The second stretch of filming for the two-part Hobbit adaptation is set to begin later this month. Even though there has already been over one hundred days of shooting, the final roles are still being cast for parts in the later portions of movie two.

Deadline is reporting that the great Billy Connolly has been cast as Dain Ironfoot, the leader of a fierce band of Dwarf warriors and cousin to Thorin Oakenshield:

We could not think of a more fitting actor to play Dain Ironfoot, the staunchest and toughest of Dwarves, than Billy Connolly, the Big Yin himself. With Billy stepping into this role, the cast of The Hobbit is now complete. We can’t wait to see him on the Battlefield!

It is hard to call this perfect casting before we see Connolly in action, but if it is possible we here at The Flickcast are somehow now even more excited for the final Hobbit film. The next two years are going to be very big for Billy Connolly who has yet to really break out here in the states.

Aside from his role in 2013′s Hobbit finale he will also be providing a pivotal voice in the next Pixar film, Brave.

At last, the film adaptation for Anne Rice’s fourth installment of  The Vampire Chronicles is currently under development as a feature film. Ron Howard and Brian Grazer’s production company, Image Entertainment, has taken an interest in the project.

The company has optioned the rights to the book in which popular anti-hero Lestat de Lioncourt has chosen to temporarily trade bodies with a human psychic for another chance at feeling human. Unfortunately, the deal goes South when the human doesn’t want to trade back and Lestat must track down his former body in order to regain his immortality.

The production is working in partnership Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci (Star Trek, Eagle Eye) and Lee Patterson,
an upcomming writer who will be writing the screenplay. The film will be treated as though main character Lestat has not been previously been introduced to audiences. The producers hope to present the script to studios within a month.

Lestat was first introduced to film audiences in 1994′s Interview with the Vampire starring Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, and Kirsten Dunst. The film was distributed by Warner Bros.

The second installment, Queen of the Damned, featured Stuart Townsend in the role of Lestat and deceased R&B songstress Aaliyah as Akasha (the mother of all vampires).

There are very few things Pixar could do that would get me more excited to see one of their films. Between the overall popularity of Toy Story, Up, The Incredibles and tons more, there is very little the animation studio can do that would be considered a bad move (Owen Wilson vehicles not included).

With that said, it’s hard to believe they’ve found a way to speak to their audience even more with their upcoming video game parody film, Wreck-It Ralph, but it looks like they just might. Here’s the official synopsis of the film. Consider it Donkey Kong from the gorilla’s perspective.

Wreck-It Ralph (voice of John C. Reilly) longs to be as beloved as his game’s perfect Good Guy, Fix-It Felix (voice of 30 Rock’s Jack McBrayer). Problem is, nobody loves a Bad Guy. But they do love heroes… so when a modern, first-person shooter game arrives featuring tough-as-nails Sergeant Calhoun (voice of Jane Lynch), Ralph sees it as his ticket to heroism and happiness. He sneaks into the game with a simple plan—win a medal—but soon wrecks everything, and accidentally unleashes a deadly enemy that threatens every game in the arcade.

Ralph’s only hope? Vanellope von Schweetz (voice of Sarah Silverman), a young troublemaking “glitch” from a candy-coated cart racing game who might just be the one to teach Ralph what it means to be a Good Guy. But will he realize he is good enough to become a hero before it’s “Game Over” for the entire arcade?

As if the concept of several video and board games being parodied in a Pixar film isn’t enough to guarantee your $10, the studio has recently released some images that will give us an idea of how this video game-based world will look. Take a look after the jump, and catch Wreck-It Ralph in theaters this November.

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Following his success with Black Swan, director Darren Aronofsky has made the ambitious decision to have a biblical epic as his follow up film. The film is Noah, which will center on the biblical tale of Noah’s Ark. Due to his estimated $130 million budget, Aronofsky is looking to find a bankable star to get backing on his passion project.

Originally, He wanted Christian Bale to star, but Bale passed. Aronofsky looked at Michael Fassbender as a good replacement, but Fassbender claimed to be too busy.  Now Deadline is reporting that Darren has finally found his Noah, and it is Gladiator star Russell Crowe.  Even though no deal has been officially signed, an agreement with Crowe is said to be in place.  With Crowe seemingly in place, Aronofsky is now searching for the villain of the film and has his sights set on Liam Neeson.  The villain will argue against Noah’s faith as he builds a massive ship to weather the impending flood.

Paramount and New Regency want to start shooting Noah this summer for a 2013 release.

Aronofsky has already told his version of the story of the Bible’s Noah through a graphic novel with artist Nico Henrichon. The story is not a direct interpretation of the original biblical tale but a more fantastical vision of the story. Aronofsky has been dreaming of bringing this story to life since he was 13 years old.

Now John Logan is re-writing the film’s script and various studios are getting interested in co-financing the ambitious project.  For a sneak peak at the graphic novel, see the video after the jump. Pardon the French.

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After months of dragon and sword-less action in our lives, HBO has finally released a full trailer for the upcoming second season of the incredibly popular Game of Thrones series. No more fancy graphics with shadowy images or ominous lines that make no sense, there’s some real plot stuff in here.

Okay, maybe a few more ominous lines…

Not much is really known about what we can expect to see in this upcoming season, but we do know that anybody can be killed. Here’s a quick blurb on the overall season from the official GoT Wiki page:

Season 2 is closely based on A Clash of Kings, the second novel in the Song of Ice and Fire novel series by George R.R. Martin. Some characters and elements from the first novel, A Game of Thrones, have been held back for the second season and some other elements were brought forward into the first for production reasons.

Take a look at the sweet new trailer after the jump, and catch the new season on April 1, only on HBO.

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Over the past two decades, Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett’s Good Omens has almost been made into a movie several times. Monty Python alum Terry Gilliam tried for years to put the comic fantasy on film, but the infamously unlucky auteur (see the wonderful doc Lost in La Mancha) could never make it happen.

There has been talk lately of a possible TV miniseries, but many of the book’s fans still hold out hope for a feature. But who could bring Good Omens‘s outrageous characters to life?

Take a look at our picks after the jump.

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If you are a general movie fan (let’s be honest: if you’re here, you probably are) then you are probably aware how casting works for most films. Directors and producers seeks out the stars, or soon-to-be stars, that they really like for the roles and either build a film around them or make them work into their project.

But what if time and space folded in on itself, causing films like Inception and Drive to get made in the film era of Bela Lugosi and James Dean? Or if John Wayne actually got the part to play Superman instead of George Reeves?

These are questions that digital artist Peter Stults thought would be cool to explore, as he takes popular films and drops them into different eras and genres, with the farthest possible actors taking on the iconic roles.

After the jump, you can take a look at the whole slew of them, which include Sean Connery in The Fifth Element, Fritz Lang’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, and our personal favorite: Leonard Nimoy in Die Hard.

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With comic properties being snatched up by movie studios like lucrative hotcakes, a Luna Brothers film project is clearly inevitable. With their cinematic style, self-contained stories, and strong emotional centers, Joshua and Jonathan Luna’s titles are a perfect fit for the silver screen.

Probably the best thus far, a very original and dark superhero tale called simply The Sword could make an amazing, violent, and beautiful modern fantasy film. Of course, the cast would have to be as moving as the source material. Here are my humble suggestions for a movie adaptation of The Luna Brothers’ The Sword.

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This week’s pick is The Road Warrior (a.k.a. Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior) (1981). Mel Gibson dons his black leather uniform once again in this second installment of the franchise.

The Road Warrior begins with a narration sequence with an elderly man’s voice as it is shown to the audience the widespread pandemonium, which has steered the world towards nuclear Armageddon. Mad Max I shows the audience the beginning of the end. The Road Warrior picks up after the world has been destroyed and society hangs by a narrow thread.

Max roams the wasteland of Australia with his battle-torn black V-8 interceptor and his cattle dog foraging for supplies mainly food, and fuel for his gas-guzzling supercharger. Much like the first film, the first several minutes of the film offer an amazing chase sequence where Max is being pursued by a band of marauding punks led by the vicious Wez (Vernon Wells) who plan to kill Max and take his vehicle and what precious supplies he has left.

Max foils their attempt and wreaks two vehicles in an amazing crash sequence. Max commanders what fuel he can from one of the wreaked cars and fends off an attack by Wez who was shot in the arm with an arrow.  Collecting what he can Max sets off again with his dog and his even more damaged vehicle.

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The first Thor film was pretty well received. As an introduction to magical and mystical elements into a universe defined by more down to earth realism, Thor was a great success. So the sequel is going to be very anticipated, especially after The Avengers hits cinemas this summer.

The film has already played the director carousel, and is just now landing on a new writer to get things in order on the script. Deadline is reporting that Robert Rodat, whose credits include The Patriot and Saving Private Ryan,  has been brought on to do a re-write of the script currently in hand.

Rodat is reworking a draft by Don Payne. Disney will put the film into production later this year for release in 2013 with Chris Hemsworth returning as the title character.

With much of the principle cast returning, and a director with ability firmly in place, Thor 2 is fast becoming one of the most anticipate projects of the year. Normally in instances like this we would have some sort of idea what the sequel could be about, but with Thor and Loki playing primary roles in the upcoming Avengers film, we really don’t know what state our hero will be in come late 2013.

Just passing its fifteenth anniversary, the Diablo series has become known as the quintessential loot grabbing dungeon crawling RPG on the PC. With only two formal releases, the third installment of Diablo is set to come out this year from Blizzard. While fans of the series have clamored for more, they also know that Blizzard is not a company to rush a game if it isn’t ready and have earned a reputation for quality because of this. As a result, Diablo III may be the most anticipated game of 2012.

Returning from Diablo II will be the Barbarian, the game’s standard melee class but with a reworked skillset. Also in the melee vein will be the new Monk class. The Wizard will debut similar to the sorcerer from Diablo and sorceress from Diablo II.

New to the series will be the Witch Doctor, similar in playstyle to the Necromancer from Diablo II and a new rogue-like character known as the Demon Hunter possessing ranged abilities, traps and evasion tactics.

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It’s never a good sign when a film gets pushed back over 6 months. It’s even worse when a studio like Paramount pushes 3 of their upcoming 2012 films back. That seems to be the case, as the mountainous studio has pushed back 3 of its releases. One of these releases is the upcoming 3D epic Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters, starring Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton.

According to an interview with Deadline, a studio exec for Paramount says this is all part of the plan to push the film overseas, but when a film gets pushed from March 2 to January 11 of the following year, it’s never a good sign.

“This should really set up the international,” a studio exec explains to me. ”Jeremy Renner’s international profile should be in great shape after being in Mission: Impossible 4 now, then The Avengers in May, then The Bourne Legacy in August. As this past weekend shows, January is great play time internationally, and we haven’t done too bad domestically in January, either.”

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