While attending the Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour to promote The Vampire Diaries, writer Kevin Williamson gave us some updates and the current status of Scream 4:

“I’m almost done with the first draft of Scream 4. I’m trying to get that together for Wes Craven. We’ve got to get going on that, during the hiatus. We have Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox and Dave Arquette. I was always holding out hope because the pitch was about those three characters. I didn’t want to have to re-route the whole story. We don’t have to do that. I can do it exactly the way I want wanted. The story is going to be told the way I originally conceived it.”

The immediate good news for fans of Scream are that all the principals are back, hopefully this will mean Wes Craven will return to direct. Films like this do best when you can bring back that core creative element. Of course, few of the other characters survived the first three films to return anyway.

Some may wonder if jumping back into the world of Scream is a good or bad idea. The horror genre has changed considerably since the first Scream movie came out in 1996. Scream 3 alone is ten years old. The big money makers these days are franchise films like Saw and unexpected indie hits like Paranormal Activity. The closest films to what Scream was would be the recent Halloween reboots, and even that’s a stretch.

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While most people will be rushing out to see Jim Cameron’s newest masterpiece, Avatar, for the spectacle, others may have a new reason to spend the extra money on seeing the film in 3-D. The Weinstein Company and Dimension Films have just announced that the very first trailer for next Spring’s Piranha 3D will debut exclusively before selected 3-D and 2-D showings of Avatar.

The film is the second trailer to the 1978 film Piranha, directed by Joe Dante (Gremlins 2: The New Batch), while the first two films were pretty cheap and a bit hokey, Dimension promises that the newest incarnation will be made to scare.

From acclaimed director Alexandre Aja (“The Hills Have Eyes”) comes the new action thriller PIRANHA 3D, in the latest eye-popping 3D technology. After a sudden underwater tremor sets free scores of the prehistoric man-eating fish, an unlikely group of strangers must band together to stop themselves from becoming fish food for the area’s new razor-toothed residents.

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Once again we visit the post-apocalyptic wasteland of director John Hillcoat’s adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s Pulitzer-winning best-seller The Road — in the form of a new trailer courtesy of Dimension Films. Previously, we brought you the first trailer for this movie, which showed more of an overview of what happened and sets up the journey a bit.

This one features more of the relationship between the father (Viggo Mortensen) and the son (Kodi Smitt McPhee) and delves a bit more into the perilous journey they are on after civilization is virtually wiped out. If you’re not familiar with the novel of the movie, this trailer should help you realize what kind of movie this is and, more importantly, why you should consider seeing it — regardless of its potentially disturbing and “downer” themes.

Be sure to check back as the film gets closer to release for a full review of The Road. In the meantime, take a look at this new trailer after the jump. The Road, directed by John Hillcoat and starring Viggo Mortensen, Kodi Smit McPhee, Robert Duvall, Charlize Theron and Guy Pearce, opens everywhere on November 25th.

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As much as I might think this is yet another in a series of needless remakes, reboots and re-imaginings, it seems inevitable that they will keep getting made and my protests will go unheard. So, with that in mind I bring you the news that director Steve Carr (late of Paul Blart: Mall Cop) has been tapped to take on a reboot of the film Short Circuit for Dimension Films.

I’ll let that one sink in for a minute. Okay, now that you are probably making your “WTF?” face I can tell you some potentially good news about this project. It’s being scripted by Robot Chicken’s Dan Milano, so at least that gives it some kind of chance to be funny — especially if they actually follow the script. Plus, the story, which concerns military robot Johnny 5 who “develops a conscience and personality after being hit by lightning and then befriends a lonely boy and his fractured family” doesn’t sound that bad.

Also, I don’t really blame Carr for Paul Blart being terrifically unfunny. He didn’t write the thing after all. That blame lands squarely in the lap of writer/star Kevin James. Nor, did he edit it or probably even get final cut. So, its probably not completely his fault. However, seeing as his other credits do include Dr. Doolittle 2, Daddy Daycare and the far less amusing sequel Next Friday does not really bode well for this movie.

I guess we’ll find out to what level this movie sucks when it hits theaters sometime in 2010.

We got quite a bit of different stuff sent to us here at The Flickcast. Some of it is pretty cool like trailers for upcoming movies, game videos, comics previews and things of that nature. We also get a lot of movie poster art sent to us and some of it is also pretty cool. Case in point are the two new “official’ posters for The Road and Youth in Revolt.

Both poster feature what so many do these days, large pictures of the principal actors and a clever or meaningful tag line. Also, both are different than previous posters that have been released for these films. In addition, on the poster for The Road, Mortensen is clearly holding a gun so you don’t think this is just a movie about people talking and, curiously, the names of the writer and director appear again in larger print at the bottom of the poster so they are clearly visible. This is, of course, an obvious attempt to make sure that people know who they are — particularly those who nominated and vote on the Oscars.

The Youth in Revolt Poster, at least to me, reminds me of the poster for Stanley Kubrick’s film Lolita, which I’ve included after the jump for comparison. I’m not sure what the marketing department at Dimension/Weinstein was trying to go for, but obviously some of them are Kubrick fans.

We’ve talked about these two films here before and you can expect a review of each of these films closer to their release dates. Until then, be sure to check out the larger versions of both posters after the jump. The Road opens on November 25th and Youth In Revolt opens on January 8th, 2010.

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We posted our review of Rob Zombie’s Halloween II here last week, amongst our full coverage of the film including an interview with Zombie himself. One subject that was sensitive for him was talking about a third film in the franchise. Zombie’s official statement was that he wasn’t making a third film, but it looks like Bob and Harvey Weinstein have a different plan.

Before word of how Halloween II even did in the box office over the weekend (coming in at #3 with only $17million, giving the top spot to Final Destination), the studio has already set a tentative release date of August 2010, and if that goes well, you can expect to see more done in the vain of the Saw films with a yearly release.

According to the LA Times, Rob Zombie will not be returning to the franchise for the aptly titled Halloween 3D. Zombie has already stated that his immediate plans revolve around his next album (hitting shelves in November) and currently drafting a script for a remake of the 50’s horror film The Blob.

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We got the chance to talk to Rob Zombie about his release of Halloween 2 this week, and though he stated that he has no intention of remaking any other horror movies, it looks like Genre Co.’s Richard Sapperstein may have made his mind up for him.

According to Variety, Genre Co., which is founded by former Dimension Pictures President Sapperstein, will be producing a remake of the 1958 classic The Blob along with the original producers at Worldwide Entertainment Corp. According to Zombie, this is something new for him, and he’s ready to take a crack at it.

“I’d been looking to break out of the horror genre, and this really is a science fiction movie about a thing from outer space,” Zombie said. “I intend to make it scary, and the great thing is I have the freedom once again to take it in any crazy direction I want to.”

Zombie has begun writing. He’ll follow the release of “Halloween II” with a new album and tour this fall and get the script done at that time.

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Rob Zombie’s Halloween 2 doesn’t live up to the promise of his first effort and is only marginally entertaining for its running time. The film, which begins about a minute after the last one ends, continues the tale of Laurie Strode (Scout Taylor-Compton) and her descent into madness. During the film she’s also pursued by Michael Myers, a sinister and relentless killing machine who even thought he’s on a mission to find Laurie and do whatever it is sociopaths do with people they find instead of killing them, he manages to stop along the way and kill many people seemingly at random or just because they happen to be in his way.

There are some things to like about this sequel. First, Zombie manages to up the tension and the stakes a bit from the first one — its now even more about saving Laurie — plus he throws in a pretty effective misdirection at the beginning of the film that leads us to believe we’re going to be watching a very faithful remake of the original Halloween sequel. Fortunately, he’s able to get away from that concept pretty gracefully and ends up taking the film into another less familiar, but in the end no less predictable, direction.

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Michael Cera has lately been getting a bad rap. He has seemingly fallen from grace and lately gone the way of Bill Heder and playing the same role over and over. Since his jump to stardom with Arrested Development and Superbad, Cera has gotten the role of the nervous lead nearly half a dozen times.

However, all may not be lost as it looks like things may just be changing for him — at least judging by the first trailer for his latest film Youth in Revolt which has just hit the Internets. Cera initially plays the same character many have grown tired of, until that character decides that he needs to manifest a separate identity. When that happens, he follows no rules, and only knows the path of the sexy villain — which could be a nice change for the actor if he can pull it off.

The film also stars Ray Liotta, Zach Galifianakis, Fred Willard, and Justin Long. Check out the trailer after the jump.

Youth in Revolt hits theaters October 30th.

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