If you’ve been a fan of Starz’ massive Spartacus series from the beginning, one thing you may be is confused as to the order of events that took place during the various incarnations of the series. Or, you just may want to see everything in the order it was intended and follow along as the characters and situations develop.

Whatever your wishes, Starz seems to have them covered with its just announced plan to run every episode of Spartacus, in chronological order, as one epic viewing event.

Here’s more from the official Starz press release:

For the first time, Starz will air all 29 episodes of Spartacus in chronological order, beginning with “Gods of the Arena,” then “Blood and Sand,” and concluding with “Vengeance,” Friday nights from 9pm – 11pm ET/PT, beginning June 8th.

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We’ve brought you news of the upcoming Starz series Magic City before and now we’ve got the brand new, extended trailer for the show to share with you today. In it you get quite a bit of info on the story, characters and situations that make up this new offering from the network that brought us Spartacus: Blood and Sand and Boss.

In case you’re not familiar with Magic City, it stars Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Miami hotel king and family man Ike Evans who managed to get his hotel resort built and now has to deal with his mob boss partner (Danny Huston) and a whole host of other problems in 1959 Miami. Let’s just say things don’t go exactly as he planned.

In addition to Morgan and Huston, the series also features Olga Kurylenko, Kelly Lynch, Seymour Cassel and Michael Rispoli. It premieres on April 6 at 10/9C on Starz.

Check out the trailer after the break.

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After an arduous search for the actor who could play John McClane’s son in the newest installment of the Die Hard franchise, 20th Century Fox has finally settled on Jai Courtney.

Courtney is best known for playing Varro in the Starz series Spartacus: Blood And Sand. In the series, Courtney played a close friend and confidante of Spartacus until they were forced into a battle to the death. Courtney has had a bit of a big screen surge as he will next be seen starring opposite Tom Cruise in Paramount’s One Shot, the Christopher McQuarrie directed adaptation of the Lee Child bestseller. He is also attached to star opposite Aaron Eckhart in I, Frankenstein.

A Good Day To Die Hard, the fifth installment of the Die Hard franchise, puts McClane on unfamiliar ground, taking the hard-ass  New York City cop to the streets of Moscow. The flick introduces McClane’s estranged son Jack (Courtney). The McClane’s butt heads due to their similar personalities. Despite their differences, they must work together to keep each other alive and keep the world safe for democracy. This film positions Courtney to become a recurring character alongside Willis, and possibly take over for Willis as the lead as the sequels continue.

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Next week sees the return of Spartacus, the Starz original series chronicling the life of the titular slave who rebelled against his Roman oppressors. The show’s official second season, called Spartacus: Vengeance, has been long in coming, and brings with it many questions in the wake of the tragic death of the first seasons’ star, Andy Whitfield.

The Flickcast recently partook in a discussion with series creator/exec. producer Steven S. DeKnight where, among other things, he talked about the transition from his original star to new Spartacus Liam McIntyre (check out our interview with the actor here), where the show is going from here and working with Joss Whedon.

On Liam capturing the essence of Andy Whitfield’s Spartacus -

…that’s really what drew us to Liam is that we didn’t want to try to duplicate (Andy). I mean, that will never happen. He was such a singular, amazing talent. But we wanted to find somebody that had the same base qualities of compassion. And I told all the actors when they auditioned that even though Spartacus may fly into a rage now and then, he never comes from a place of anger, it’s always from a place of a wounded heart. And we really felt like Liam captured that essence.

On no character being safe on the show - 

…on this show characters literally get the ax. I think really ultimately for me it’s always – it comes from the story is how is the story best served by a character death. I don’t ever want somebody to just die. It needs to have ramifications either emotionally or towards the plot. So that’s always the number one driving force of – on who do I kill.

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Spartacus: Blood and Sand was one of the most interesting and fun to watch shows to appear on TV in a long time. It’s combo ob blood, gore, sex, action and swordplay made it a big hit for Starz and a star of Andy Whitfield.

Sadly, Andy Whitfield was not able to continue with the series and passed away due to his illness. However, as they say in Hollywood: “The show must go on.” And it is with new Spactacus Liam McIntyre who, at first glance, slightly resembles Whitfield and also looks to be a worthy successor to him.

The upcoming second (we don’t count the prequel) season, titled Spartacus: Vengeance, takes place right after the events of the first season of Spartacus and tells the continuing story of the slave revolt and its ramifications throughout Rome. To get you ready for the new season, we’ve got a preview of the first minutes of the premiere episode with an introduction by Spartacus himself. Looks good. We’ll be watching.

Check out the video after the break. Spartacus: Vengeance premieres on Starz on Friday, January 27.

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Some of the biggest controversy in TV over the past few years also happens to be tied to one of the best shows we’ve seen on American TV in a while. That controversy surrounds the STARZ original series Spartacus. The first season, titled Blood and Sand, was one of the cable networks highest rated series of all time, so it was natural that it would get a second season.

Due to the main star, Andy Whitfield, getting diagnosed with cancer, the show went on hiatus, and then continued on with a prequel season without Whitfield. Sadly, the star passed away earlier this year, leaving the showrunner, Steven S. DeKnight, without a star, and a network looking to continue the franchise.

Reluctantly, they recast their Spartacus, and the team planned out Spartacus: Vengeance, which will continue in the Spartacus universe. It looks like the network is now ready for the show’s January premiere. From Deadline:

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With their new show Boss already off to a strong start and with previous hits like Spartacus: Blood and Sand, it looks like Starz is trying to find success again with another original dramatic series. This time around instead of modern day Chicago and Kelsey Grammer or ancient Rome and the late, great Andy Whitfield, we get 1959 Miami and Jeffrey Dean Morgan in Magic City.

Not that we’re complaining. In fact, the show looks pretty good, judging from the trailer for it released today. Although, if you have Starz (as some of here at The Flickcast do) you’ve already seen this promo.

Seen it or not, you can check it out and realize, as we have, Starz is hear to stay in the dramatic series department. In addition to Morgan starring as a Miami hotelier and family man with ties to the mob, the series also features Olga Kurylenko as his wife and Danny Huston as a mob boss.

The series premieres in the spring. In the meantime, check out the trailer after the break.

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It seems HBO isn’t alone in the giving series a second season before they hardly run their first department. In fact, Starz has even done them one better.

The network has officially given the Kelsey Grammer government corruption drama Boss a second season of ten episodes. That’s great news for the show but what makes it even more remarkable is the fact that the show hasn’t even premiered on the network yet.

Don’t be too shocked, though. This move isn’t ompletely without precedent for Starz. The network did the same thing with Spartacus: Blood and Sand.

In case you’re not familiar with Boss (and no reason you should be as you can’t actually see it yet) it was created by writer Farhad Safinia and features Gus Van Sant making his TV directing debut. Grammer plays a ruthless Chicago mayor who has a secret that threatens to destroy him. Don’t they all.

Also in the show are Connie Nielsen, Jeff Hephner, Hannah Ware, Kathleen Robertson and Troy Garity. Production on Season 2 is reportedly set to begin in early 2012.

Look for the first season of Boss to debut on Starz on October 21.

While Torchwood is a name that is becoming more an more familiar to American audiences since Starz started airing the this season, it’s been on the top list of quality TV for fans in the UK (or “in the know”) for years now.

The show started off as a small spinoff of the ratings juggernaut Doctor Who, and managed to slowly build an audience comparable to the material in which it was created. With series creator Russell T. Davies, the series managed to bounce all over the BBC networks and eventually get a primetime slot on one of their big channels.

With that growing success, it only made sense to bring the show here to the US, where the population could easily boost those ratings into something the UK rarely gets to see. That’s where Starz comes in.

We got the chance to speak with series star Eve Myles, who has the fortune of being with the series from the pilot, all the way through its reincarnation here on US soil. She mentioned how different the production has been, and how new and exciting this incarnation of the fictional Torchwood team is.

Check out what she had to say after the jump, and catch Torchwood: Miracle Day airing on Starz every Friday.

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Bill Pullman is one of those famed actors who’s resume has some of the weirdest stuff you’ll ever see on it. From playing the lead in a Mel Brooks spoof about Star Wars, to the troop-rallying president in Michael Bay’s Independence Day, and even to the child-killing death row inmate in Torchwood: Miracle Day, it seems like no role can disinterest the man.

Pullman joined the cast of Torchwood this season as they finally make their way to American soil and debut on Starz with Miracle Day. This time, he’s neither a wise-cracking hero nor the flag-waving veteran. This time he’s a stone cold killer.

In this season, the world is plagued by something that wouldn’t normally be considered a plague: not a single person on the planet can die. That includes Pullman’s character Oswald Danes, who was sentenced to lethal injection on that day. Things didn’t exactly go according to plan, and Pullman’s Danes is out on the streets.

We got a chance to speak with Bill about what drew him to this new-ish series and what he loves about the writing. We also got to ask him about how much of his famous Independence Day speech he remembers. The speech has lately had a new found love on the web, as even New York City comic Sean Kleier performs it in the most awkward of locations.

Take a look at our interview after the jump. Catch up on this season of Torchwood, only on Starz.

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While still remaining to be an excellent show, Starz’ Spartacus: Blood and Sand has gone through some pretty rough times. They originally lost their star Andy Whitfield due to illness, which prompted creator Steven S. DeKnight to write a prequel season in which Whitfield was not needed. Then Whitfield bounced back and forth about being able to return, but ultimately had to decline due to uncertainty.

Normally, a major recasting is not something a studio nor producers would want to go through, as an actor like Whitfield carried the show, but the fans demanded more of the show, so they went forward with the recasting. That brought Australian actor Liam McIntyre to the top of the pile.

While having no major roles in the past, McIntyre had the look of Spartacus down, and it didn’t hurt that he looked a bit like Whitfield, either.

We got the chance to speak with McIntyre about filling these pretty big sandals, what it was like working with an already-established crew, and getting into shape using the famed “celeb boot camp” that just about every action star have had to use in order to whip into shape for a role.

Check out our interview, and if you haven’t seen any of the upcoming season of Spartacus, check out the full trailer here.

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This past year has marked a pretty big time for shows on the BBC, as US network TV finally started paying attention to how good some of the programming was and decided to jump on the bandwagon. In some cases, such as Syfy’s Being Human, the network took the idea but none of the original folks that worked on it. That’s not what happened, however, with Torchwood.

Originally starting on a little BBC offshoot, the Doctor Who spinoff grew in popularity and has now been brought over to the States by STARZ in a whole new, updated version. The show while still stays in canon with the earlier version and keeps the show’s main stars John Barrowman and Eve Myles.

We got a chance to speak with Barrowman about playing his favorite superhero, Captain Jack Harkness, for so many years, as well as what it’s like bringing the show from the UK to the US.

Also, John mentioned that Captain Jack wasn’t the only hero he’s had the honor of trying out for. He’s been a huge Captain America fan for years, but back in 2004, he even auditioned to play the lead in Bryan Singer’s Superman Returns before they inevitably went with Brandon Routh.

Check out what John Barrowman had to say about all these things and more in our interview after the jump. Catch Torchwood: Miracle Day airing Friday nights at 10/9C on STARZ.

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