In the latest The First Avenger: Captain America news, HeatVision is reporting that Hugo Weaving (Matrix, Lord of the Rings) is Marvel Studio’s first choice to star as the film’s villain, Red Skull. In the comic books, Red Skull is Captain America’s archenemy, engaging in espionage and sabotage as Adolf Hitler’s right-hand man.

If Weaving is tapped, it would reunite the star with director Joe Johnston, whom he worked with in this year’s The Wolfman. In other casting news, the list of Captain America contenders appears to have thinned.

We recently reported that five actors were in the running. However, HeatVision and Deadline New York have both reported that John Krasinski is no longer in the race for the coveted role. According to the sites, Marvel is now considering Wilson Bethel (Generation Kill), Mike Vogel (Cloverfield), Chris Evans (Fantastic Four) and Garrett Hudlund (Tron Legacy), who have all either read, tested, or received test offers.

The First Avenger: Captain America is slated for a July 11, 2011 release.

This week on The Flickcast, Chris and Matt are again joined by resident gaming expert John Carle to talk about a whole slew of new topics. Some of these include the recent Oscars, upcoming video game releases, the recent Infinity Ward controversy, the Iron Man 2 and Tron Legacy trailers, Captain America casting rumors, XBox and PS3 hardware and the timeless classic Bosom Buddies.

The guys also make some picks this week, as they usually do, including John’s pick of the comic book Chew, Matt’s pick of the book Abe Lincoln Vampire Hunter and Chris’ pick of the Apple iPad.

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.

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Siege so far has been one of the best Marvel events in recent memory. Not having to worry about delays due to its short 4 issue run, the end of the Asgardian siege by Norman Osborn and H.A.M.M.E.R. will be all cleared up before May. With the penultimate issue set to be released March 17th, IGN.com was given a first peek at some of the pages of this gigantic issue.

If you haven’t seen them yet, the pages as well as IGN’s interviews below were too good not to share with you. Plus, with all the praise heaped on it by some of Marvel’s finest, what’s not to like?

Brian Bendis on Siege #3:

“I think issue #3, which I’ve now seen completed and done, crackles because you know that anybody can go. Let’s put Thor away for a second. If [Sentry] did that to Ares, what’s Clint Barton going to do? What’s Spider-Woman going to do? There’s a genuine problem. So I think the battle crackles. And beyond the fact that it’s stunning – stunning – we have, on pages 18 and 19, an image that is more startling than what happened to Ares. I’ll even give you the page number!

“But as you can see, I’m not talking hype here. As you can see in these pages are staggering, stunning, gorgeous. And I’m very, very proud of it. We have another back-up feature in this issue as well, which I think people are enjoying. But yes, pages 18 and 19. And page 24 is pretty good too!”

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Even though filming is still some time away, recently director Joe Johnston told MTV Splashpage a casting decision on who would portray Captain America in The First Avenger “was weeks away.” Well, weeks have gone by and according to Deadline Hollywood, the list of actors for the titular role has been narrowed down to five finalists.

The five front-runners for the role of Captain America are, according to the site, Chace Crawford (Gossip Girl), John Krasinski (The Office), Scott Porter (Friday Night Lights), Mike Vogel (Cloverfield) and Michael Cassidy (Smallville). All five actors have reportedly agreed to test deals with Johnston and Marvel Studios to try out for the role.

Not only must these actor agree to test for the role, if eventually cast, they must also sign for nine other options, including potential sequels to The First Avenger. This makes sense considering the upcoming Marvel movies and their desire to team them all for a potential Avengers movie in the future. Still, that’s a lot to negotiate.

Of course, fans everywhere have their personal favorites and I we have ours. Picking from this list as if these were the only choices, our first choice would be Smallville’s Michael Cassidy. He’s able to do the action as well as being a pretty good actor as well, so he’d be good for the part.

Sadly, our favorite choice of all and not on this list, Joel Gretsch (The 4400, V), is probably too old now, even though he would be great in the part. No matter who they choose, let’s hope they take this movie as seriously and do as great a job on it as Marvel did with Iron Man. Cap deserves no less.

Who do you think should play Captain America in The First Avenger?

Even with the President’s Day holiday, new comics are still going to come out this week. Even with the holiday, comics will still come out on Wednesday, never fear.

Some of the ones we’re particularly interested in include the latest Deadpool, Psylocke #4, Punisher #14, Captain America #603, Uncanny X-Men #521 and the debut of Doomwar. Check out the list of all these comics, and more, from the official Marvel press release below.

Comics On-Sale:
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #621 (GNTLT)
AVENGERS VS. ATLAS #2
AVENGERS VS. ATLAS #2 PELLETIER VARIANT
BLACK WIDOW & THE MARVEL GIRLS #4
BLACK WIDOW: DEADLY ORIGIN #4
CAPTAIN AMERICA #603
CAPTAIN AMERICA #603 DEADPOOL VARIANT
DAREDEVIL #505
DAREDEVIL #505 DEADPOOL VARIANT
DARK AVENGERS #14 (S)
DARK AVENGERS #14 DEADPOOL VARIANT
DEADPOOL #19
DEADPOOL: MERC WITH A MOUTH #8

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Captain America (Bucky)

Note: This article may contain spoilers. If you dont care about that, read on.

Norman Osborn is going down. There’s no doubt about it. The “Dark Reign” looks to be collapsing and as casualties on both sides pile up in Seige, the dawn of the Heroic Age is just around the corner.

With the Heroic Age coming, some Marvel books will be coming to an end, most notably New Avengers. In the aptly named New Avengers: Finale, scribe Brian Michael Bendis and artist Bryan Hitch will tie up the loose ends of every New Avengers tale that has led to this point. With no cover image even leaking on to the internet yet, no one knows exactly what’s to come from this book.

This will all come to a head in April, giving perfect timing for Marvel’s latest set of promotional art entitled, “I’m an Avenger” and “I’m a Secret Avenger”. With a “May 2010″ tag, these pieces feature work from John Romita Jr. and show some of the current stars expected to be present in the Avengers team post-Siege. The most shocking has Hawkeye, not Ronin, pictured which could mean that Clint Barton may finally be returning to the good old purple and blue.

The five “secret” pieces show simple silhouettes of various members of the new Secret Avengers along with different quotes they’d use to describe themselves. Of the Secret Avengers thus far there are many theories going on about who might be on the team.

Take a look for yourself at them all below and let us know who you think may be screaming for their team to “Assemble!” come May.

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We at The Flickcast are pretty diligent about serving up all the news that comes out each week. However, try as we may to cover it all, some things occassionally slip by. Well, no longer.

Welcome to On The Radar! This weekly post will be your premiere destination for a comprehensive roundup of items that may be developing stories we’re watching, Twitter commentary, or other relevant news that wasn’t quite ready for prime time just yet.  In short, a grab bag of geek items which are sure to please.

Let’s see what blips are on the radar this week.

‘Zombieland’ devours video rentals

Zombieland dominated the video lists this week, “…on the Nielsen VideoScan Blu-ray Disc chart, “Zombieland” went three for three, bowing at No. 1 and …racked up 31% of its total first-week sales from the Blu-ray Disc.” Way to go Zombieland, we can’t wait for the sequeal.

‘Avatar’ 3D boosts Cineplex ticket sales in Canada

3D showings of Avatar did wonders for Cineplex’s bottom line in Canada, “Despite running for only 13 days during its latest financial frame, “Avatar 3D” was Cineplex’s biggest boxoffice performer during the fourth quarter to Dec. 31, and has done around $74 million in Canadian ticket receipts to date.” No surprise really given the popularity of this film and the fact 3D showings are still being sold, out or causing line-ups.

Geek flicks drive Viacom profits

DVD and Blu-Ray disc sales from Star Trek, Transformers 2 and G.I. Joe stimulated Viacom’s fourth quarter earnings to the tune of $694 million.  Not bad considering the $173 million it made in the same quarter in 2008.  Also helping was the indie hit Paranormal Activity which increased operating expenses by 24%.

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If you’re enjoying Marvel’s newest cross-over event Siege, then this information is for you. Today, Marvel released the full details of who will be guiding this event through all of its various mascinations and incarnations. For all the details, check out this official press release:

In Siege: Captain America, from Christos Gage and Federico Dallocchio, learn more about the role of Bucky Barnes and Steve Rogers in this war and how it will define their relationship! Then, in Siege: Young Avengers, from Sean McKeever and Mahmud A. Asrar, the Young Avengers take center stage as Wiccan and Patriot are pushed to their limits!

Siege: Loki, from Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie, goes deep into the mind of Siege’s most devious major player! Nick Fury’s plans are revealed in Siege: Secret Warriors, from the team of Jonathan Hickman and Alessandro Vitti! Finally, Siege: Spider-Man pits Spider-Man against Venom, courtesy of Brian Reed and Marco Santucci!

With interconnecting covers by superstar Marko Djurdjevic, these all new stories provide insight into the major players of Siege and set the stage for the dramatic Siege finale!

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In an effort to keep things out of the hands of those who made the characters popular, major studios such as Sony, and now Regency and Fox, are rebooting their recent Marvel films in order to retain the rights so they don’t default back to Disney owned Marvel. Sony is doing so with the reboot of Spider-Man, while Regency and Fox have recently announced that they’re doing the same with Daredevil.

Originally made in 2003, and starring Ben Affleck and Colin Farrell, the film isn’t even a decade old and it’s getting a complete revamp. This time, the writer behind 2008’s The Day The Earth Stood Still, David Scarpa, will be penning a script, and the story will more than likely scrub the previous films’ continuity.

It’s unfortunate that studios resort to these childish ways. If the franchise eventually ends up in the hands of Marvel and Marvel Studios, this could mean great film cameos from some of our favorite heroes. A perfect example is what Favreau, Brannagh, and Joe Johnston are doing with the Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America films, and it’s all like a fanboy’s greatest dream.

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A sad day for the literary world today as the writer of famed novel Catcher In The Rye, J.D. Salinger, has passed away at the age of 91. Salinger was known as a devoutly private author, refusing interviews and turning down offers of further publishing.

It was widely known that Salinger refused to let his most famous novel be turned into a film, as he hated “Hollywood phonies” more than anything else. According to his publicist, Salinger’s health was excellent until the turn of the new year, when it suddenly declined and the author suffered from a broken hip.

Many people will remember Salinger for his novel and recluse lifestyle, but fans of comics and movies will always remember the work of his son, Matt Salinger. It’s little known, but Matt Salinger was the actor who portrayed Captain America in the original 1990 film.

Check out a clip below, and our prayers go out to Matt along with the rest of the Salinger family.

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