OK, so lets break it down to you in the simplest way possible. Disney wants to make a movie that is based on a ride, that was based on a movie, that was based on a book. We here at The Flickcast are generally pro re-imagining properties, but that seems stretched a little thin.

Deadline is reporting that Disney is keen to get a movie in production based on yet another popular ride from a Disney Park:

Disney has feature film plans for Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, one of its longest-running theme park rides. The studio has set iconic commercials and video director Pete Candeland to develop a live-action/CGI mix feature that will bring to life a theme park ride that originated in Disneyland on its opening in 1955.

Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, if you remember, is the children’s dark ride that simulates a wild and drunken high speed car chase that ends with a first person simulation of a horrible death and hell. It is by far the most insane, ‘WTF’ ride at Disneyland and the concept of turning that experience into a feature film is crazy, but maybe just crazy enough to work.

The current idea would be to craft a film based on the attraction, not the well regarded source material. So sorry Wind in the Willows fans, it looks like you won’t be getting the umpteenth adaptation of your beloved book.

Disney’s big holiday animated project likely hits close to home for many of The Flickcast’s readership. A tale of an 8-Bit villian who tires of his repetitive life of villainy and struggles to find a place for him to be a hero. No it is not the biography of Donkey Kong, it is Wreck-It Ralph.

In the wake of the Pixar merger a few years ago, Disney has had a very successful run of animated films NOT produced by the famed animation studio. While not quite the high water mark of the second golden age, the last handful of years has been a welcome return to quality animation for the mouse house. Hopefully Wreck-It Ralph keeps that newly forged streak alive.

The newest poster for the upcoming film has hit the web today, and its simplistic, 8-Bit design fills us with confidence. Clearly this film knows it’s roots and is being made by people with a genuine love of the video game world. 8-Bit design has found a resurgence in the geek community in recent years, and to see a major motion picture studio plastering the style in theater hallways nationwide is heartening.

You can see the full poster after the jump.

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Tron: Legacy is a bit of a polarizing film. Some people loved it, others hated it while few could find much middle ground. Say what you will about the movie itself, it is hard to deny that Legacy re-introduced us to an intriguing universe that deserves to be explored a bit more.

While a third Tron film grows less and less likely with each passing month, Disney remains committed to the franchise with a new animated series set to debut on Disney XD soon. We have long known of this project, as it was announced shortly after the release of Legacy, but it has been awhile since we have been reminded that the show is still on the horizon.

That reminder has finally arrived in the form of a new trailer for the show, showcasing an impressive animated style that fits the digital world of Tron perfectly. The show also boosts an incredible voice cast, starring Elijah Wood, Mandy Moore, Lance Henriksen, Paul Reubens and even Bruce Boxleitner back as Tron.

You can check out the new trailer after the jump.

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The recent trend of Fairy Tale re-imaginings is going to be around for at least a few more years as Disney announced today that one if its most intriguing in-development projects is moving full steam ahead.

Maleficent is a live action re-telling of the Sleeping Beauty story, but from the perspective of Maleficent herself, played very appropriately by Angelina Jolie. Originally the movie was being developed by Brad Bird and there was even a time when Tim Burton was attached to direct, but recently the project had been rather dormant.

That was until today’s announcement of course. Disney has confirmed that Robert Stromberg will be making his feature debut with this film, which is now set for an March 14th, 2014 release date. Stromberg is a production designer that was a major contributor on Avatar and has worked with Tim Burton and Sam Raimi in the past. With a resume like that it is a safe bet that the film will look stunning, and with Angelina Jolie still perfectly cast in the title role this film has much going for it.

There was a time when this project looked dead in the water, but this new niche sub-genre has been gaining a ton of momentum as of late. Even the poorly marketed Mirror Mirror ended up gaining some admirers. Hopefully re-done fairy tales has some more creative heft to it now that the Twlight aesthetic has grown so stale.

The Avengers is less than a month away, but the folks at Marvel Studios are thinking beyond to the second ‘phase’ of the Marvel shared Universe. There are already release dates scheduled for Thor 2 and Iron Man 3, and now Marvel has settled on it’s date for Captain America 2.

The second solo film staring Cap is set to release April 4th, 2014. This is an odd time to release a big budget blockbuster sequel to a well received film. Usually films like this come out in the Summer blockbuster season, or around Christmas when most people have lots of free time.

Our theory here at The Flickcast is that Marvel is hedging it’s bets with Captain America 2. The Hunger Games proved that you can still be a huge blockbuster in the spring, but expectations are limited in non-peak months. The truth of the matter is that Captain America has a limited worldwide audience, and that translated to the second lowest Marvel Studios box office performer.

Obviously the movie was a smash here in America, and Cap is an integral part of the Marvel Universe. So moving his film to the spring might help keep expectations in check, while still allowing the movie a chance for it to blow up internationally.

Whatever the reasons are, the next phase of Marvel’s shared universe is starting to come into focus. Baring a failure of The Avengers next month, all these new films should culminate in Avengers 2 some time in the future.

One of the greatest perks of Disney buying Marvel Comics a few years back was that we would start to see some Marvel flourishes in the Disney parks. It is going to be a long process before we see Iron Man and Cap walking around the parks, due to deals Marvel previously had in place with Universal Studios for theme park based attractions.

Those deals don’t, however, hinder Disney from promoting their new features starring the Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. Soon to be zooming overhead at the Walt Disney World Resort is the Avengers themed monorail!

Wrapping the monorails is not a new tactic for Disney, who previously converted Disneyland monorails into light cycles prior to Tron: Legacy’s release. However, these are much cooler, and will serve as a great looking speeding billboard for Disney World park goers this summer.

Hopefully this small entry into the parks is just the first step that will lead to a full fledged Marvel Comics land in one of the Disney Parks. Heck why not an entire separate Marvel Park, complete with Hulk Smash Bumper cars, Iron Man flight simulators, Thor Thunder Chrurros and Black Widow ladies rooms!

The Avengers hits theaters everywhere May 4th.

Spider-Man cartoons have always been among the very best in Super-Hero animation. Most recently the series Spectacular Spider-Man managed to be the fourth or fifth iteration of the character that actually worked as an animated series.

So there is high hopes for the new Ultimate Spider-Man series. In anticipation of the series premiere, Marvel has released a few stills from this upcoming season with certain guest stars cut out. Time to play the guess who’s coming to Ultimate Spider-Man guessing game!

These little teases are nothing new in the comic world, with covers often released with cutouts to ramp up anticipation. Doing this for an upcoming animated show, on the other hand, is downright inspired. This is the perfect way to drum up interest in a new series few people even knew was coming.

The show will hopefully join The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes as the new watermark for Marvel animation. DC has long held the title of best hero cartoons, but now that Marvel has the backing of Disney, there is no reason we can’t see JLU quality programming set in the Marvel universe.

You can check out the full set of pictures after the jump, and don’t forget to catch the series premiere this Sunday.

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Now that we have Jennifer Lawrence in Hunger Games out of our system, I think it’s safe to say the next major release for the fan community is Disney and Marvel’s upcoming superfilm, The Avengers.

Set to bring just about a billion fans together for a solid 2 hours, the studio is hoping to shatter previous records (statistically speaking) and bring in the dawn of a new era of superhero franchise films. We’ve heard plenty of rumors as to who the main villain is in the film, what Avenger cameos we may be getting, and how much fun everyone had on set, but these images of Cap, Stark, and the rest of the crew really show why this film could be the biggest of the summer.

You get a little bit of everyone in the images after the jump, as well as the rarely seen Cobie Smulders as Agent Maria Hill. And yes: for those who heard Whedon’s rant about how much he hates Iron Man’s triangular power supply, you’ll even see the newly designed circular one make an appearance.

Check them all out below and catch Avengers in theaters on May 4th.

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There is some good, some awesome, some sad and some well excepted news in this weeks box office results.

Coming in at number one for the weekend, 21 Jump Street makes a splash with $35 million, and it’s very good news. To see a successful TV adaptation that proves you can be R-rated, have a completely unexpected tone and still work is a wonderful trend starter for the industry.

Hollywood is a copy cat industry and if remakes and reboots have to happen, the only way you can maintain some artistic credibly is to bring something fresh to the table. Hopefully this success can grease the wheels with other creative folks and deliver something unexpected with these name brands. It will be interesting to see how the zany Dark Shadows is received in the wake of this win.

The well expected news comes in the form of our second place finisher, The Lorax. This Suess adaptation is performing well above initial expectations and is proving to have strong legs as it fell another soft 40ish percent to nearly $23 million. The Lorax will take a hit next week, but is well on it’s way to crossing the $200 million bar.

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The fan community is certainly one of the strongest forces in the entertainment industry since the rise of the internet. Long gone is the idea of an old-timey press room where the barrier between the readers and the writers held strong. Now fanboys like Harry Knowles hold power purely because of the geek credibility that he currently weilds.

With a rule like that, fans are the true final word as to whether a film gets a sequel, if not a multi-film franchise, so why wouldn’t they be the ones who decide what movie ideas get made?

A few years ago, a fan put together a little photoshopped poster where Sam Jackson takes on a ridiculous plot like poisonous snakes being let loose on a plane mid-flight. 32 million dollars in production and $62 million in ticket sales later, Snakes on a Plane was considered somewhat of a win by New Line.

Now, fans are at it again with a (far superior) photoshop job showcasing a possible Walt Disney biopic starring the lovable Ryan Gosling, simply titled Walt. You can thank French artist Pascal Witaszek for being the brains (and eye) behind this one.

Take a look at the image after the jump, and help share this so we can get a seemingly awesome film like this made by a talented team.

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That unfortunate loud thudding noise you just heard was John Carter‘s opening weekend. The mega budget, would be franchise starter came in at a beyond disappointing 30.6 million. Good enough for second place to last week’s winner, The Lorax.

Speaking of this week’s box office champion, The Lorax hauled in an impressive 39.1 million, representing a mild 44% drop from last week’s huge opening numbers. With a massive opening, and a mild drop, the Dr. Suess adaptation is in prime shape to be the break out hit of the spring. It really only has The Hungar Game to compete with, and that audience is similar but far from exact.

Project X held well, and preformed strongly in the wake of a solid opening weekend. This week it was announced that a sequel to the found footage party film was possibly underway, and a continued strong presence at the box office goes a long way in validating that decision.

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Twitter is fast becoming a reliable and consistent news stream. A place where people can share comments, pictures or videos directly with fans. Case in point, Jerry Bruckheimer took to his twitter to release the first official image from the upcoming film The Lone Ranger.

The image reveals the updated look to the classic Lone Ranger and his faithful sidekick Tonto. Underneath the crazy make-up on Tonto is Johnny Depp, who seems to be on a mission to have a more elaborate face make-up every time he is on screen.

The very dapper looking Lone Ranger is played by Armie Hammer, who many still don’t realize is the single person who played both Winkelvoss twins in The Social Network. He actually strikes as a very good Lone Ranger, he has the look down pat, and his ability as an actor has been proven.

It will be interesting to see what tone The Lone Ranger is going for. The idea of a western franchise that has the same scope and demeanor of the Pirates films could be pretty great. Somewhere inbetween The Mask of Zorro and Wild Wild West there lies a pretty awesome western adventure, hopefully this film will be it.

You can check out the full new image after the jump.

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