What can you say about The Hangover “franchise” that hasn’t already been said? Sure, it features an odd cast that for some reason clicks together very well, an absurd premise that for some reason works very well and many other elements that, on paper, should have probably made the first movie a flop — or at the very least relegated to DVD.

Well, as you know, that didn’t happen. In fact, the first one was a monster hit that spawned a sequel and made household names of its stars. And now, we’re in for the final chapter of the franchise: The Hangover Part 3.

The first full trailer has dropped today for the movie and it’s pretty much what you would expect. Although, that may have a lot to do with the fact that with this trailer, the marketing department is trying to give you more of the same to help you remember why you loved these movies in the first place. Expect some different trailers and such later on.

Meantime, check out this new one after the break. Look for The Hangover Part 3 to hit theaters on May 24th.

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The opening, a long tracking shot that follows motor stuntman “Handsome” Luke Glanton (Ryan Gosling), as he makes his way through the carnival, lighting cigarettes, pushing through the crowd, enterting the appointed tent, fastening his helmet, and buzzing in the cage with two others, is one of the best — and will likely remain among the best of the year. It’s an inspired choice that testifies to director Derek Cianfrance’s deliberation.

Luke is one of the major characters in this play, a distinction that he’ll share with Avery (Bradley Cooper), the lawyer-turned cop and Jason (Dane DeHaan), Luke’s son. Each of them will have their own act, with the scenes intertwining as the drama unfolds throughout 15 years. Luke will quit his job to stay with his son. He will meet a local mechanic (Ben Mendelsohn) who will teach him to rob banks.

He will be pursued by Avery. Avery will rat out some crooked cops and eventually run for office. Luke’s son will befriend Avery’s without realizing their connection. And the results of that friendship and discovery of that connection will begin the cycle anew.

Cianfrance’s previous film Blue Valentine, also with Gosling, carried a similarly morose tone and followed another meticulously logical line of unfortunate events. For all the spontaneity of many scenes — the robberies and chases especially — and improvisational (sounding, at least) dialogue, he shows an immense amount of discipline. He knows the story he wishes to tell and does in a straight-forward and hard way.

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Yes, that’s right. After a bit of time apart to “find themselves” and/or work on solo projects, Chris and Matt are back together again for an all-new season of The Flickcast.

And to kick things off, the boys talk all-things Oscar and make some predictions about who and what will take home the gold guy during Sunday’s festivities. Plus, they take a bit of a detour through the upcoming Star Wars movies and the various casting rumors as well as the most recent installment of the Die Hard franchise.

Hopefully you won’t be too disappointed but Chris and Matt don’t make any picks this time around, mostly because they don’t know if that bit is going to continue. So that means you don’t have to link to anything this week.

However, if you do want the picks bit to continue, let us know via the comments. And, if you have any other comments or suggestions about the show, feel free to let us know that too.

Look for brand new episodes of The Flickcast right here each and every week!

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As we’re a site covering the movies, it would probably be a disservice not to put up something about the Oscar (aka Academy Award) nominations which were announced this morning by Seth MacFarlane and Emma Stone. So yes, the nominations are here and as always there’s a few surprises, a few “snubs” and the rest is rather predictable.

Here’s the nominations for your reading pleasure. Look for the actual ceremony, featuring host Seth MacFarlane, to air on Sunday, February 24th on ABC.

Performance by an actor in a leading role

Bradley Cooper in “Silver Linings Playbook”
Daniel Day-Lewis in “Lincoln”
Hugh Jackman in “Les Misérables”
Joaquin Phoenix in “The Master”
Denzel Washington in “Flight”

Performance by an actor in a supporting role

Alan Arkin in “Argo”
Robert De Niro in “Silver Linings Playbook”
Philip Seymour Hoffman in “The Master”
Tommy Lee Jones in “Lincoln”
Christoph Waltz in “Django Unchained”

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Even though it’s the holidays, some things end up getting released anyway. Often, those things are trailers, which is the case in this, ah, case.

In this upcoming thriller, A Place Beyond the Pines, Ryan Gosling plays a pro motorcycle rider-turned-bankrobber and Bradley Cooper plays the cop who’s determined to catch him. Want to know more?

Good, because we’ve got that trailer we mentioned. The film is directed by Derek Cianfrance who co-wrote with Ben Coccio and Darius Marder. It also stars some hot babes in the persona of Eva Mendes and Rose Byrne. It’s set to open March 29.

Check out the trailer after the break.

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Nominees for the 28th Annual Spirit Awards were announced today and in many of the categories, some familiar names seem to be recurring. Best Feature nominees are Beasts Of The Southern Wild, Keep The Lights On, Moonrise Kingdom and Silver Linings Playbook.

Sean Baker’s Starlet will receive the Robert Altman Award, given to a film’s director, casting director, and ensemble cast. Among distributors, Searchlight leads the way with nine nominations, followed by Music Box with seven and IFC Films, Focus and Sony Pictures Classics with six apiece. Winners will be announced at the ceremony on February 23.

The full list of nominees follows:

BEST FEATURE
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Michael Gottwald, Dan Janvey & Josh Penn (producers)
Bernie
Liz Glotzer, Richard Linklater, David McFadzean, Dete Meserve, Judd Payne, Celine Rattray, Martin Shafer, Ginger Sledge, Matt Williams (producers)
Keep the Lights On
Marie Therese Guirgis, Lucas Joaquin, Ira Sachs (producers)
Moonrise Kingdom
Wes Anderson, Jeremy Dawson, Steven Rales, Scott Rudin (producers)
Silver Linings Playbook
Bruce Cohen, Donna Gigliotti, Jonathan Gordon (producers)

BEST DIRECTOR
Wes Anderson, Moonrise Kingdom
Julia Loktev, The Loneliest Planet
David O. Russell, Silver Linings Playbook
Ira Sachs, Keep the Lights On
Benh Zeitlin, Beasts of the Southern Wild

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Dax Shepard: Okay, I’m writing this vehicle — hmm, vehicle — what do you want to be?

Kristen Bell: I’ve always wanted to work in conflict negotiation, or something with horses.

DS: Perfect! I’m playing a badass driver/action hero with a heart of gold and a great left hook. you can always be arguing with me over violence.

KB: Well, I don’t want to be too stuffy.

DS: No, the twist is that you’ll be the aggressive one, like we’ll have one scene where I say something that offends you and you get really mad at me. And I’ll always be doing what you want.

KB: Ha!

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The first Hangover film was fantastic, really nailing a raunchy, adult comedy in a stylish way that has rarely been seen since the 80s. The second film was basically an overseas beat for beat remake of the original. A photocopy of the first, which still meant it was funny, but some luster had worn off.

Despite that the sequel made a ton of monies at the Box Office, so you knew a third would be on its way. According to Life & Style we finally have a crazy location for the wolf-pack to get lost in:

An industry insider reveals to Life & Style the top-secret filming locations. ”A lot of it will be shot in Los Angeles, but then they are going to do the crazy scenes in Las Vegas again and then one wild week in Tijuana,” the source tells Life & Style. Bradley Cooper, Zach Galifianakis and Ed Helms are all set to reprise their roles.

Word has been percolating for quite some time that the third Hangover was going to have a bit of a different structure than the first too. This news actually leads a little credence to that as it seems the boys will have adventures all over Vegas, Southern California and even dipping down into Mexico.

The Flickcast will keep our ears out for any new updates on this big budget comedy sequel.

The second Hangover movie was a success. The movie might have suffered from being to much like the original, but the original was pretty damn awesome, so there was still lots to like. So a third installment seemed likely, and now according to The Hollywood Reporter the final hurdles are being cleared as we speak.

Dealmaking on the studio’s third installment in the raunchy comedy franchise is wrapping up after dragging on for months due in part to the salary demands of its three stars. Sources close to the negotiations say Bradley Cooper, Zach Galifianakis and Ed Helms are asking for $15 million each (against backend) to reprise their roles, and they now are likely to get it.

The next Hangover film is said to be a departure from the formula of the first two films. It is risky to stray to far from a proven formula, but knowing that the filmmakers actively want to make a film with these characters that we know and love with out an inexplicable third memory blacked out party is a great sign.

Warner Bros. is hoping to bring the story to Los Angeles, with filming beginning in the summer. Hangover 3 has a tentative release date of Memorial Day 2013.

Things seemed to be going well for the upcoming reboot of the penultimate 1990′s goth film The Crow. The studio managed to lock down hot screenwriter Alex Tse (Watchmen) to pen the script, and 28 Weeks Later’s Juan Carlos Fresnadillo signed on to direct. Shortly after that, the production was able to lock in Hangover star Bradley Cooper as the gloomy hero of the film. Sadly, it looks like “lock” was not meant to be taken seriously.

It seems that Cooper is backing out of the production due to scheduling conflicts. Sadly, that means Relativity Media needs to go back to the drawing board to find a new rock and roll zombie for this upcoming reboot. THR has the report.

Bradley Cooper was to have played the title character but sources tell The Hollywood Reporter that he has now exited due to scheduling conflicts. Cooper has David O. Russell’s Silver Linings Playbook shooting this fall and then dives straight into Legendary’sParadise Lost, which shoots first quarter next year…the exact time Relativity plans on making the high-priority Crow.

But akin to the project’s rock musician who is killed and resurrected, two new names have surfaced as possible replacements: Channing Tatum and Mark Wahlberg.

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Legendary Entertainment, one of Hollywood’s smaller production firms,came to San Diego Comic-Con for the first time this year to talk about some of their upcoming films currently in pre-production. I sat down Friday, not sure what to expect, however I was excited to learn more about their upcoming films and hear from some of the directors and stars themselves chat about their various projects.

First up was the ‘Pacific Rim’ panel, presided over by acclaimed writer, producer and director Guillermo del Toro. His new flick stars Charlie Hunnam, Idris Elba, and Rinko Kikuchi and in Guillermo’s own words, features “Giant f***ing robots fighting giant f***ing aliens.” Ah Guillermo, always so colorful. Set to release in 2013, the film’s plot is quite simple, but also strikes me as something we haven’t quite seen before: as aliens attack and threaten the Earth’s existence, giant robots piloted by humans are deployed to fight off the menace.

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There was a lot of excitement when David O. Russell took the reins of the upcoming Uncharted film. A real director taking on one of the most cinematic ready video game franchises seemed like a sure fire hit. Then word came out that frequent O. Russell collaborator Mark Whalberg would play Nathan Drake and  it was all down hill from there.

Eventually, O. Russell decided to leave the project and Uncharted seemed on shaky ground.

Well Variety is now reporting that Neil Burger, director of the film Limitless, has been brought on to direct the cinematic adventures of Nathan Drake. Burger is coming off a mild success in Limitless and hopes to parlay that into bigger things. It is unknown whether or not Whalberg is still interested in starring in the movie, but it is known that Burger will be working off of a re-write of the original script Russell had intended on using.

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When we live in a world where a film like Footloose warrants a remake, why wouldn’t another classic and iconic film like The Crow get a reboot for a modern audience? That’s exactly what Relativity Media thinks, as they’re moving forward with a remake or “reinvention” of the 1994 comic book adaptation.

It looks like they’re moving so quickly towards this idea that a screenwriter has even been found. Alex Tse, who adapted Alan Moore’s Watchmen to screen with Zack Snyder is looking to reinvent the tale of the man who couldn’t die.

Relativity Media’s President of Worldwide Production, Tucker Tooley, and Edward R. Pressman, producer behind the cult-classic The Crow franchise, announced today they have attached Alex Tse (Watchmen) to write their reinvention of The Crow, the 1994 critically acclaimed, sensation based on the comic book series and comic strip by James O’Barr.

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With The Hangover Part II making upwards of $350 million worldwide, Todd Phillips and his Wolfpack aren’t even going to have the time to spend any of that money, because there is already a plan for Warner Bros. to crank out yet another Hangover film.

Phillips has expressed interest in closing out the trilogy with a big film, but it looks like star Zach Galifiniakis may have spoiled the plot for the film in a recent interview with Rolling Stone:

“I’m terrible about people wanting to take pictures with me,” Galifianakis says. “I’m a giant baby about it. They treat you like a cartoon. There’s nothing you can do except make light of it. That’s if I’m in the mood. Sometimes I get superbummed.”

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There were plenty of predictions from analysts that Hangover Part 2 would do well over the 3 day weekend, but with film breaking over $200 million worldwide, you had better believe Warner Bros. is jumping on the train to get a third film up and running as quick as possible.

Worldwide box office success is a sure way to lock in a sequel to any film, but Phillips and his Wolf Pack were actually playing with the idea of making The Hangover a trilogy way before this sequel hit theaters. From THR.

Talk of a third move surfaced several weeks ago when Part II was tracking off the charts. Part II was famously put into development two months before the first movie came out when Warners hired Phillips and Scot Armstrong to write the script. The studio was high on the strong test scores and in an unusual move, especially on something not based on a comic book or brand, hired the writing of the sequel in April before the movie’s release in May.

Craig Mazin, who co-wrote the Bangkok-set sequel, is in early talks to come back to write the new script for whose story details are being kept secret.

You can assume that Cooper, Helms, Galifiniakis, and possibly Ken Jeong will be back for the third installment. The question then becomes: where do you go when you’ve already done Vegas and Bangkok? Our vote is for the Moon.