There’s a moment in Radio Days when a young Allen and his parents have a chance encounter with a “Whiz Kid,” one of those freakish adolescents who spend every moment of their day memorizing trivia. Allen’s parents are in awe of the kid’s diction and “intelligence” while to Allen and ourselves he comes off as a stuffy automaton.

That single scene exemplifies the theme of Midnight in Paris: (and I take this line from Tyler Cowen’s excellent summation) “if we somehow managed to meet the cultural titans of previous eras, how many of them would come across as blowhard hacks, if only because their own subsequent work has made their personae obsolete?”

The Allen surrogate is Gil Pender (Owen Wilson), an American Hollywood hack in Paris with his shrewish fiancée Inez (Rachel McAdams) and her disapproving parents John (Kurt Fuller) and Wendy (Mimi Kennedy). Gil, currently engaged in his novel, longs for the Paris of the 1920s and, after a walk one night, meets a cab that whisks him back in time to a party with F. Scott (Tom Hiddleston) and Zelda (Alison Pill) Fitzgerald.

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Whenever a new high-profile project gets going rumors pretty much instantly start to circulate concerning who is writing, directing or acting in a particular film or TV show. In the case of the upcoming Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, we already know some pieces of the puzzle.

For example, we already know Timor Bekmambetov is the director, Seth Grahame-Smith is the writer (based on his own novel) and that Bekmambetov, Jim Lemley and Tim Burton are producig. What we don’t know is who will be taking on the titular role of Abe — although we now have a few clues who it might be.

Over at Deadline (yes, again) they’ve got some exclusive scoop on who some of the actors, both known and unknown, who are in contention for the role. Some of the names being mentioned include Benjamin Walker, James D’Arcy, Adrien Brody, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Josh Lucas, and Timothy Olyphant.

You probably recognize some of those names and some you probably don’t. It’s an interesting mix of actors and from what we’ve seen pretty much any of them would probably make a fine Abe Lincoln.

However, if we had to pick, one our choice would be Timothy Olyphant. Even though one or two of us here at The Flickcast don’t understand or respect his talent, the rest of us do and think he would do a great job.

What do you think? Is Olyphant the right man for the gig? Well, whatever happens, we will know soon enough.

Look for the film to hit theaters on June 22, 2012.

How many times has this happened to you? You wake up in a car, its smashed up and you have no memory of how you got there or what happened. Sound familiar?

Well, even if it doesn’t sound familiar, it still makes for an interesting premise for a movie to be sure. Fortunately, someone already had the idea and has made a movie that starts off just that way. The movie, which features Adrien Brody and is called Wrecked, tells the story of Brody’s character who wakes up in a forest after a car accident and has no idea how he got there or what happened.

Then, as he piece together the events leading to his predicament, things don’t turn out at all ho they seem. In fact, they don’t turn out very good at all. The film was directed by Michael Greenspan and is slated for release next year.

Check out the trailer after the jump.

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The Thin Red Line (1998) marks the triumphant return of American film maker Terrence Malick’s return after a twenty year hiatus from the studio system. Anyone who was anyone in Hollywood circles jumped on the production of the film, even if it was just a brief walk on role. In fact, many A -list talents like Robert De Niro, Robert Duvall, Bill Pullman, Leonardo Dicaprio, Brad Pitt, Peter Berg, Dermot Mulroney, Edward Burns, William Baldwin, Edward Norton, Matthew McConaughey, Nicolas Cage, and Johnny Depp were very interested in joining the cast or were either cut from the film due to editing and budget constraints.

Malick was best known for two films in the 1970s which were Badlands (1973) and Days of Heaven (1978) which were renowned for their breathtaking cinematography and for Malick’s ability to capture magnificent exterior shots much like John Ford’s sweeping westerns Stagecoach (1939), and The Searchers (1956). The beautiful cinematography of the film is credited to John Toll who is an absolute genius.

Malick wrote the screenplay based on author James Jones 1962 novel which chronicles his experiences during the campaign. Pvt. Fife (Brody) is actually Jones who serves as the main character in the book, yet in the film is reduced to a minor character.

The film stars some of Hollywood’s most celebrated actors such as Sean Penn (1st Sgt. Edward Welsh), Adrien Brody (Pvt. Geoffrey Fife), Jim Caviezel (Pvt. Robert Witt), Ben Chaplin (Pvt. John Bell), George Clooney (Capt. Charles Bosche), John Cusack (Capt. John Graff), John Savage (Sgt. McCron), John Travolta (Brig. Gen. Quintard), Arie Vereen (Pfc. Charlie Dale), Kirk Acevedo (Pvt. Tella), Mark Boone Junior (Pvt. Peale), Woody Harrelson (Sgt. Keck), Elias Koteas (Capt. James Staros), Tim Blake Nelson (Pvt. Tills), John C. Reilly (Sgt. Storm), and Nick Nolte (Lt. Col. Gordon Tall).

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With X-men: First Class scheduled to start filming next week, 20th Century Fox has turned their focus to the their next Marvel film. That film? A reboot of Fantastic Four.

Rumors about the films casting have started with news that The Thing will be completely CGI and Sue Storm being played by Alice Eve or Amber Heard, and it seems the film’s star power will be stemming from the group leader Mr. Fantastic. The two actors in the running for Fantastic Four’s Reed Richards are Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Adrien Brody.

While Jonathan Rhys Meyers is probably best known for his starring role in the Showtime series The Tudors, he also has From Paris With Love in which he starred opposite John Travolta under his belt. He’s also been seen in film such as Mission Impossible III, Match Point and Bend It Like Beckham.

The bigger get would obviously be Adrien Brody, who is quietly growing into an action film with the recent releases of Predators and Splice. Brody is also the forerunner for Edgar Wright’s Ant-man for Marvel Studios. Having the Oscar winning actor attached to the film would add some credibility to the project.

The title of the film will not be Fantastic Four Reborn as previously report, but the actual title has not been released. Now that Chiklis is moving on to No Ordinary Family on ABC and Evans is headed over to work on that other Marvel movie, who would YOU cast as The Thing and Human Torch in the upcoming reboot?

This week on The Flickcast Chris and Matt dive right in and discuss a whole bunch of new and exciting topics. Some of these new and exciting topics include the new Predators film, the upcoming San Diego Comic-Con, Edward Norton out as Bruce Banner in The Avengers, various casting news, The Expendables, Inception, Johnathan Nolan directing the Superman reboot, Zachary Levi as Clark Kent/Superman the awesomeness of Alfred Molina and a whole lot more.

You favorite co-hosts also made some great picks including Matt’s pick of the new sci-fi action film Predators and Chris’ pick of the new game Singularity.

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

While its 1987 predecessor Predator took its sweet time setting up the action, Predators starts off at breakneck speed, with a man hurtling through air,  frantically trying to get his parachute open.  The wind whips around him, and as he plummets toward a certain death, he appears to be a goner.

Of course, at the last second, he gets it to open, and it breaks his fall enough to allow him to survive.  All around him, other people are falling out of the sky, but some of them are not as lucky,  and die upon impact. It’s a thrilling action sequence, and immediately sets this film apart from the original.

The first thirty minutes of this movie has a distinct Lost-like vibe to it. The survivors start rounding up one another, and it becomes apparent that nobody knows how they got to this jungle, or where they are.  One man even asserts that they must be in hell.

They discover that they are all combatants of some sort.  Most are military mercenary types, one is wearing a prison jumper, and one claimed he worked for a drug cartel.   It’s a bad-ass assortment of individuals, that much is true.

Everyone has landed with appropriate weaponry and ammunition strapped to their bodies.  The lone exception is Edwin, a bookworm type who claims he is a doctor, and seems woefully out of his element among the soldiers.

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Given the current spate of advances in genetic engineering, Splice seems eerily prescient. After all, we have already seen the rapid evolution of cloning. Supermarkets now carry cloned produce, and mammals are routinely and successfully cloned as well. Is it really unreasonable to assume we will see a human-animal hybrid in our lifetime? Who’s to say one doesn’t already exist?

It is hard to believe that director Vincenzo Natali (Cube) first conceived the idea for Splice almost 15 years ago, all because he was intrigued by the shocking image of the Vacanti mouse, that little white mouse that had a human ear growing out of its back. The result is this chilling sci-fi/horror hybrid that is teeming with the ethical and moral implications of genetic research.

Elsa (Sarah Polley, The Sweet Hereafter) and Clive (Adrien Brody, The Pianist) are gifted young genetic bio-engineers, who have successfully spliced the genetic material of different animals into a hybrid. A pharmaceutical company has sponsored them, in the hopes of developing new medications.

Frustrated, Elsa chomps at the bit to add a little human DNA to the next experiment, but the company shoots her down, deeming it too risky, not to mention illegal.

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This Friday, the Science Fiction/Horror hyprid Splice hits theaters, and we recently got the chance to speak with director Vincenco Natali. Natali spoke about the upcoming film, the horror genre, and even his prospects of working on a film adaptation of the DC Comics character Swamp Thing.

In Splice, Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley star as genetic engineers who recklessly splice human and animal DNA, the result being Dren (nerd spelled backward), a creature that brings to light the unintended consequences of messing with mother nature.  

The Flickcast: The movie touches on medical ethics, moral implications of medical research, and it is very timely and  topical right now. Was that your intention, or is it just fortuitous that some of these things are closer to  becoming a reality?

Vincenzo Natali: The movie was really inspired by this thing called the Vacanti mouse, which was a mouse that appeared to have a human ear growing out of it’s back, it was pretty disturbing.

You know, we have a very visceral reaction to these things, and it really inspired me in a way. As it turned out, in the length of time that it took me to develop the script the science really evolved exponentially.

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We’ve been following director Vincenzo Natali’s latest film Splice for a little while now because, among other reasons, we’re big fans of sci-fi around here and his first film, Cube, was a pretty great low-budget first feature effort. And now, thanks to the power of the Internets (and the folks at Collider), we can bring you a new clip from the film as well as a poster.

In case you’re not familiar with Splice, it concerns “superstar genetic engineers Clive (Adrien Brody) and Elsa (Sarah Polley) specialize in splicing DNA from different animals to create incredible hybrids.” These driven scientists use human DNA to create a hybrid that, at first, surpasses their wildest dreams.

But as this hybrid, called Dren, begins to grow, those dreams turn into nightmare as it begins to develop unexpected abilities and appetites. Well, that does sound scary and after looking at this latest clip, I’m even more interested in this film. The effects look pretty good for such a low budget and who doesn’t love science gone wrong allegories? I know I do.

We’ll bring you more on this film as it gets closer to the release date, including an exclusive interview with director Vincenzo Natali, so be sure and check back soon. Until then, check out the clip and poster after the jump. Splice hits theaters on June 4.

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I have to admit that we were all pretty excited to hear about the Robert Rodriguez reboot of the Predator franchise known as Predators and directed by Nimrod Antal. Sure, the original Predator has a lot going for it, including such memorable Arnold Schwarzeneggar lines as “Get to the chopper!” and “You are one ugly motherf***er.” Still, with all that great stuff, a new movie with even more awesome predator action could be a good thing.

In the past we’ve brought you some cool info about this new Predators film including casting info and the first look at the trailer. Now, curtesy of the fine folks at CinemaBlend, we’ve got a new featurette to share with you today.

I admit I was a bit skeptical about Adrian Brody and his ability to be a convincing action hero. But after seeing the recent trailer and now this new video, I’ve changed my mind and think he will be able to pull it off. After all, he’s a gifted actor who should be able to play pretty much any role so fighting predators should be a walk in the park, er, jungle for him.

Judge for yourself and check out the featurette after the jump. Predators hits theaters on July 9th. What do you guys think? Does Brody make a convincing action star?

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Last week during Austin’s South By Southwest film festival, producer and co-writer Robert Rodriguez unveiled the first footage from his upcoming film, Predators. We got to see lots of chatter from the cast, including stars Adrien Brody and Laurence Fishburne. Unfortunately, there was very little seen of the titular alien race.

Now, a brand new trailer has hit the web, this time giving us just the right amount of violence, Predators, and Danny Trejo that we could possibly ask for. The new film is set as a reboot/prequel to the original Predator franchise, which first gave geek-cred to stars like Schwarzenegger, Danny Glover, and Gary Busey.

Check out the official trailer after the jump, and be sure to catch Nimron Antal’s Predators, starring Topher Grace, Adrien Brody, Laurence Fishburne, Danny Trejo, and Alice Braga, in theaters on July 7th.

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