They said it couldn’t happen. They said Megan Fox and Michael Bay would never work together again. They say a lot of things. . . and they’re are often wrong.

That’s right, the on-again, off-again, on-again updated version of The Teenage Mutant Nnija Turtles is apparently on again. And this time, it’s got casting news.

Producer Michael Bay confirmed via his Blog that Megan Fox will be joining the movie and we would guess, taking on the role of April O’Neil. Seems likely at least.

So, it would appear they’ve patched up their differences and are moving forward. That’s nice. Now if they can just decide if the Turtles are actually aliens or just look that way.

I’m sure this isn’t the last we’ve heard of this. Who knows, it could be off-again just as fast as it was on. Hey, we can always hope, right?

We live in a glorious bubble of  time. We know Anchorman 2 is going to come out, it has been green lit, it has begun production, and Will Ferrell is sporting a wicked ‘stache. The film exists on a pedestal of excitement that is likely not going to by the finished product. So for these fleeting few months the concept of Anchorman 2 is simply bliss.

Yet while we live in our cocoon anticipation, productions moves steadily on. Often times a new movie means new faces, and Deadline has the scoop on one very funny addition to the Anchorman 2 cast:

Paramount insiders tonight confirmed to me what Christina Applegate tweeted a few hours ago: “So excited Kristen Wiig has joined our cast forAnchorman 2.” The sequel formally titled Anchorman: The Legend stars Will Ferrell and Steve Carell plus Wiig in what the studio says is a “new role”.

Kristen Wiig was very much the Will Ferrell of her SNL generation, often stealing skits just by being on stage, so to see her enter the Anchorman world makes a ton of sense. Wiig has been successfully making the jump from the ‘not ready for prime-time players’ to big screen in the last few years, and landing a new role among such a star-studded cinematic comedy event only further establishes her rising star.

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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.

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When it was announced that Matthew Vaughn was leaving the director’s chair for X-Men: Days of Future Past, the geek community felt an inescapable fear that things might be falling apart. Even the seemingly good news that original X-Director Bryan Singer was coming back didn’t seem to dissuade the growing fear that Fox was once again messing up the X-Men.

Then the online nerd populous started putting two and two together. If the next film was going to tackle one of the most famous comic book time travel stories, and the director was the guy who made the first two great X-Men movies, would we be getting a giant cross generational X-Men X-travaganza?

Well, the answer seems to be a resounding yes, and according to the twitter account of Bryan Singer himself it keeps getting better:

Very excited to welcome #annapaquin, @ellenpage &@shawnrashmore to #XMen #DaysofFuturePast - thank you @BrettRatner for letting them live!

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For almost every Spider-Man fan under the age of 30, Mary Jane Watson has been the primary yin to Peter Parker’s yang. So it was a bold move by Sony and Marc Webb to go back to Spider-Man’s first love, Gwen Stacy, for The Amazing Spider-Man. A move that properly introduced a character whose ultimate fate might be as important to the web-slinger as Uncle Ben’s murder was.

With the Spider-Man reboot a general success, Sony wants to move quickly on a sequel. Variety is reporting that things might be getting sticky for Parker’s new/old flame with casting rumors of a new prominent female character:

It looks like Mary Jane Watson is back in Peter Parker’s life, as “The Descendants” star Shailene Woodley is in early talks to play the redheaded love interest in Sony’s “The Amazing Spider-Man 2.”… Character breakdowns have gone out to talent agencies, and Electro is rumored to be one of the villains the filmmakers are considering for the next installment of the hit comicbook franchise.

Shailene Woodley is a fine actress, and even though she probably looks a bit young to be Garfield’s Mary Jane, she is one of the better choices for the role. If you are going to skew younger, at least you get the one ABC Family actress that has award nominations and discernible talent. It is sort of like finding another Anna Kendrick among the Twilight muck.

Also note that it looks like Electro might finally be getting his time to shine in the sequel, and it looks like Peter’s best friend Harry Osbourne is also going to make an appearance in the sequel.

Check out a more spoiler heavy prognostication for what the Mary Jane rumors mean for Emma Stone’s Gwen Stacy after the jump.

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In another brilliant bit of casting, Battlestar Galactica alumni and current Longmire Co-Star Katee Sackhoff is joining Gina Carano in the female version of The Expendables being produced by Adi Shankar.

“If you spend five minutes with Katee it becomes blatantly obvious that she would pwn (sic) most male action stars,” said Shankar. We tend to agree. Although, to be honest, we really didn’t see this coming.

But whatever. It works and it will be nice to see Katee get back to kicking ass as she did as Starbuck on BSG. This movie is already starting to shape up quite nicely.

Who’s next to be cast in this movie? Let’s hear your guesses. Ours are right here.

One of the major highlights of the original Kick-Ass was the spot on performance by Nicolas Cage. His presence and manic energy brought something to the table the helped tie the film together. Unfortunately, spoiler warning, Nic Cage’s Big Daddy had to die and now the sequel needs to find some one to replace the hole he left.

Nic Cage is one mighty hole to fill, sure there are bigger and better actors, but so few can fill a void left by Cage at his finest. Well the casting gods have worked their magic and found someone who might just be up for the task, Jim Carrey. Kick-Ass creator Mark Millar recently took to his website to share his thoughts on the news:

…the energy Jim’s going to bring to Colonel Stars has me buzzing as much as Nic Cage with Big Daddy. You have to remember that Big Daddy’s role before Cage came on was a much more straightforward bad-ass. It was Nic who gave him that Adam West delivery and brought this incredible warmth to the character, especially with regard to Mindy.

Kick-Ass was a favorite for a lot of us here at The Flickcast, so this casting has caused a great deal of excitement. Which the film needs more of because even though they are bringing almost everyone else back for the film, director Matthew Vaughn will not be back. He will be to busy shooting X-Men: Days of Future Past, a statement that in and of itself also causes great excitement ’round these parts.

It hardly seems like a month can pass by without some sort of out of left field news popping up regarding the upcoming RoboCop reboot. This is a remake that should be easy to file away as a bad idea, the original worked despite it’s premise because of Verhoeven and everything else in the franchise after that has been a miss on one level or another.

That doesn’t mean they aren’t at least trying to give us an enjoyable film next year, and today’s casting shuffle news seems to indicate that at least some one really cares about this project. Secret British badass Hugh Laurie was in line to play the CEO of OmniCorp until he wasn’t, so the film replaces Dr. House with a damn Batman, Variety reports:

Michael Keaton has been tapped to play the villain, Raymond Sellars, in the “RoboCop” reboot for MGM and Sony… The Sellars character is the CEO of the corporation that builds RoboCop, played by Joel Kinnaman. The film, described as a “reimagining” of the 1987 Paul Verhoeven pic, is scheduled to begin shooting next month.

As much as Hugh Laurie was an exciting choice for the role originally, Keaton is easily ten times more intriguing. He has a manic energy that can really bring something fun to the head of the ever-present OmniCorp. You can even gauge from the actors connected to the role that the character is not meant to be a two-dimensional prick, but perhaps a character with some interesting perspective.

This film once again has us nodding our head in approval at the choices it has made in pre-production, let us hope that good mojo translates to the production phase that is set to begin soon.

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.

Rome was an incredible show on HBO. It was big, it was bloody and it was epic. In a lot of ways it was a spiritual forebearer of Game of Thrones, which is currently the best thing ever. So there is a nice symmetry in the most recent casting addition to Thrones season 3.

Entertainment Weekly was able to score the exclusive news that veteran character actor Ciarán Hinds has signed on to one of the big new roles for the upcoming season:

The Rome actor has been cast as Wildling leader Mance Rayder, the King Beyond the Wall. Rayder has united the disparate clans of the Far North behind a single mission: To attack The Wall. He’s been frequently referenced (though unseen) in the HBO hit fantasy drama’s first two seasons.

Ciarán Hinds has some serious gravitas, so the show might regain some of the heft that has been missing since the dear departing of the one and only Sean Bean.

Not content to just bring in Caesar to the world of Westeros, Brutus from Rome has previously been cast in a prominent role in the next season as well.  Et tu Brute indeed!

Keep your eyes peeled to The Flickcast for any more updates that spill from the upcoming filming of the new season of Game of Thrones. 

Even though our reaction to the CW’s upcoming Arrow has been a bit mixed (we’re reserving judgement), we’ve now got at least one new reason to check out the show. According to ET, Torchwood star John Barrowman has joined the cast of Arrow in a recurring role.

The character is somewhat of a mystery at the moment, with Producers only saying Barrowman will play a “well-dressed man” who is “as mysterious as he is wealthy … he is an acquaintance of the Queen family and a prominent figure in Starling City.” Huh, that fits a few people in the world of Green Arrow. Or, it could be a completely new character.

Anyway, as you may know, the upcoming show centers around Oliver Queen, a wealthy young bad boy who, after spending five years shipwrecked on an island, returns to Starling City with a mastery of the bow and a determination to make a difference.

Arrow stars Stephen Amell as Oliver Queen, Colin Donnell as Tommy Merlyn, Katie Cassidy as Laurel Lance, David Ramsey as John Diggle, Willa Holland as Thea Queen, Susanna Thompson as Moira Queen and Paul Blackthorne as Detective Quentin Lance.

Arrow premieres Wednesday, Oct. 10 at 8PM on the CW.

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.

The upcoming Hannibal TV series, created by the fantastic Bryan Fuller, is shaping up to be quite the event. So much so that the director of the pilot, David Slade, and series Hannibal, Mads Mikkelsen both left high-profile comic book movies for this show.

Now the show has snagged a seasoned acting veteran for an important recurring role, as learned by The Hollywood Reporter:

Laurence Fishburne is on Hannibal Lecter’s case. NBC’s upcoming Hannibal take has added the former CSI: Crime Scene Investigation actor to play Jack Crawford, the head of the FBI’s behavioral sciences unit… Fishburne will recur in the role played by Dennis Farina (Manhunter), Scott Glenn (The Silence of the Lambs) and Harvey Keitel (Red Dragon) in the feature film takes based on the Thomas Harris novels.

Fishburne is a great addition to an already well put together cast. This is one of those projects that seemed suspect on paper, but now that it is actually all coming together it has piqued our interest.

Hannibal follows a prequel story line from the Harris novels and films, but leads into Red Dragon should the series last into its third season. Knowing a defined arc with a predetermined destination is one of those touches that proves to us why we have faith in Fuller as a show creator.

The series has a 13 episode mid-season order on NBC, keep tuned to The Flickcast for any new updates about this intriguing new series.

Steven Spielberg is gearing up for his next major tent pole blockbuster. Summer 2014 is going to begin with a bearded bang with Robopocalypse, and it looks like Spielberg might have found his lead.

Deadline is reporting that secret meetings have been held and Spielberg has decided who he wants to star in his new film:

Chris Hemsworth will be working with Steven Spielberg. I’ve learned that, amid much secrecy (including assumed names), Spielberg met and now wants Hemsworth in his next helming effort Robopocalypse, the big technothriller which is sure to become the director’s next big global popcorn film

Hemsworth is about as big as they come these days, and as Marvel’s phase 2 chugs along his star power will only rise. Signing on to join Spielberg is exactly the kind of career move that can move a guy past flash in the pan and into full fledged stardom.

This is all rumor and speculation at this point, as no contract is currently signed. However, if Steven Spielberg taps you on the shoulder and says, ‘Hey kid, wanna star in my next movie‘ you only have one logical response.

No word yet on if Hemsworth’s character wields a mighty hammer, axe or any other bludgeoning melee weapon. For that info you must stay tuned to The Flickcast.