We at The Flickcast are pretty diligent about serving up all the news that comes out each week. However, try as we may to cover it all, some things occassionally slip by. Well, no longer.

Welcome to On The Radar! This weekly post will be your premiere destination for a comprehensive roundup of items that may be developing stories we’re watching, Twitter commentary, or other relevant news that wasn’t quite ready for prime time just yet.  In short, a grab bag of geek items which are sure to please.

Let’s see what blips are on the radar this week.

‘Zombieland’ devours video rentals

Zombieland dominated the video lists this week, “…on the Nielsen VideoScan Blu-ray Disc chart, “Zombieland” went three for three, bowing at No. 1 and …racked up 31% of its total first-week sales from the Blu-ray Disc.” Way to go Zombieland, we can’t wait for the sequeal.

‘Avatar’ 3D boosts Cineplex ticket sales in Canada

3D showings of Avatar did wonders for Cineplex’s bottom line in Canada, “Despite running for only 13 days during its latest financial frame, “Avatar 3D” was Cineplex’s biggest boxoffice performer during the fourth quarter to Dec. 31, and has done around $74 million in Canadian ticket receipts to date.” No surprise really given the popularity of this film and the fact 3D showings are still being sold, out or causing line-ups.

Geek flicks drive Viacom profits

DVD and Blu-Ray disc sales from Star Trek, Transformers 2 and G.I. Joe stimulated Viacom’s fourth quarter earnings to the tune of $694 million.  Not bad considering the $173 million it made in the same quarter in 2008.  Also helping was the indie hit Paranormal Activity which increased operating expenses by 24%.

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Only a day after being announced as writers for the upcoming Deadpool movie, Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese have gotten yet another gig as the writers for the sequel to another summer movie franchise: G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. Taking over from the guys who had written the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, and giving it to the team that brought us Zombieland, is I think a step in the right direction.

All of the main cast from the first film are contracted to return for sequels, with director Steven Sommers being the possible hold out. But, with the promise of this new writing team, hopefully the next GI Joe film can add more story to go with the anticipated amount of destruction.

The Rise of Cobra, now available on DVD, cost a reported $170 million and has so far brought in just over $300 million worldwide. But with a Rotten Tomatoes score of about 36%, it’s really got no place to go but up.

Pull of the Week:

Green Lantern #46 – DC – $2.99
Score: 7.5

As Blackest Night continues, as does the rest of the saga of Hal Jordan and the other Lantern Corps. This issue picks up immediately following the Indigo Lantern teleporting Hal away from the Flash in Blackest Night #3, Hal finds himself in the middle of the Star Sapphires battle with the Sinestro Corps as well as the Black Lanterns.

In the process of the attack from the Black Lanterns, the Star Sapphires must also worry about the threat of the Predator being released. Sharing the secret of how to destroy the Black Lanterns with Star Sapphire, Indigo-1 quickly transports away Hal, Sinestro and Star Sapphire as they try to gather bearers of the various lights. But to unite the various Corps, the split within the Sinestro Corps must be mended and only have one leader. Hal, Sinestro and Star Sapphire quickly realize that the Indigo Lantern has transported them to face off against Mongul, the Yellow Lantern who has tried usurping Sinestro’s power.

Green Lantern #46 is a great addition to the “Blackest Night” story. In many ways, it has a touch of the epic galactic storytelling that made War of Kings such a good story as well. The encounters of this book don’t just affect those on planet earth. This story is one that feels like it has the potential behind it to change everything. But even as this monstrously large storyline takes place, Geoff Johns makes sure to include some quality character building on top of the story. There are tons of callbacks to Sinestro’s past, especially focusing on Abin Sur, the Green Lantern who passed his ring on to Hal Jordan and had always spoke openly of the prophecies surrounding the Blackest Night.

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Though we try to keep things fresh here at the site, especially with our features like Fan Film Friday, sometimes it’s hard to skip over things that are quite well done, even when they aren’t really topical anymore. Though G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra is already week-old news, we felt that this week’s fan film needed to be a little musical number from our friends at Funny or Die called The Ballad of G.I. Joe.

Continuing the trend of filling their skits with a who’s who of Hollywood, the Ballad includes names that will pretty much blow your socks off. Names like Alexis Bledel as Lady Jaye, Billy Crudup as Zartan, Zach Galifiankais as Snow Job, Tony Hale as Dr. Mindbender, Vinnie Jones as Destro, Chuck Liddell as Gung Ho, Julianne Moore as Scarlett, Henry Rollins as Duke, Alan Tudyk as Shipwreck, Olivia Wilde as The Baroness, and even a little Sgt. Slaughter thrown in as well.

There are a few other names thrown in, so be sure to keep an eye out. Check out the Ballad of G.I. Joe after the jump.

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Pull of the Week:

Blackest Night #2 – DC – $3.99

Score: 8.0

As mentioned yesterday in Dave Press’ Weekly Comic Book Recommendations,  this was a big week for DC’s Blackest Night event between Blackest Night #2, Blackest Night: Batman #1 and Green Lantern Corps #39. A previous Pull of the Week with issue #1, Blackest Night #2 continues the eerie first chapter of this horror tale.

After Hawkman and Hawkgirl have been attacked and killed by the Black Lanterns Elongated Man and Sue Dibny, the Atom desperately begs for Hawkman to pick up the phone unaware of his fate. Over in Gotham, Commissioner Gordon stands atop the police headquarters next to the Bat-Symbol with his daughter Barbara awaiting sunrise before Hal Jordan lands on it as a result of his fight with Martian Manhunter.

In Amnesty Bay, Mera and Tempest, the wife and son of Aquaman look to move their king’s remains to the sea only to find the grave desecrated. Thinking they are witnessing a graverobbing, the duo along with guards from Atlantis are attacked by the resurrected Black Lantern Aquaman who has retained his control over the creatures of the sea as seen in a bloody attack on the guards.

Blackest Night #2 feels a lot like it is the part of a movie where the team is being formed. The foundation has been laid out in issue one and now the Black Lantern corps is being built. While the biggest reveals happened in the first issue, these other players are obviously going to be key components to the story moving forward, especially since writer Geoff Johns took the time to give so much attention to their Black Lantern reveals. A perfect example of this is Deadman who already appears in Blackest Night: Batman (which will be reviewed on tomorrow’s edition of the Pull List). Along with that, the two major fight scenes are great glimpses of just how powerful the Black Lanterns can be.

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Remember the old G.I. Joe PSA’s that would play after each episode of the series in an attempt to teach kids morals and safety instructions? Remember how truly annoying some of them were? We all do, but now we have a reason to look back at them and laugh. Introducing Fensler Film’s G.I. Joe Spoofs, which are re-cut from the original PSA’s and re-dubbed to be pretty ridiculous but also very funny.

Some of them are pretty random, almost too random to be funny, but for the most part, they are worth a chuckle or two. There are nearly 12 of them, all scattered across the web. We managed to round up a few, including Body Massage, Porkchop Sandwiches (NSFW), and our personal favorite, Computer, which you can check out after the jump.

These all circulated the web a few years ago, and it seems like creator Eric Fensler has moved on to bigger things. They are all still worth watching and knowing about, which is good because knowing is half the battle!

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Two years ago, there wasn’t much to be said about a film that was only based off of a toy line. Then a dude named Michael Bay came along and changed all that, making over a zillion dollars with two films about robots that change into other things. The movies weren’t exactly rich with story or character development, but they did the source material justice, which is all most fans wanted. One would think that a movie about a secret squad of soldiers would be more believable, but sadly, this wasn’t the case.

There is more than enough source material to play with, given the G.I. Joe toys, comics, and many incarnations of the TV show and Director Stephen Sommers’ other projects including Van Helsing and The Mummy have a decent story and are both relatively entertaining. For this film, however, it felt like Sommers left the passion and creativity he had for his previous films at home when reporting to the set of Joe — which is pretty evident in the first five minutes of the film.

It’s easy to pick on G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra for its poor dialogue or predictable story because when you force lines like “he’s a real American hero” into a scene, it warrants ridicule. When it comes to the story, it’s predictable because it is a blatant ripoff of another film, when the main villain brainwashes his victims to do his bidding, identified by a small lesion on the neck. It’s also funny how you can call this movie The Rise of . . . when the entire film is lacking in any rising action.

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Just over 24 hours before G.I. Joe hits screens nationwide, there are still plenty of rumors and whispers on how good or bad this movie will be. Critics seem to be torn as well, as RottenTomatoes gives it a 93% while Empire says the film is “Bond without the style and Team America without the bellylaughs“. Before the rest of the world gets to weigh in on the subject, it looks like director Stephen Sommers is already planning a return to the franchise.

In a recent interview with Sommers, he talked about some of his new projects coming up, including a retro-style Tarzan film, and yes, a sequel to G.I. Joe. From Super Hero Hype:

There’s a couple [projects], but mainly I’m getting very excited about doing “G.I. Joe 2.” I’m working on “Tarzan” at Warner Brothers and they’re a bunch of great people. (It will be) live action but we’ll contemporize it. It’ll still be a period movie, but it’s almost like “The Mummy,” it took place in Ancient Egypt and the ’20s and ’30s, but it felt more contemporary, that sort of deal.

Sommers continues to say that if Paramount wants it, he’d be ready to start work on G.I. Joe 2 as early as September. While we’re still clambering for details on this Joe movie, Sommers released a new concept image of Destro’s mask, and to say the least, it looks more promising than Cobra Commander’s helmet. Paramount’s G.I. Joe hits theaters this Thursday night at midnight at select theaters. Check out a bigger version of the helmet after the jump.

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We cover a lot of video games from publisher Activision here at The Flickcast. Of course, there’s also many other companies producing or distributing cool video games that we’re fans of. One such company is the powerhouse Electronic Arts. They make a lot of games and we try to play them all. They also produce games based on movies and one such game is the upcoming G.I. Joe: the Rise of Cobra, based on the movie of the same name.

I got a chance to take a look at the game and its trailer during the recent E3 event in Los Angeles. And now, thanks to the the magic of the Internets, I can bring that trailer to you right here. In the trailer you can see that the game tries to capture all the action, explosions, gunplay and spirit of the movie and, if this trailer is any indication, seems to do a pretty good job at it. Games based on movies have gotten a lot better lately and this one looks like its no exception.

The game hits store shelves on August 8 and the movie on August 7. Check out the trailer after the Jump.

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At the San Diego Comic-Con, IDW Publishing revealed several major digital comic book expansions for the iPhone and iPod Touch. IDW’s newest offerings include the G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra prequel comics, Transformers and CSI. An expanded electronic catalog of the G.I. Joe and Transformers tales, as well as Danger Girl, Astro Boy, Groom Lake, John Sable Freelance and GrimJack will also be available in the weeks ahead.

“The digital medium represents a huge opportunity for the comics industry, and we’re proud to be leading the way,” states IDW CEO, Ted Adams. “Through e-publishing, we can introduce an entire new audience to comics and the joys of comic books.”

IDW launched the first digital Transformers comics in May, and rapidly became a popular paid iTunes application. The Transformer catalogue also includes the prequel and adaptation graphic novels for the original movie. IDW’s entire G.I.Joe: The Rise of the Cobra prequel comics are now available, with the movie adaptations coming soon. The fan-favorite series G.I. Joe: Origins and the CSI comic series are now available for download on iTunes.

In addition to new material and story lines, IDW will also bring the classic 1980s Transformers and G.I. Joe series to the iPhone, iPod Touch and the Internet, beginning with Classic Transformers, which can be found online at classic-transformers.com.

IDW’s classic comic expansion will begin J. Scott Campbell and Andy Hartnell’s sexy spy comic, Danger Girl. Danger Girl #0 is currently available as a free application on iTunes, and features an eight-page preview of the comic.