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.

Westworld (1973) marks the feature film debut of Sci-fi writer Michael Crichton who had recently met success in Hollywood with the film adaptation of his famed novel The Andromeda Strain. Westworld stars Richard Benjamin (Peter Martin) James Brolin (John Blane) and Yul Brynner (The Gunslinger).

Westworld is set in the near future (now passé) where a resort known as Delos, comprised of three resort communities gives its adult patrons the opportunity for $1000 a day to live out their fantasies as either an old west desperado, a medieval knight, or a hedonist in the pre-Christian Roman Empire. The park is also home to human like androids that are engineered to look, talk, and react just like humans.

Peter Martin (Benjamin) accompanies his best friend John Blane (Brolin) who has visited Westworld before. Peter begins asking John how the theme park operates and most importantly, what can they expect while enjoying their two week stay as wild west outlaws. After their orientation and then being equipped with authentic old west clothing and pistols, Peter and John arrive at the Westworld theme park by stagecoach where Peter is in awe of the park’s authenticity.

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Last week saw the debut of the monster hit The Hunger Games. This week that film held well enough to keep an iron grip on the weekend box office. Raking in an estimated $61 Million over the weekend, the super sized block buster is now over $250 Million in just over a week.

The movie did drop over 60% from it’s opening last weekend, but in comparison to films like the Twilight series that is a decent hold. Especially when you take into consideration that films like these are notoriously front loaded, the second weekend take for The Hunger Games is impressive.

Coming in at number two this weekend was Wrath of the Titans, the sequel to the 2010 film Clash of the Titans. With a total of $34 Million, Wrath brought in only just better than half of the original’s open in the similar weekend two years ago. Given the current trend of sequels performing at levels similar to the reception of the previous film, this low number had to be expected.

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Though it’s not the full trailer, the official “teaser” for the trailer has made its way onto the internet for the final piece in Summit & Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight Saga, Breaking Dawn Part 2.

That’s right. It all comes down to this. From what we’re hearing, this is possibly the most action-filled story in the entire franchise itself. Here’s a quick rundown.

After the birth of Renesmee Cullen, Bella, now a vampire, finds herself enjoying her new life and abilities. However, the vampire Irina misidentifies Renesmee as an “immortal child”, a child who has been turned into a vampire, and because immortal children are uncontrollable, creating them has been outlawed by the Volturi. After Irina presents her allegation to the Volturi, they plan to destroy Renesmee and the Cullens. In an attempt to survive, the Cullens gather other vampire clans from around the world to stand as witnesses and prove to the Volturi that Renesmee is not an immortal child.

Take a look at the teaser after the jump, and catch the film in theaters on November 16th.

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The current big trend in H-Town is revisiting fairy tales and giving them new spins. People should know better than to complain about this trend, because retooling fairy tales is the basis for most of modern storytelling, so this always seemed like a natural place for Hollywood to go.

Early on, one such project seemed like the worst, pandering tripe imaginable. Snow White and the Huntsman seemed like a hallow, Twilight meets Lord of the Rings mash-up with a recognizable name. Taking all the worst parts if Alice in Wonderland and Red Riding Hood to forge one super stinker of a picture.

Somewhere along the line, the stars converged and this movie actually turned the corner on it’s perception. With each passing trailer the movie looks more and more like an epic adventure worthy of a mass audience.

Now a brand new trailer has hit and it continues the trend of making the movie look better and better. It has scope, it has visual flare, it has Bob Flippin’ Hoskins as one of the seven dwarves! Snow White and the Huntsman might not just be good, it might actually pretty fantastic.

Check out the new trailer after the jump.

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Big franchises have a unique set of problems. Shepherds of large, established franchises have to worry about their brand and how it is exposed to the world.

One of the biggest global franchises is The Lord of the Rings, or more specifically the whole of Middle-Earth. It is such a huge franchise there is an entire division of The Saul Zaentz Company set up devoted to Middle-Earth. The division, Middle-Earth Enterprises, is in charge of the license, and it is up to them to maintain it’s integrity.

That’s all well and good, but some times the desire to protect the franchise ends up hurting it. One such instance is the recent attempt by Middle-Earth Enterprises to shut down a popular pub in Southampton, England called The Hobbit.

This Tolkien themed bar is a long established pub that was set up as an homage to the works of Tolkien. The intention was to bring positive new attention to the work in it’s own small way. The folks over at The Saul Zaentz Company have decided enough is enough and wants the bar to stop using the likenesses or pay up.

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One of my favorite things to cover in my weekly film score review is compilations. These sets are the most easily digestible forms of film music, and represented my entry into the world. It was the combined ‘Best Of’ albums of John Williams, James Horner and Danny Elfman that captivated me so much as a child. Now I take great pleasure in shining a light on these sets today, hoping that some non film score fans give them a shot.

In the world of film music compilations there is a top dog who has been releasing stellar sets over and over again. Silva Screen Records has been nailing it with re-recorded compilations of some of today’s most recognizable franchises. Mostly using the excellent City of Prague Philharmonic, these sets have been some of the most fun I have been able to review in my many months of writing about film music.

Today’s set is no exception, The Complete Harry Potter Film Music Collection is a well crafted, well performed and generally a great listen from start to finish. The set smashes together musical highlights from the eight film series that takes you on a journey from the optimistic sense of wonder in the first film all the way through the dark and dangerous end. It is a musical time-capsule that follows the decade long franchise.

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As we previously reported, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson was in the running to helm Brett Ratner’s Hercules. Now Johnson has officially signed on for the titular role of Ratner’s Hercules film and has also signed on to do an adaptation of the graphic novel Ciudad.

Many fans are excited about the change in career choices that Dwayne Johnson has been making as The Rock is choosing more action films rather than Tooth Fairy 2. With Faster and Fast Five under his belt, as well as the upcoming G.I. Joe:Retaliation and Pain and Gain, Johnson is going back to his action roots for these 2 films.

Ciudad is an action-thriller adaptation of the upcoming Oni Press graphic novel of the same name.

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We are one short month away from the beginning of the second season of Game Of Thrones. We have already let you know of not one, but two trailers for the next season. Those were nice enough, but this is newest trailer kills them all.

So much happened at the end of the last season that the show can’t help but get off to a running start April 1st. The next season is generally based on the second novel in George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series, A Clash of Kings, meaning that people new to the series should beware, spoilers lurk in the dark places of the internet.

One of the best parts of this new trailer is how it showcases a nigh perfect synergy between song and image. This trailer weaves clips of the upcoming season with the song ‘Seven Devils’ by Florence and the Machine, and if you didn’t even know better you might have thought it was a song written for the show, it works that well.

We here at  The Flickcast can’t wait until the premiere, so stay tuned should any more amazing bits of marketing find their way out in these last few agonizing weeks. We will be all over it.

Check out the new trailer after the jump.

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Up until now, HBO has teased us with tiny teasers for the upcoming second season of the critically acclaimed series Game of Thrones. Those of us that read the books know the true importance that hits in the coming storylines, but not much of how it will be executed.

A good amount of those question marks can now fall away (and some can become bigger) as the first full, 2 minute trailer for the upcoming season has finally hit the web.

So will the Lannisters and the Starks finally duke it out? Will we get more dragons? And who will take the throne once and for all?

Take a look at the full trailer after the jump to get a glimpse at what’s to come on April 1st, when Game of Thrones returns to HBO.

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Saoirse Ronan is not only starring in Twilight author Stephanie Meyer’s The Host, but is now attached to headline yet another Snow White centric flick called The Order of the Seven. The film will have a completely new spin on the old story.

It will follow a centuries old and once revered Order of Warriors from around the world, who are now a jaded group of outlaws, as they reclaim their destiny after the reemergence of an ancient evil empress. Ronan will play Olivia Sinclair, a British ex-pat of 19th Century Hong Kong who guides the warriors back to their noble roots. The film will be lined with stars from China, Russia and Japan.

Ronan has been making a name for herself over the past few years as she has taken on larger and larger roles, which have included Peter Jackson’s The Lovely Bones, the Oscar-winning Atonement and not to mention the action packed Hanna. This will be her first leading role.

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Diablo is one of those franchises that exists in every gamers dreams. It was one of the classic Blizzard titles that has been long lost in the success of World of Warcraft and Starcraft, but there has always been hope that we would see a return to the action RPG franchise.

So a few years ago it was announced that Diablo 3 was officially on the way, and the world of video games seemed like a happier place. However, A funny thing happened on the way to Gamestop and the release missed an originally planed 2011 release window. Reports of an early 2012 release were heard, but alas we have at least a few more months to wait.

Activision announced in a recent financial report that Diablo 3 is currently expected for the middle of the year, killing any hope that we would see the game sooner rather than later.

That was not the only disappointing news for Blizzard fans in the report. The long awaited second part of Starcraft 2 and the next World of Warcraft expansion are on shaky ground for a 2012 release. Blizzard is only expected to ship one other title this year in addition to Diablo 3, meaning one or both of those two announced projects is going to be pushed to 2013.

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