The Dark Knight Rises looms. As The Avengers makes ungodly sums of money and other potential blockbusters come and go, the true tenor of the season wont be determined until Batman has his say.

Warner Bros. has released a new one sheet for the anticipate super hero conclusion, and it really plays up the ‘fire rises’ motif that has been a constant in the marketing. The ad campaign for the sequel has thus far been much less interesting than for The Dark Knight.

The viral aspects seem to cause less of a fervor among fans, there is nothing like those variant Joker tagged posters that popped up in theaters after a few months of the regular ones hanging on those walls. Just on the whole the marketing for this movie just seems to have less impact. Of course this could be on purpose, you don’t need much impact when everyone and their mother saw the last film.It is still interesting to see the different tactics in play.

As for the quality of this particular poster, it is rather nice. Getting a splash of color in there is a good touch, and I like the symmetry of this design and some of the earlier teasers.

Check out the full poster after the jump.

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Most of us will be seeing The Avengers in a few days and The Dark Knight Rises trailer is still on everyone’s mind. So Sony wants to remind you all that they have a pretty big deal super-hero movie coming out too.

The new posters for Amazing Spider-Man are nothing particularly exciting, although the standing Spidy one ditches that all too familiar blue-tinted cityscape for a far more intriguing and realistic color scheme. In fact I think that one now ranks as my favorite of the posters for this flick.

The second of the new posters actually reminds me of those classy Dark Knight posters with Batman standing watch over a blue-tinted Gotham from inside an office building. The Spider-Man poster has what looks like a very similar blue-tinted city, but it looks more like he is busting through the glass. Might it be a subtle dig at The Dark Knight, or might I be reading way to much into a similar image? I vote the latter.

You can check out these two new posters after the jump, and don’t forget to catch The Amazing Spider-Man in theaters this summer.

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One of the biggest enigmas in the crowded summer blockbuster season is how will the average movie goers take a rebooted Spider-Man so close to the success of the Raimi trilogy. How the reboot is received is going to be an important indicator for the longevity of the comic book movie as we know it.

In the last decade comic book films have rewritten a lot of the rules for how major franchise movies act in cinemas, pretty much demolishing the previous axiom that sequels suffer from standard diminishing returns. Now the success of an event film has much more to do with the reception of the previous film in the series and over all franchise health.

This summer brings two old comic book standards to the big screen, the team-up and the reboot. If these are successful it could signal to other studios that movie going public is keen on these characters, and will show up for a good film starring them even if the story is going back to the beginning.

So a lot is at stake, and as such the marketing push for The Amazing Spider-Man has been going strong for awhile now, keeping ole web head in our minds during the spring and early summer event film season. The newest bit of advertising is a brand new poster featuring some battle damaged Spidy. A really great, simple image that is reminiscent of the Raimi era character posters, while still feeling very much a part of the new tone for the series.

You can check out the full poster after the jump.

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Quentin Tarantino is a filmmaker most cinephiles adore. He is a film fan a heart, so his films are a celebration of the many cinematic influences inside of him, which usually makes for a fun time at the cinema. His newest film, Django Unchained, is filming right now, but the first official poster has found it’s way online for us all to ogle at.

The poster has an incredibly simplistic design that is a throw back to the Saul Bass posters of yesteryear. This subtle, retro design is a perfect way to sell this slavery era exploitation film to us Tarantino fans, but we can’t help but shake the notion that Jamie Foxx and Leonardo DiCaprio will figure heavy in the main marketing push of the film.

A star like Brad Pitt was able to help Inglorious Basterds become one of Tarantino’s most successful films.  So the studio must be licking their chops to see what star power of this film can add to the bottom line.

Speaking of the stars of the movie, a little casting tidbit for Django also came in today. The great Walton Goggins, currently of Justified fame, has joined the cast as one of DiCaprio’s slave wranglers. That is one of the best sentences I have ever had the pleasure of writing.

Check out the full new poster after the jump.

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Agent Coulson has been a important part of the shared Marvel movie universe. Popping up often in the adventures of many of the Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, he is essentially the glue that holds these films together.

So it is beyond appropriate that he gets his due in a character poster. Standing tall like the hero he is, the Agent Coulson character poster might be the most awesome piece of marketing yet released.

One of the most exciting things about the Avengers movie isn’t just that we get to see our favorite heroes battle side-by-side. We are also going to see a whole world come together for the first time. In each of the previous Marvel Studio films we had a taste of the shared universe concept, but this film is the main course.

Agent Coulson very much represents that shared universe, and to see him getting the kind of marketing love previously reserved for the big boys is a great nod to that fact.

We here at The Flickcast believe we are in for something special May 4th, and we can’t wait.

Check out the full one sheet after the jump.

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2012 is going to be a big year for stop-motion animation, with three high profile stop-motion animated features invading cinema’s throughout the year. The most notable of this bunch is Tim Burton’s next feature, Frankenweenie, which is a feature length, animated adaptation of Burton’s own 1982 short film.

Frankenweenie tells the tale of young Victor, a boy who loses his beloved dog Sparky and reanimates him with the power of electricity. If it was not obvious up to this point, the film is an homage to the Frankenstein movies and novel.

One thing that the poster clearly presents, but is still probably lost on most people, is that the film is shot in black and white. This is a bold creative decision for any film, and one Burton used to great success once before in Ed Wood.

However, it is still a tremendous risk for a stop-motion animated film, a genre that is usually noted for it’s ability to present vibrant and extraordinary visuals. Even Burton’s own Corpse Bride used color to great effect in illustrating the differences between the world of the living and the world of the dead.

The film is set for an early October release, just in time for Halloween! You can see the full poster after the jump.

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This past weekend we saw the release of Beauty and the Beast in 3D, the most recent in a string of classic films getting a 3D face lift.  The next big re-release is only a few weeks away with the first of the Star Wars 3D updates. Lucas is starting with Episode One, and is moving on through the franchise with a new re-release every year.

Even though the prequel trilogy lives in infamy among most film fans, the impending arrival of a Star Wars film on the big screen still holds some weight. In advance of the February launch a new set of five posters has hit the web, each with a wildy different design and most of them actually pretty cool.

It is gratifying that the posters excise the existence of Jar Jar Binks completely, although it would have been nice had Jake Lloyd received the same treatment. The upcoming 3D versions of these films represents the greatest perk of the 3D post conversion era we live in.

To have an opportunity to watch classic films on the big screen again in new and exciting ways is an exciting proposition. Hopefully lesser films like the prequel trilogy don’t ruin it before we get back to the original trilogy.

You can see the whole set of new posters after the jump.

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Two of the best filmmakers working today have giant blockbusters planned for 2012. Christopher Nolan and Ridley Scott are both bringing continuations of their star making franchises to the big screen. While Nolan is ending his run in the Batman universe with The Dark Knight Rises, Ridley Scott is breathing new life into the dormant Alien franchise with a prequel that may or may not have all that much to do with the previous films.

The Dark Knight Rises poster focuses on Bane walking away from a shattered Batman cowl. This really sells the concept of finality that this film brings. It is also nice to see the filmmakers not shying away from the fact that the character of Bane was created for one purpose, to break the bat.

Prometheus on the other hand is a far more intriguing one-sheet. The large head that dominates the poster raises more questions then can be answered. There are also a lot of small little design choices that echo the fact that this movie is set in the Alien universe. That posters sits rater nicely next to previous Alien films.

Check out both new posters in their full glory after the jump.

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Welcome to another edition of On the Radar where we delve into all corners of the entertainment, tech and geek Internets for news, views and whatnot that may have escaped our regular coverage during the week. Let is know if we missed something interesting.

• While things aren’t going so well for the Uncharted or Assassin’s Creed film adaptations, that hasn’t stopped a studio from moving forward on a film based on the classic monster game Rampage.

• The heads of action fans everywhere may just explode when they see the very first poster for The Expendables 2 featuring Norris, Van Damme, and the whole cast.

• Take a jump in a depressing time machine as you see young Tim Burton acting as normal as ever in this footage from Disney Studios circa 1980.

• It looks like the internet is seeping into mainstream media again, as The Annoying Orange was just announced to have a show coming up on Cartoon Network.

• Exactly how many times did The Force get brought up in all 6 Star Wars films? We have no idea, but here they all are.

• You may know the prime Muppets, but here is a list of the best known Muppets from around the world that you may have never heard of. Like Oscar the Grouch’s Israeli cousin.

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Even though I’m not all that enthusiastic about the upcoming big screen adaptation of The Hunger Games, I know some of you are. And because I love and respect all our diligent readers, we’ve got brand new character posters from the film to share with you today.

The poster collection includes some of your favorite citizens of Panem: Rue (Amandla Stenberg), Cato (Alexander Ludwig), Haymitch (Woody Harrelson), Effie (Elizabeth Banks), Cinna (Lenny Kravitz), Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence), Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) and Gale (Liam Hemsworth).

In case you never read the book, here’s some info on the story:

Every year in the ruins of what was once North America, the nation of Panem forces each of its twelve districts to send a teenage boy and girl to compete in the Hunger Games.  Part twisted entertainment, part government intimidation tactic, the Hunger Games are a nationally televised event in which “Tributes” must fight with one another until one survivor remains.

Pitted against highly-trained Tributes who have prepared for these Games their entire lives, Katniss is forced to rely upon her sharp instincts as well as the mentorship of drunken former victor Haymitch Abernathy.  If she’s ever to return home to District 12, Katniss must make impossible choices in the arena that weigh survival against humanity and life against love.

The Hunger Games opens in theaters everywhere March 23rd, 2012. Click through for some larger versions of the posters after the break.

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There’s no hiding that we’re pretty big nerds for The Muppets here at The Flickcast. We’ve posted about it only a few times but none of the past links have done justice like today’s. Submitted to you is artist Michael De Pippo, who has brought us sheer brilliance in some retro concert posters done for the official Muppets house band, Dr. Teeth & The Electric Mayhem.

A simple idea, yet completely original on its own. Here’s what De Pippo had to say about his idea.

My idea was simple; create a vintage concert poster for each band member (Dr. Teeth, Janice, Sgt. Floyd Pepper, Zoot and Animal). Using clean, crisp vectors, negative space and few colours, I wanted to keep them as simple and stylized as possible; reminiscent of retro posters from back in the day.

So before you completely combust with anticipation, check out these custom posters after the jump. According to De Pippo, each poster will be available up on Etsy very soon, so keep an eye on his blog and Twitter for updates on that. In the meantime, check out the full collection of these character posters after the jump.

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