Have you ever played any of the Devil May Cry franchise? If so, then great – you might enjoy the backstory that you get out of this comic. If not, then both the plot and the structure of the comic itself will likely confuse the Devil Trigger out of you. Hang on with me here.

First, Some DmC Background:

Devil May Cry is a video game series that was initially intended to be a continuation of the Resident Evil plot line, but became its own franchise due to the focus on fast-paced, stylized combat. The game follows Dante, a “devil hunter” who is the son of the demon Sparda and the human Eva. Sparda was a powerful demon knight who served Mundus, the king of the underworld.

Mundus strove to reign over all of humankind, but Sparda chose the path of justice, defeating Mundus and sealing off the underworld. In an act of revenge, Mundus sent demons to kill Sparda’s family. Eva hid 8-year-old Dante and his twin brother, Vergil, and died at the hands of the demons. To protect his sons, Sparda wiped their memories and sent them into the human world to grow up and live “normal” lives (yeah..right).

Now that we’re all on the same page, let’s get to the pages of this comic, shall we? I’ll tell you the gist of the story, and then I’ll dish out the good and bad. DmC is Kinda Weird, and the Comic Continues the Weirdness.

The Amazing Spider-Man was a divisive film. Some people thought it was a fair reboot that rejuvenated a popular, if tired, franchise. While others felt a resounding hollowness from a, seemingly unnecessary, reboot of a franchise that was still reasonably healthy. Despite the mixed reception from the Spider-faithful, the film made gobs of cash and a sequel is fast approaching.

We thought we had a good handle on the villainy of ASM 2 with the assumed inclusion of Norman Osbourne and Jammie Foxx as an unorthodox Electro set to conflict with the web-head. However a surprise twist to the film’s rogues gallery might just have been uncovered via a Hollywood Reporter scoop:

Paul Giamatti is in talks to join The Amazing Spider-Man 2 as the villain known as The Rhino… The Rhino first appeared in Amazing Spider-Man #41in 1966 as a thug from a Soviet Bloc country who wore a superhuman suit that made him invulnerable while giving him superstrength and superspeed. It also had a deadly horn on top.  

What What What?

This film is certainly heading into some bold and interesting directions. Not only is the one-two punch of Rhino and Electro rather random, but the actor choices the casting department targeted for these roles are either brilliant or completely nutter-butter.

2011 smashed one long-held cinematic rule, that on almost every occasion prequels suck. There were two very high-profile, very low expectation prequels that summer, and both ended up being franchise salvaging hits.

Sequels to those prequels have already been green lit and given release dates by Fox. The creative team behind X-Men: First Class were able to jump right into pre-production with almost all of the behind the scenes crew intact. The ride has been a little more bumpy for the next  Apes film, with Rise director Rupert Wyatt jumping ship.

The rumors have been circulating for a while that Wyatt was on the way out, but it was only very recently made official. However, according to deadline, just as quickly as one director leaves another jumps in his place. That director happens to be Cloverfield helmer, Matt Reeves.

Reeves is a fine choice to step into the Apes universe, as he is one of the few directors who has shown an ability to make a story his own while maintaining the previously established story. If Reeves manages to tap into the tone of Rise of the Planet of the Apes while bringing something new to the table we stand a great chance at getting another great flick.

The Hobbit is now a trilogy, we all know that now and most of us have made our peace with that very surprising news. Where there were two films now there are three, and one of the more important and simple things a film needs when it is announced is a title and a release date. Few films are brazen enough to release with out a title and a release date, and it seems the third Hobbit will not be as well.

The third film will now be known as The Hobbit: There and Back Again, sharp readers will no doubt recognize that title as the one for the second Hobbit film. Seeing as how that title has some sense of finality to it, they shipped it over to the third film which means the second film will now need a new moniker, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smuag.

This new title was expected, but it does seem to confirm how Peter Jackson and company are splitting the known portion of the narrative. The second film will likely climax with the confrontation with the dragon Smaug and the third film will be the epic Battle of the Five Armies. It was always considered tricky how they would do both justice in one film, so there is a small since relief knowing that both rather large events will have time to breathe on-screen.

As for the release date, the third and final(?) Hobbit film will buck all trends and reason and release July 18th 2014. This allows a Peter Jackson middle earth film to test the Summer blockbuster waters for the first time ever.

Stay tuned to The Flickcast for any more Hobbit based news bits as the first film gets closer and closer.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is not your average horror franchise. The original film is a true original and was one of the forefathers of modern horror storytelling, and after that the series took a long and twisty road. So it seems appropriate that we end up at the natural extension of the franchise, Texas Chainsaw 3D.

This is a film that is coming out in a few months, yet up to this point in time we have not seem much promotion for it. That was until the new one-sheet popped up online today, and, in all honesty, the poster actually strikes a compelling tone.

The tag line, ‘Evil Wears Many Faces’ offers up an interesting thought, Leatherface would probably have multiple masks he has made out of his victims over the years. Perhaps the new film will dig deeper into what makes the lunatic tick, or it is a throw away concept and the film is really just going to be a pretty young girl in a sweaty, small top running away from her doom for 95 minutes. Yeah we are betting the latter too.

In any event the poster is harmless and much better than they typical teaser imagery associated with 3D sequels to a modern horror remake.

You can check out the full one-sheet after the jump.

A&E is setting up a new series that will serve as a prequel to Hitchcock’s classic Psycho. The new show, Bates Motel, will attempt to tell the tale of how young Norman went from mama’s boy to psychopathic killer and the show has just cast its Norma Bates.

The news comes from Deadline which is reporting that academy award nominated actress Vera Farmiga is set to take on the role:

[Bates Motel] examines the twisted relationship between serial killer-to-be Norman Bates and his mother Norma. Farmiga will play Norma Louise Bates who is described as passionate, and compelling, a smart, multidimensional character who is always capable of surprising us. The Universal TV-produced Bates Motel has a 10-episode straight-to-series order for a 2013 premiere.

Between Bates Motel and Hannibal, it looks like TV execs are very interested in using the TV format to explore the unexplored pasts of some of cinema’s greatest killers. Hopefully the long form nature of a TV series will provide a better venue to tell these tales as opposed to prequel movies that have thus far been very uninspired.

The good news is A&E does have faith in the show as they already ordered it straight to series with out the need for a pilot. So it will have more of a chance to tell its tale sans the ratings pressure that Hannibal will feel over at NBC.

Keep tuned to The Flickcast for more news from the impending series as it gears toward production.

The Avengers and The Dark Knight Rises were not the only box office behemoths in the last year. The Hunger Games took the world by storm back in March raking in over $650 Million globally. That’s number that might seem quaint compared to Joss Whedon’s big budget nerd-gasem, but contextually it’s a massive hit on a surprising scale.

So all eyes are now on its sequel which is about to begin filming, and one of the major new characters has just be cast. Most people probably do not know the name Sam Claflin, but he has been in a few big budget blockbusters and now is primed to take the next step into wide-spread recognition, by taking on the role of Finnick Odair.

Claflin was a bit of an afterthought in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, but he actually turned in an impressive performance in Snow White and the Huntsman, so much so that some people actually liked his character more than Hemsworth’s Huntsman. Now he has a chance to turn heads in a film that will no doubt be a cultural event when it is released.

Hopefully this casting is another in the long line of impressive casting decisions so far in the series, managing to get good actors not just pretty faces like another sparkly franchise that has been popular lately.

Keep an eye on The Flickcast for any new Hunger Games news bits as the anticipated sequel heads towards production.

The concept behind The Expendables is admirable, mix together as many bad ass action super stars from the last three decades of film into one franchise. The cast list of the first film read like a who’s who of the greatest action talent, even going so far as to feature Arnold and Willis in cameos.

The second film, out this Friday, uped the ante with the original cast returning along with full roles for The Arnold, Bruce Willis and even Van Damme. As great as that group is how do you top it? Total Film had a chance to talk to the film’s producer Avi Lerner to ask that very question:

We’ve approached Clint Eastwood to be one of the guys, we’ve got a character in mind for him. We’re talking to Harrison Ford. [And we want] Wesley Snipes when he comes back from prison. I’ll give you one more name, we’ve got Nicolas Cage to play [one of the characters]… And we’re going to bring Mickey Rourke back, if he won’t be too crazy. I like Mickey. And of course, all the existing stars [will return]”

Wow, talk about reaching for the stars. Who knows if they will actually nail any of those guys, but it is good to see the producers won’t consider any action icon to big to approach. Which begs the question, when will they give Mel Gibson a call?

You can check out The Expendables 2 this week and stay tuned to The Flickcast for any testosterone riddled casting updates in the future.

Do you remember those Puppet Master movies? Those awesome B-flicks that involved iconic little puppets like Blade during various gory adventures, some times through time itself. They were made by Full Moon Features who are carrying a touch for low budgets horror cinema in much the same way Rodger Corman did decades ago.

The go-getters over at Evil Puppets, one of the last bastions of puppet-based cinema appreciation in the world, recently was invited to the set of the tenth Puppet Master film where they were able to see first hand some awesome horror puppetry action:

Alright fans of evil puppets and ankle biting demons from beyond, lend us your eyes!  Full Moon Features was kind enough to invite Anthony Sant’Anselmo, founder of ‘Evil Puppets’ to capture exclusive, behind-the-scenes coverage on the now in-production ‘Axis Rising: Puppet Master X’! … Say what you will about some of the films Full Moon has put out, but you cannot deny the endless well of creativity and originality that [Charles] Band’s companies has encompassed over the years

Check out a full gallery of rather snazzy set pictures after the jump.

In the least surprising news of the day, Joss Whedon has just been confirmed as the writer and director of The Avengers 2. It was always said that Whedon had the open door to come back if he so chooses, and now we know he did indeed choose to do so.

The Avengers 2 will be the culmination of Marvel’s ‘phase 2’ which is the series of Marvel Studios films that are coming after the grand epic that was The Avengers. Each ‘phase’ sort of works like major comic book events, with lead ups in various solo titles/films and eventually one grand event book/movie.

The news of Whedon signing on to the second Avengers movie was not a shock, but today’s news isn’t entirely without a surprise. Whedon is also signed on to develop a Marvel themed TV show for ABC. That is right. a Whedon created Marvel themed TV show coming to prime-time broadcast television!

Obviously this comes with no further information as of yet, but that doesn’t mean we can’t do some rampant speculation. This new series is likely to exist in the Marvel cinematic universe if they are bringing in Whedon to create it, which begs the question of who the series will be about. Chances are slim the show will be about The Avengers but what about another Marvel super team that has been rumored from time to time for their own film, The Thunderbolts.