Let’s start this particular post by admitting Aaron Sorkin is one of my favorite writers. His previous shows, The West Wing, Sports Night and Studio 60 showed how TV is supposed to be written and produced. He’s also done pretty well writing movies including the recent Acadamy Award winner The Social Network.

Now, Sorkin has gone back to TV and landed where he probably should have been all along: HBO. His new show is called The Newsroom and HBO has released a new trailer for it.

The show stars Jeff Daniels as a cable news anchor Will McAvoy who decides to try telling it like it is instead of how his superiors want him to. In short, he’s mad as hell and he’s not going to take it anymore. Look it up.

Around Daniels’ character is an ensamble team including his new executive producer (Emily Mortimer), his newsroom staff (Alison Pill, John Gallagher Jr, Olivia Munn, Dev Patel, Thomas Sadoski), and their boss (Sam Waterston). Jane Fonda is also in the show and yes, I did say Olivia Munn. Guess she’s there to help get the gaming fanboy viewers? I don’t get it either.

Anyway, check out the trailer after the break. Look for The Newsroom to premiere later this year on HBO.

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Say what you will about the Transformers movies, the game tie-ins are actually pretty fun. Obviously, others thought so to because the first game was a big success and because of that, Activision is creating a new game sequel called Transformers: Fall of Cybertron.

Coming from High Noon Studios, the upcoming game “allows players to experience the darkest hours of the war between the AUTOBOTS and DECEPTICONS as they vie for control of their dying home world.” In the game, players will be able to “fight through both sides of the Transformers’ most epic battles that culminate in their legendary exodus from Cybertron.”

In addition, players in the game “will embark on an action-packed journey through massive, war-torn environments designed around each character’s unique abilities and alternate forms, including GRIMLOCK’s nearly indestructible T-Rex form and the legendary COMBATICONS combining into the colossal BRUTICUS.”

Previously, we brought you the first reveal trailer for the game and now, to help get you ready for the game’s release, we’ve got two new trailers to share today. One is the first actual gameplay trailer and the other takes you behind the scenes to see how things get done.

Check out both trailers after the break. Look for Transformers: Fall of Cyberton to arrive in stores on August 28.

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Are you someone who spends a lot of time on the Internet? Do you surf websites, send email, post your exploits on Facebook or argue with your friends on Twitter? If so, all that fun is apparently going to grind to a halt this Saturday.

How can this be? Well, if it does happen, you can thank notorious hacker group Anonymous. They plan to shut down the Internet in protest on March 31.

Here’s why: “To protest SOPA, Wallstreet, our irresponsible leaders and the beloved bankers who are starving the world for their own selfish needs out of sheer sadistic fun, on March 31, anonymous will shut the Internet down. Remember, this is a protest, we are not trying to ‘kill’ the Internet we are only temporarily shutting it down where it hurts the most.”

The plan, known as “Operation Global Blackout 2012″ (catchy name that) looks to hit the Internet where it lives, at the main DNS servers that make the entire thing possible. By shutting down the DNS servers with what amounts to a denial of service attack (look it up), it will effectively make websites unreachable and spawn a sea of 404 errors or worse.

But can they do it? According to Cyber Security “experts” they can’t. Well, at least this one guy seems pretty certain.

Whatever happens on Saturday, if you end up having a problem reaching your favorite website maybe that’s not such a bad thing. Take it as a sign that perhaps you should spend some time with friends, family or even dare I say it, outside in the fresh air.

It’s just one day. It won’t kill you.

For the record, I am not a ‘tween girl. In fact, I’m no kind of girl at all. Perhaps that’s why I just don’t get the whole Twilight phenomenon.

The books are not very well written, the story is cliche’ and the characters are drawn from the worst sort of tepid, melodramatic sources. Still, it is hugely successful as a book a movie series. Maybe ‘tween girls know more than I do? Who knows.

Whatever the reasons, Twilight is huge and the final filmic installment of the franchise is almost upon us. That means, of course, promotional material.

This time around said promotional material takes the form of a new teaser trailer for Breaking Dawn Part 2. This particular one shows us the trio and how things have changed for them, but in other ways, have stayed pretty much the same. Oh, and Bella needs a snack.

Check out the new teaser after the break. See what all the fuss is about when The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2 hits theaters on November 19.

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(Note: This post contains mild spoilers about the season finale of The Walking Dead)

At long last, the speculation can finally be over. With the news recently that David Morrisy taking on the role of The Governor in the next season of AMC’s The Walking Dead, the other big casting question of who will play Michonne has finally been answered. That’s right, actress Danai Gurira has been cast in the role.

Most recently seen in HBO’s Treme, Gurira has wasted no time in getting into katana-wielding character. In fact, she makes a surprise appearance in the season finale of the show just in time to save the life of one of the main characters. And what an entrance it is.

If you haven’t watched the season finale yet, you’re in for a real treat. Not just due to the appearance of Michonne, however, there’s also another great reveal just as the episode ends which is sure to raise the happiness level of fans everywhere.

After a slow start and some uneven episodes this season, it’s great to see the show redeem itself the last couple weeks. In fact, the season finale is probably one of the best episodes since the pilot. Yes, it’s that good.

Sadly, we now have to wait until Fall to see new episodes. Knowing the story of The Govenor and Michonne as we do, or at least how it plays out in the comics, it will be very interesting to see how AMC handles it. Very interesting indeed.

I’m cringing a bit just thinking about it.

As skeptical as I was when Ben Affleck took his first turn as director, he managed to prove himself more than adequate to the task with his first film Gone Baby Gone. Now with his latest directorial effort, The Town, he proves once again that all those years spent working with other directors, with a bit of his own talent thrown in, is more than enough to craft a suspenseful and entertaining crime thriller.

As this is a review of the Blu-ray Ultimate Edition of the film and not a full review of the film itself, suffice it to say I enjoyed The Town enough to watch it more than once. In fact, I’ve seen it at least three times. First, in a theater. Then, on Blu-ray and then again on Blu-ray in this Ultimate Collectors’s Edition.

The cast is excellent, especially Jeremy Renner and, somewhat surprisingly, Blake Lively. I also enjoyed watching Jon Hamm’s performance and, sadly, one of the last onscreen appearances of Pete Postlethwaite. Affleck is also quite good in the movie and has matured as an actor. At this point I can almost forgive him for Daredevil. Almost.

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In addition to movies, TV and comics, we also like tech and gadgets here at The Flickcast. We also like to help support cool projects when we find them.

And really, what could be cooler than a $25.00 Linux-powered computer about the size of a credit card you can order right now? Well, probably quite a few things but stil, that doesn’t mean it’s not cool too. What am I talking about?

Well, a bunch of enterprising folks got together and formed the Raspberry Pie Foundation with the goal of making a computer that could be sold for $25.00. They succeeded but, unfortunately, have run into a bit of a “manufacturing hiccup” on their way to shipping the devices.

According to the company, the computers were accidentally equipped with non-magnetic ethernet jacks, which would result in a lack of network connectivity. However, according to the company, it is “a very minor problem to fix, and the factory is nearly done working on replacing them on the first set of boards.”

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Today at a press conference in San Francisco, Apple CEO Tim Cook unveiled the next generation iPad to an enthusiastic crowd. The new device, officially dubbed the iPad (not iPad HD), features a host of new improvements over the iPad 2 and looks to become a huge seller for the company.

As we predicted yesterday, the new device will feature the 9.7-inch Retina Display with 2,048 x 1,536-pixel resolution, Apple’s new Apple A5X processor with quad-core graphics and the camera from the iPhone 4S with 5-megapixel resolution.

In addition, the new iPad will feature 1080p HD video capture with built-in stabilization, no Siri but a new “Dictation” app and the one thing ww’re most excited about, 4G LTE support for both AT&T and Verizon Wireless here in the U.S.

So, a great bunch of new features that will surely lead to to millions of new iPad owners. It will retain the same pricing structure as the previous iPad, with 4G LTE coming at an average $129 premium. It is available for pre-order today and will ship on March 16.

However, that’s not all Apple revealed today.

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You knew it was coming. It was inevitable. Just like there’s going to be an iPhone 5 soon enough (think June), the iPad 3 is pretty much a certainty thanks to an invite that went out today from Apple for an event on March 7th.

The event will take place in San Francisco and will no doubt introduce the iPad 3 to the eager masses yearning to be free of the limitations of 3G and a single processor, among other things. Apple’s iPad 3 is expected to feature a high-definition 2,048 x 1,536-pixel Retina Display, quad-core Apple A6 processor, larger battery, 4G LTE, an 8-megapixel camera and similar case design.

In addition, expect some cool features tied to the next major release of Apple’s iOS and Mac OS X operating systems which will hopefully include, among other things, full integration of Pages, Numbers and Keynote with iCloud across all Apple devices. That would be very nice indeed.

We’ll keep you posted on all the iPad 3 news and more. Until then, it’s probably time to get those iPad 2′s ready for eBay before they really drop in value.

I’m not sure what it is about movie marketing these days. For some reason, studios seems determined to hide elements of a film when putting together trailers and other marketing materials.

It’s almost as if they’re afraid to reveal anything for fear of alienating some segment (or all) of a film’s potential audience. In truth, that’s probably pretty close to the reality.

Such is the case with Disney’s upcoming film John Carter. It’s painfully obvious from the trailers released so far that Disney marketing has no idea how to sell this film. In fact, I’d wager the first trailers have done little to entice potential viewers into the theaters.

Personally, I’ve found them to be dull, uninspired and tending to focus on elements making this film pretty much look like every other Disney film released in the last ten years. Fortunetely, for those of us who are fans of the books and want this movie to succeede, others have stepped up to help.

Enter YouTube user John Carter Files. They’ve taken it upon themselves to make a trailer for the film and after watching it I’m sure you will agree it’s so much better than any of the “official” ones Disney should give these guys a job immedietly and leave them alone to do their work.

Check it out after the break. Look for John Carter to hit theaters on March 9.

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With all the speculation and hype surrounding Apple’s iPhone, iPad and iOS, it’s nice to actually get some concrete details about the company’s next version of the OS that powers its Mac hardware. That’s right, the cat-themed software is back and this time around it’s called “Mountain Lion.”

Apple today released details of the next version of its Mac OS, also known by the more technical name as Mac OS X 10.8, and they are going to be good news for those of you wishing your Mac was more like your iPhone or iPad. Some of the highlight of the new release include the arrival of iMessage on the Mac as well as Notification Center.

Other new features include Game Center integration, AirPlay mirroring, enhanced iCloud support and a number of redesigned apps. A developer preview of OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion will be released on Thursday of this week and the updated OS will become available to end users this summer.

For more, check out the full press release from Apple after the break.

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Chuck is back! Well, actually, it’s not really Chuck, sorry. It’s actually the actor who played him, Zachary Levi.

Sorry fans, Levi won’t be back as your favorite reluctant spy. Unless, of course, they decide to do a Chuck movie. Fingers crossed on that one.

Until then, the much sought-after actor has jumped into a new pilot for Fox called Let It Go. The script was written by DJ Nash who will be executive producing with Peter Tolan and Michael Wimer.

Levi will play the male lead of the ensamble comedy which concerns a married man (Levi) and his wife, his best friend and her sister “as they try to navigate, negotiate and sometimes manipulate society’s unspoken rules.” Hmm, sounds good. After all, “unspoken rules” are the most fun to break, right?

No word yet on other casting for the pilot and when or if it will be picked up as a series. However, as we’re big fans of Mr. Levi around here (and writer DJ Nash, who’s a talented so and so), you can bet we’ll be keeping tabs on this one.