is one of those movies, it isn’t. It’s just so you know where I’m coming from.

The second thing I need to point out is my love of a adult drama. For a time Hollywood made a lot of these kinds of movies and they were often quite good. Occasionally, even excellent. Standouts in the past like The Fugitive, Jagged Edge and Presumed Innocent come to mind.

Plus, more recent films like Argo and Silver linings Playbook are also good examples. But most of the time the industry seems consumed with the need to make and market movies for kids and skimp on things like character or story. I worry about the future of adult drama.

Fortunately, a movie occasionally comes along that restores my faith, at least temporarily, that this art form will not be lost forever. Prisoners is one of those movies and it manages to deliver on almost every level.

Yes, the premise of the upcoming Tom Cruise starrer Edge of Tomorrow (which used to be called All You Need Is Kill) does kinda sound like “Groundhog Day in Space,” but that’s okay. It’s got a lot of other good things going for it.

Two of these things are director Doug Liman, no stranger to action he, and star Tom Cruise. Yes, I’m in the “pro” Cruise camp. You got a problem with that?

In this one Cruise stars as an officer fighting an alien war who becomes stuck in a time loop and is forced to re-live the same combat mission over and over. The film also features Emily Blunt as the girl who helps Cruise become a real boy while he’s forced to re-live the same day over and over. In other words, she’s the new Andie MacDowell.

Gotta say, the trailer looks cool though. I’m interested. Although, I can’t help wondering what would happen if someone put this much effort into a reboot of Starship Troopers. Now that I would like to see.

Until then Edge of Tomorrow arrives in theaters on June 6, 2014. Check out the trailer after the break.

This is a holiday week here in the United States and as a result the staff is taking a bit of time off to celebrate with family and friends. So, that means we’ll have a reduced posting schedule for today and for the rest of the week.

Also, due to travel schedules and such, we won’t be having a new episode of The Flickcast this week either. Sorry folks. Look for that to return next week.

Of course, if breaking news happens, we’ll bring it to you. Otherwise, expect to see us back to normal (or our version of it) on Monday, December 2nd.

Happy Holidays!

Veronica Mars. Kickstarter. Most successful campaign in history.

What more do you need to know? Okay, here’s more. Veronica Mars, the little series that lasted three glorious years on tv, is back with a movie. And not just any movie, but one that was a result of the fans getting together and throwing down their hard-earned money to make it happen.

Now, with Comic-Con in full swing, the first footage (and more) from the Veronica Mars movie has been released. Yes, it’s been ten years and yes almost everyone is back.

Veronica is a big city lawyer but gets pulled back into investigating one more case when something bad happens at her High School reunion. Will she figure it out in time to save more people from being hurt or killed? What do you think?

Check out the footage after the break. Look for the Veronica Mars movie to arrive in 2014.

It might be cold in here because Hell may have frozen over. That’s right, Microsoft Office for iOS has finally arrived. Sort of.

The “Redmond Giant” has released Office Mobile for Office 365 subscribers. The app is a free download, at the moment, but an Office 365 subscription is required for use. Lame.

Couple things that struck us off the bat with this: The app is currently available only for the iPhone. Double lame. Who uses an iPhone for this kind of thing? That’s what iPads were made for.

Second, you can only save documents to your Sky Drive account. No local saving is available. Triple lame. For more, check out the full release notes below:

Microsoft Office Mobile is the official Office companion optimized for your iPhone. You can access, view and edit your Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel and Microsoft PowerPoint documents from virtually anywhere. Documents look like the originals, thanks to support for charts, animations, SmartArt graphics and shapes. When you make quick edits or add comments to a document, the formatting and content remain intact.