This week On the Radar we’re talking about how Michael Bay simply isn’t impressed with 3D conversions, Harold and Kumar are set to return for a Christmas movie, Big Bang Theory‘s resident babe takes on a big screen role and will Two and a Half Men lose its star actor?

Kenneth Branagh talks Thor

With all the news of Iron Man and Captain America sweeping the Internet we haven’t heard a lot about Thor lately.  Well, director Kenneth Branagh has offered up some information about the production this week:

“Inspired by the comic book world both pictorially and compositionally at once, we’ve tried to find a way to make a virtue and a celebration of the distinction between the worlds that exist in the film but absolutely make them live in the same world,” Branagh said. “It’s about finding the framing style, the color palette, finding the texture and the amount of camera movement that helps celebrate and express the differences and the distinctions in those worlds. If it succeeds, it will mark this film as different…. The combination of the primitive and the sophisticated, the ancient and the modern, I think that potentially is the exciting fusion, the exciting tension in the film.”

Holy cow!  That update reads as though it was being delivered as a Shakespearean monologue.  Here’s hoping Branagh still remembers we’re comic book fans at heart and want to see some series action as well as crafty dialogue. Bring the thunder, Branagh, not the theater.

Big Bang Theory’s Cuoco heads to the big screen

While not Kaley Cuoco’s first film role it is her first big debut project since the explosion of popularity around The Big Bang Theory.  Cuoco is set to star in I Hop, a film by Alvin and the Chipmunksdirector Tim Hall:

“[Cuoco] will be playing the sister of James Marsden’s slacker loser Fred, taking him in after their parents kick him out and finding herself also saddled with Brand’s Easter Bunny Jnr, following his accidental injury by Fred.”

With James Marsden and Russell Brand already signed on it’s hard to decide just what this film will be like.  Mind you, is anyone going to say “no” to more Kaley?  I’m definitely not.

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Though our vote may have already been cast for Hot Tub Time Machine to go down as the “Comedy of the Year”, we are still early in the running, and by the looks of it, MacGruber may put up quite a fight.

We got our first look at the film back in January, with matching green and red band trailers. Since then, things have been a bit quiet while the film debuted at SXSW last month. Nothing but rave reviews have come from that screening, and we’re all pretty excited to hear more.

Before we get closer to the film’s release date, however, we’ve got some great new marketing for the film on the way. Starting with an awesome new iPhone app which comes with some great tools like The Mullet Generator, Bomb Defuser Challenge, a cool soundboard, and more.

MacGruber is also now trolling around on Twitter, being outrageous, and only a little inappropriate. Finally, there’s a brand new red band trailer, this time focusing more on Val Kilmer’s “Von Cunth” character.

Check that out after the jump, and be sure to catch MacGruber in theaters on May 21. By clicking through you certify you are eighteen years of age or older.

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A few days ago I raved about SyFy’s reality show Destination Truth, and hopefully inspired a few more of you to put it on your DVR or TIVO. In case my enthusiasm wasn’t enough to convince you, SyFy has sent us a clip of next week’s Destination Truth, where Gates and his crew investigate the Great Wall of China.  I was hoping the clip would be of a hilarious cultural misunderstanding or bout of food poisoning, but it’s of Gates brushing up against a possible entity.

If you’ve never seen the show before, you might find yourself sneering at Gates’ goosebumps, but don’t judge too hastily. He’s actually a hard man to shake. Judge its night vision eeriness for yourself.

Along spookier lines, SyFy has also included a clip of next week’s Ghost Hunters, which finds  TAPS doing its usual thing, and investigating some paranormal activity in New Jersey.   (New Jersey may not be as exotic as China, but it’s just as colorful in its own way, right?)  Watch them try to solve the mystery of the climbing EMF reading. Red-blooded males will probably appreciate it’s the two lovely ghost hunting ladies that are doing the investigating.

Is any of it for real? Who knows.  It’s good fun, anyway.  I’m not a fan of reality television, but SyFy has me hooked with all these investigations into pseudo-science.  Plus, I saw Gates kiss a cobra on an Egyptian episode.   Seeing someone risk death for a laugh and vaguely educational purposes  is worth a Wednesday night.

The clips are embedded below. Thanks to SyFy for sending them to us!

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I’m still anxiously awaiting the day I get to see Kick-Ass, and be as cool as our SXSW team that caught its Austin premiere. (Be sure to check out Shannon Hood’s review.)   But at least I could content myself with Mark Millar’s Kick-Ass: Creating the Comic, Making the Movie which the gang at Titan Books was kind enough to let me review.

Anyone who viewed the trailer knows that Kick-Ass is going to be a unique movie. One look at Chloe Moretz’s Hit Girl can tell you that much. But I hadn’t realized just how unusual its page-to-screen transition was. Millar was still in the process of sketching the book out when he approached Matthew Vaughn (licking his wounds after leaving Thor) about directing.

The movie took shape as the comic did, with Millar running back and forth between the production offices and his own keyboard, incorporating ideas from Vaughn and screenwriter Jane Goldman as he went. Characters who were meant to be minor players such as Red Mist took on a life of their own after they were cast, and ended up becoming major players in Kick-Ass’ story arc. If there’s a sequel to Kick-Ass, it may be entirely due to Christopher Mintz-Plasse single-handedly rewriting his character.

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As I was watching the new Eclipse trailer, out of sheer boredom and a hint of curiosity, I found myself wondering why in the world two super-powered boys would fight it out over a girl clad in American Apparel who’s a hell of a downer.

How is there an entire film series devoted to one girl’s delusional obsessions of a fairy tale ending with a born-again killer? Sparkely vampires want to kill you, strapping werewolf shape-shifters want to keep you safe.

Do these Edward fans have a death wish and a yearning for abandonment? Is Bella Swan so heavily marketed as mesmerizing that it erases the history of the brazen blonde that came before her?

A long time ago, otherwise known as the 90’s, there was a series called Buffy the Vampire Slayer where a feisty girl from the southland slayed Urban Outfitted demons. This legendary show paved the way for multi-tasking girls who cheer by day, slay by night, and every once in a while hook-up with a tormented blood sucker.

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Captain America (Bucky)

Note: This article may contain spoilers. If you dont care about that, read on.

Norman Osborn is going down. There’s no doubt about it. The “Dark Reign” looks to be collapsing and as casualties on both sides pile up in Seige, the dawn of the Heroic Age is just around the corner.

With the Heroic Age coming, some Marvel books will be coming to an end, most notably New Avengers. In the aptly named New Avengers: Finale, scribe Brian Michael Bendis and artist Bryan Hitch will tie up the loose ends of every New Avengers tale that has led to this point. With no cover image even leaking on to the internet yet, no one knows exactly what’s to come from this book.

This will all come to a head in April, giving perfect timing for Marvel’s latest set of promotional art entitled, “I’m an Avenger” and “I’m a Secret Avenger”. With a “May 2010″ tag, these pieces feature work from John Romita Jr. and show some of the current stars expected to be present in the Avengers team post-Siege. The most shocking has Hawkeye, not Ronin, pictured which could mean that Clint Barton may finally be returning to the good old purple and blue.

The five “secret” pieces show simple silhouettes of various members of the new Secret Avengers along with different quotes they’d use to describe themselves. Of the Secret Avengers thus far there are many theories going on about who might be on the team.

Take a look for yourself at them all below and let us know who you think may be screaming for their team to “Assemble!” come May.

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Much like the shark was in Jaws, I tend to think cool monsters should be left in the shadows and revealed at the last possible moment. I think that definitely should apply to a creature like the Kraken. Apparently, the studio in charge of the upcoming Clash of the Titans movie, Warner Bros. to be exact, doesn’t agree.

In fact, they’ve let the cat, er Kraken, out of the bag way early, in the form of a new poster released exclusively by the folks at UGO. In this latest poster, the Kraken looms large and Perseus is, well, looking rather small. In fact, it looks like he’s about to become a nice late afternoon snack for the Kraken, complete with Pegasus chaser. Not a great way to spend your day.

Click through for a larger look at the new poster. In case you forgot, Clash of the Titans, directed by Louis Leterrier, stars Sam Worthington, Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, Danny Huston and Gemma Arterton. It hits theaters on March 26.

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Geeks don’t watch football. It’s a fact of life. But this may change for at least one night in the near future as fans of the upcoming title Dante’s Inferno will be tuning in Sunday for the big game when EA puts out its most expensive television ad ever.

Expected to be viewed by roughly 100 million fans, the Super Bowl has developed a reputation for some of the best, and worst, commercial debuts of the year. With the ever climbing price tag for commercial time during the Super Bowl, it is estimated that EA will be paying close to three million dollars for Dante’s Inferno to be shown amongst the center of the marketing universe for a mere thirty seconds.

Dante’s Inferno’s Super Bowl commercial, entitled “Hell Awaits…” will appear during the fourth quarter of Super Bowl XLIV as a final push in the game’s already extensive marketing campaign. In preparation for the game’s February 9th release date, just two days after the Super Bowl, “Hell Awaits…” concludes a campaign that included Facebook apps, action figures, comic books and an animated DVD feature.

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As if the geek community (myself included) wasn’t excited enough when Adidas announced their line of Star Wars themed clothes last month, but the clothing company just amped up their marketing with a sexy new commercial, which should get plenty of people ready.

The commerical, which suspiciously aired just in time for the Super Bowl in a few weeks, shows off plenty of the new articles of clothing, including the X-Wing shoes and Darth Vader hoodie.

The clothes are certainly worth a purchase from any true fan of Lucas’ universe, regardless of age. Check out Adidas’ official site for the line, and be sure to get even more excited by watching the new commercial after the jump.

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I think at this point Hulu has almost become as incorporated into modern life as Netflix, at least for many people. Recently, charts and statistics were released comparing it to 2009′s biggest blockbusters, and the breakdown of revenues and investors for the site. The charts enlighten us on audience numbers, grosses on opening weekends, and the amount of growth Hulu has seen since it was founded in March of 2007.

While the comparison doesn’t really seem to hold up, (perhaps, it would be better to see it compared to other online content portals, television networks, or possibly even cable providers) it is very interesting to see how Hulu is configured as well as some of the numbers they’ve pulled. With conversations and rumors percolating as to if (or when) the site will move to a subscription service, these numbers should show that the site is doing well enough as-is.

Until then, check out these very nice looking graphics after the break, which were created by the marketing firm Buzzpoint. and let us know what you think of Hulu possibly charging for their content.

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With the final season of ABC’s  LOST coming up in less than a month, it’s only expected that we will see a lot more viral marketing from the camp that brought us the marketing beast Cloverfield. With that in mind comes a brand new set of promotional images for the upcoming season, portraying the cast in a classic “Last Supper” scenario.

In it, we get the final cast of characters for this upcoming set of episodes, with Locke (Terry O’Quinn) seemingly at the center of it all. There are supposedly clues all around both images, that could lead us to various conclusions and conspiracies for the upcoming season, so take a close look at each one.

This isn’t the first time that TV land has done something like this. In fact, this is the third time that this exact technique has been used. First, done for the final season of The Sopranos with Tony at the center. And once again for the final season of Battlestar Galactica, with Six as the main focus.

Take that as you will, but if this trend continues, does this mean that we’ll be getting an office version of How I Met Your Mother or Glee at some point?

Check out the full images after the jump, and let us know if you catch any clues we missed!

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The marketing for April’s Kick-Ass has been in full force as of late. Since the release of the trailer over a month ago, the posters have been rolling out on a regular basis, with a new twist to the marketing plan. That new angle is giving focus to each of the other crime fighters in the film, who may or may not actually be all that good.

This is an interesting take on the film, seeing as how the titular character, Kick-Ass, is the main protagonist in the original comic series by Mark Millar. Either way, in the newest red band trailer, we get a few new scenes with Chloe Moretz as Hit-Girl, Nic Cage as Big Daddy, and of course Aaron Johnson.

Check out the new NSFW trailer after the jump, which only makes this movie look even better, and expect to see more new footage from Matthew Vaughn’s Kick-Ass before it hits theaters on April 16.

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Three different sites have received images of faux-newspaper clippings, somehow related to Paramount and Jon Favreau’s Iron Man 2. Superhero Hype received the first image, with the headline reading “The Secret Life of Mr. Stark,” with “Secret” highlighted in yellow. The second image was received by Screen Rant, with the headline of the photo reading, “Stark Situation Paralyze”, with “Stark” in yellow.

And now, the third released image, comes from CHUD with the headline stating, “Tony Stark’s Confession: ‘I am Iron Man’”, and this time “Confession” is highlighted. So far, the message seems to be, “Secret Stark Confession.” Who knows how many more are to come, if any, or if this little game is just a bit of viral misleading.

Answers seem to point to the creation of an ARG, much like the series of ploys created for The Dark Knight, and pretty much anything that JJ Abrams touches. To me, this seems like it’s leading to something to do with Mickey Rourke’s character, Whiplash, as there have been photos of that character in a Russian prison cell, with articles much like this hanging on his wall.

Check out the three clues after the break, and let us know what you think they might mean. Iron Man 2 hits theaters May 7, 2010.

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This week on The Flickcast, Chris and Matt welcome special guest Shannon Hood and launch into a whole slew of new topics including the rise of fangirl power, the huge success of The Twilight Saga: New Moon, the relative merits of Sandra Bullock and her film The Blind Side, some more interesting Thor casting news, what holiday movies they are looking forward to seeing, how the entertainment business is changing, and needs to change more, to stay competitive and a whole lot more.

Chris, Matt and Shannon also made some cool picks this week including Shannon’s pick of The Road, Matt’s pick of the new British series Misfits and Chris’ pick of the recent Blu-ray release of J.J. Abrams Star Trek.

As always, if you have comments, questions, critiques or offers of sponsorship, feel free to hit us up in the comments, on Twitter and at Facebook, MySpace or via email.

Podcast: Download

There’s no arguing that the proliferation of file sharing technology (e.g. BitTorrent or similar) has changed the industry for content creators. Never before has it been easier to acquire free movies or music. Or has it?

For the last several years we, the consumers, have had to endure the complaints (dare I say whining) of movie studios and the recording industry. Both industries cite digital piracy as the root cause of their financial loss. Funny how this argument rarely (if ever) surfaced during the days of analog.

Piracy of content has been going on for decades, long before the Internet was around. With the advent of the VCR and Cassette Recorder (which I guess would technically be an ACR) people have been able to duplicate content with relative ease. I remember when stereos started to come out with not one but two cassette bays for this purpose alone. Drop in a master tape, then a blank tape and copy away.

The same was true for movies. I had friends who subscribed to their movie channel of choice, and then regularly recorded movies from the television to tape for later viewing. All one had to do was hook up two VCRs and you could easily duplicate those tapes for friends. All those years of consumers pirating content and hardly a word from media moguls about lost revenue.

Fast forward to today. It seems not a week goes by without someone in the world of entertainment getting on a soapbox and crying fowl over the horrors of piracy. On the box this week: Rhett Reese, co-writer of Zombieland.

Reese started somewhat of a firestorm after commenting on the fact Zombieland is currently the most popular download on BitTorrent, “Beyond depressing. This greatly affects the likelihood of a Zombieland 2.”

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