CinemaCon has been the source of many interesting and exciting movie news items in the past few days. One major player at the theater owner convention was Sony who brought with them lots of info on it’s 2012 slate.

The folks at ComingSoon.Net are reporting that Sony made it clear that they are looking ahead in regards to one of it’s marquee franchises:

Sony’s President of Worldwide Distribution Rory Bruer talked about Sony’s slate for 2013 and beyond and confirmed that James Bond would indeed be back in 2014 with the 24th movie in the franchise and the follow-up to Skyfall.

This is expected news, but still great to hear confirmed. Daniel Craig is signed on for a total of 8 Bond films, and after the MGM bankruptcy fiasco it began to look like we might not get to see them all. Now that we have confirmation that the films are back to a quick turnaround of every other year we should be seeing a lot of our favorite Super Spy in the coming decade.

Sony also showcased the first footage from Skyfall at the event. Early word is that it looks good, but the teaser footage was a bit to fast paced to get a true feeling of it. We should be seeing the first teaser some time soon ourselves, so keep an eye peeled to The Flickcast for all your Bond news.

For a little while there it din’t seem like we would get another James Bond film after Quantum of Solace. With MGM’s money problems, it looked like James Bond was going to retire from his cinematic exploits while things were sorted out — if they were ever sorted out.

Fortunately, the tide turned and now Bond is back in a new installment called Skyfall, which is filming right now. As is the custom these days with highly anticipated film releases, the production has released the first of what wil no doubt be many videos highlighting the behind-the-scenes action of making a Bond film.

In this particular video blog, the producers and director take us to Shanghi, China for some brief glimpses into the filmmaking process and the sleek cityscapes of that location. Looks good. Can’t wait for this one.

Check out the video after the break. Skyfall, which stars Daniel Craig, Javier Bardem, Ralph Fiennes, Bérénice Marlohe and Judi Dench, hits theaters on November 9.

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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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The History Channel has announced that they will take their first step into original scripted television with a 10 episode drama, Vikings, which will chronicle the world of the mighty Norsemen who raided, traded and explored during medieval times.

Vikings follows the adventures of Ragnar Lothbrok, an actual historical figure, and the greatest hero of his age. The series tells the sagas of Ragnar’s band of Viking brothers and his family, as he rises to become King of the Viking tribes. As well as being a fearless warrior, Ragnar embodies the Norse traditions of devotion to the gods. According to legend he was a direct descendent of Odin, the god of war and warriors.

According to The History Channel, the series “will boast a polished, stylized look that pushes the boundaries of television drama” and will feature “imaginatively choreographed battles that emphasize individual points of view, strategies and ruses rather than mindless, graphic slaughter.”

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This week’s Monday Pick is the 1987 Sci-fi action film Robocop, directed by master filmmaker Paul Verhoeven (Total Recall, Starship Troopers, Flesh & Blood, Soldier of Orange, The Black Book). Peter Weller stars as slain police officer Alex Murphy who is brought back to life by corporate scientists to become the ultimate law enforcement weapon in the crime-ridden Detroit of the near future.

Robocop is not only a well made solid blend of sci-fi and action, Verhoeven and writers Ed Neumeier and Michael Miner splendidly poke fun at many institutions in American culture like the media, corporate greed, privatization, capitalism, and even masculinity.

OCP (Omni Consumer Products) is a vast corporation that specializes in space exploration, civilian and Military technology, and government intervention. OCP enters into an agreement to run and finance the Detroit police force in order to serve its needs, one being that OCP plans to turn Detroit into the city of tomorrow known as Delta City due to rampant crime and that the city is on the verge of financial collapse.

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Robocop is finally getting an upgrade. After months of rumors,  it looks like MGM has finally found their leading man for the upcoming Robocop remake. With potential stars ranging from Michael Fassbender to Russell Crowe, they finally decided on Swedish actor Joel Kinnaman to play the cyborg police officer.

According to Deadline.com, MGM has made an official offer to Kinnaman, who is best known for his roles in AMC’s The Killing and in the Denzel Washington/Ryan Reynolds thriller Safe House.

In the ultra-violent 1987 original, Peter Weller played officer Alex J. Murphy, who is brutally gunned down in the line of duty. In this futuristic version of Detroit, crime has gotten out of control and the normal police can’t stop the criminals. After the privatized police department resurrects him as a half-man, half-machine cop, Murphy is haunted by his human memories while facing both a sadistic criminal syndicate, as well as a corrupt corporate board.

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This week’s Monday pick is Manhunter (1986), Michael Mann’s film adaptation of Thomas Harris’s classic novel Red Dragon. The film stars William Petersen, Kim Greist, Joan Allen, Brian Cox, Dennis Farina, Stephen Lang, and Tom Noonan.

Manhunter is one of Mann’s best and it was the first film to introduced the world to psychotic killer Dr. Hannibal Lecktor who would go on to great acclaim five years later in the Academy Award winning Best Picture Silence of the Lambs.

William Petersen stars as FBI profiler Will Graham who is pulled out of semi-retirement by his old boss Jack Crawford (Farina) when a series of grizzly murders occur a month apart from one another. Graham is considered one of the best profilers in the Bureau and Crawford is reluctant to ask him to come back after Graham was viciously attacked and almost killed several years earlier when he apprehended Dr. Lecktor.

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Brett Ratner has already signed on to direct Hercules and has his heart set on Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson to fill the titular role of the film.  The film will be an adaptation of the Steve Moore graphic novel Hercules: The Thracian War. The screen play is adapted by scribe Ryan Condol.

The Thracian Wars is a pretty dark take on the character, as it paints Hercules as a mercenary who turned his back on the gods following the loss of his family, “finding solace only in battle.” He joins up with six other men who are similarly bloodthirsty, and the band of warriors are hired by the King of Thrace to train his men into warriors.

Johnson would be a great choice to play Hercules as this type of warrior. He can do badass better than anyone else on the market and his charm gives his characters wide appeal.The real question would be whether Ratner would keep the story’s tone as dark as the original graphic novel.

Johnson, who will next be seen as Roadblock in the upcoming G.I. Joe: Retaliation, will next star in Michael Bay’s crime comedy Pain and Gain with Mark Wahlberg, followed by another Fast and Furious film, and has been tied to the role of Goliath in the aptly named Goliath. With Johnson in such demand, his availability for the role is in question.

No timetable has currently been  given for Hercules.

Read a full synopsis for Hercules: The Thracian Wars after the jump.

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This week’s pick is yet another John Carpenter classic. Kurt Russell stars as the first ever action hero of the 1980s in Escape From New York (1981). After success with Halloween and the horror classic The Fog, Carpenter’s next project would be a unique blend of science fiction, action, noir and a western. The result is one of the finest multi genre classics of its time.

Set in a dystopian future (now the past) the United States’ crime rate rises to an astonishing four hundred percent in 1988. To combat the growing crime rate, the United States becomes a totalitarian police state and the great city of New York is turned into the one prison for the whole country. A fifty-foot containment wall is erected around all of Manhattan Island, all the bridges and waterways are mined, and the United States Police Force patrols the wall perimeter to insure no one escapes. Once you go inside the prison, you never come out.

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Sometimes the first official image from a movie can drastically change the public’s perspective of an upcoming film. It can show you an exciting new look from a main character, or it can give you hints to the story or plot. Then some times the first official still is just a man sitting by a pool in the dark.

Empire has debuted the first official image from Skyfall. A lonely and sullen looking Bond playing footsie with a swimming pool after hours. Maybe that watch is a new Q gadget, or perhaps there are sharks with laser beam head gear just out of frame!

Yeah, not exactly the most exciting first still in the history of movies, but it is still notable for a few reasons. One, it is James Bond, and with the recent strife with MGM, seeing him officially in Skyfall is nice to see. There was real concern that the movie would never get made, but it is really happening.

Also this is the 5oth anniversary of James Bond, which is a huge deal. The Golden Anniversary for a cinematic icon is important to recognize, and any opportunity this year to talk about Britain’s most dashing spy will be used. Hopefully they will be more meaty in the future.

The 50th anniversary of the longest running film franchise of all time is something to celebrate, and while at CES the first major release of that celebration was announced. Bond 50 is a comprehensive Blu-Ray collection of all twenty-two James Bond films, together for the first time in a single, high definition, collection.

The announcement was made by a who’s who of Bond creatives from the franchise’s storied history. Director’s John Glen, Martin Campbell and Micheal Apt, who together combined to direct eight of the films, were joined by Bond Girls Olga Kurylenko and Caterina Murino as they debuted the impressive new set.

This week’s Monday Pick is the 1979 action thriller Mad Max, a film that lunched one of the most lucrative franchises in film history. The Mad Max trilogy has spawned many imitations over the last thirty plus years, but they fail to add up to George Miller’s fantastic vision of the ultimate dystopian future.

Mel Gibson (who was virtually unknown at the time) stars as police pursuit man Max Rockatansky. He patrols the highways of the not too distant future Australia that is on the verge of complete anarchy and lawlessness. In the first installment of the series, Miller shows the audience that in this future, resources like food, water, and gasoline are becoming scarce and society is beginning to break down. The Main Force Patrol (MFP) is the uniformed highway safety enforcement whose main purpose is to stop marauding gangs who pose a threat to the society they are desperately trying to preserve.

The first ten minutes of Mad Max are filled with some of the most impressive and dangerous stunts ever performed in any film before or since. The MFP is in pursuit of an escaped convict who calls himself the Night Rider. Along with his girlfriend, the two take off in one of the force’s fastest V-8 pursuit vehicles and are successful in evading several pursuit units.

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