This week on The Flickcast Chris and Matt celebrate a one year anniversary milestone with guest host Elisabeth Rappe. Some of the topics under discussion this week include proposed sequels to Independence Day, a reboot of the Godzilla franchise, the Caprica mid-season finale and the oddity of “Chat Roulette.”

The trio also made some great picks as they always do including Elisabeth’s pick of the Gerard Butler film Beowulf & Grendel, Matt’s pick of AMC’s series Breaking Bad and Chris’ pick of the original Clash of the Titans featuring Laurence Olivier and Harry Hamlin.

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.

Being fans of movies, when we think of some great classic monster movies, we consider the obvious: Dracula, Frankenstein, and Wolfman, but one name that has held strong on the shelf of “Great Movie Monsters” would have to go to the colossal behemouth from Japan, Godzilla.

Godzilla has been a huge name over in Japan since the 1950s, and Hollywood even tried to capitalize on it’s fame back in 1998 with a film starring Matthew Broderick, directed by Roland Emmerich. The movie was a disaster with the critics, but a major monetary success, bringing in $376 Million worldwide.

It seems that Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures have recently obtained the US creative rights, which was once in the hands of Columbia/Tristar, and could start shooting soon on a brand new Godzilla movie. From THR:

“Godzilla is one of the world’s most powerful pop culture icons, and we at Legendary are thrilled to be able to create a modern epic based on this long-loved Toho franchise,” said Thomas Tull, chairman and CEO of Legendary. “Our plans are to produce the Godzilla that we, as fans, would want to see. We intend to do justice to those essential elements that have allowed this character to remain as pop culturally relevant for as long as it has.”

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Wow.  I’ve got to say that it was a pretty tepid weekend at the movies. We had a couple of new releases that I thought would just rake it in this weekend, but instead, they barely registered a blip on the radar screen.

How to Train Your Dragon actually won the throne this weekend, but I have to think the $43.3 Million opening was a disappointment for Dreamworks. This movie has family appeal and enjoyed stellar critical reviews, but had an underwhelming opening.  I have seen the budget reported at between $165 Million and $180 Million, either of which will ensure an uphill battle for the movie to recoup its costs.

Remember last week when I hinted that How to Train might have difficulty getting booked on 3D screens because Alice in Wonderland is still going strong? Well, it may be entirely coincidence, but when the husband and I tried to find a theater nearby to take our kids to see How to Train Your Dragon, we couldn’t find one.

It was no big deal to drive to one a bit out of our neighborhood, but I wonder if this happened nationwide?  I have lived in my city 15 years, and I have never had to drive out of my little five mile radius to find a movie, especially such a big release.

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In most films, the arduous journey is usually the film’s pre-production, getting a project greenlit and cast or even the lengthy process of shooting in exotic location. Strangely, for Louis Leterrier’s Clash of the Titans, the ever-changing release date and conversion to 3D in post-production seemed to be the truly difficult one.

Once Warner Bros. decided on a release date (after they had to recall millions of posters), and forced another dimension out of an originally 2D film, we are finally coming upon the April 2nd release date, and with it, come some pretty cool clips.

In the clips we have for you, you can check out some great moments from the film such as Liam releasing The Kraken, Worthington’s battle with Calibos, the epic Madusa fight, and the first attack of the gigantic Scorpioch.

Check them all out after the jump. Be sure to catch Clash of the Titans, in both 2D and 3D, on April 2nd.

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Liam Neeson has been pretty busy lately. Between “summoning the Kraken” as Zeus in Clash of the Titans, getting back his daughter in Taken, putting together plans in The A-Team, and hanging with Amanda Seyfried in Chloe, he’s having quite the life. However, it seems he’s still got some more juice in him as he’s playing the (potential?) bad guy in the upcoming film After.Life.

From unknown writer/director Agnieszka Wojtowics-Vosloo (who’s name will allow you to win every game of Scrabble. Ever) and Paul Vosloo, the premise is simple. Christina Ricci dies, and is caught between life and death. Only Liam Neeson, a funeral director who can see dead people, can carry her over. Only, she doesn’t exactly want to go.

Confused? The trailer doesn’t help you that much, unfortunately. The premise is enticing, yet could potentially be very contrived. All we’ll say is check out the new trailer after the jump, and expect an M. Night Shyamalan-like twist at the end of the film, which hits theaters on April 9th.

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This week sees more new film and TV releases on Blu-ray and DVD. Among the ones we’re more interested in this week are The 36th Chamber of Shaolin, Ponyo, The Neverending Story, the Syfy miniseries Alice , Kurt Russell in Elvis, and the original Clash of the Titans (with Sir Laurence Olivier, pictured above).

Check out all the new releases below.

Film

Bitch Slap (Unrated) ~ Debbie Lee Carrington, Michael Hurst, Kevin Sorbo (DVD)

Clash of the Titans ~ Laurence Olivier, Harry Hamlin, Maggie Smith (Blu-ray and DVD)

Cold Souls ~ Paul Giamatti, Boris Leskin (Blu-ray and DVD)

Curious George 2: Follow That Monkey ~ Curious George (DVD)

Gentlemen Broncos ~ Jermaine Clement, Sam Rockwell (Blu-ray and DVD)

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This summer wasn’t looking like that big of a deal last month, but in that time, we’ve already picked up the pace with Clash of the Titans getting a late Spring release, and now it looks like June will be a battle between Warner’s The Losers and Fox’s The A-Team.

Both films have a similar premise, with A-Team being a reboot of the popular TV series from the 80′s and Losers being an adaptation of a comic book. With more than enough money in either film’s budget, both can be considered a “summer blockbuster” on their own.

This isn’t the first time this year that Warner Bros is messing with release dates. It came out a few weeks ago that the studio would be pushing the release of Clash of the Titans back one week in order to compensate for the film’s conversion to 3D. Now their changing the release date of Losers from April 9th to June 4th. A bold move.

In history, a change in a film’s release date usually means that the film didn’t test very well with audiences, and they have to go back with reshoots in order to get a better audience score. The same thing was done with this weekend’s release of Universal’s The Wolfman, which was changed twice.

Much like the shark was in Jaws, I tend to think cool monsters should be left in the shadows and revealed at the last possible moment. I think that definitely should apply to a creature like the Kraken. Apparently, the studio in charge of the upcoming Clash of the Titans movie, Warner Bros. to be exact, doesn’t agree.

In fact, they’ve let the cat, er Kraken, out of the bag way early, in the form of a new poster released exclusively by the folks at UGO. In this latest poster, the Kraken looms large and Perseus is, well, looking rather small. In fact, it looks like he’s about to become a nice late afternoon snack for the Kraken, complete with Pegasus chaser. Not a great way to spend your day.

Click through for a larger look at the new poster. In case you forgot, Clash of the Titans, directed by Louis Leterrier, stars Sam Worthington, Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, Danny Huston and Gemma Arterton. It hits theaters on March 26.

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With Avatar getting nine Academy Award nominations yesterday, it seemed to put the final nail in the coffin for any films on the bubble between 2D and 3D. Word is now coming in that Warner Bros. has confirmed both Clash of the Titans and the final two Harry Potter films will be in 3D.

This isn’t that big of a deal for the Potter films, but unfortunately sets the entire marketing plan for Titans upside down. This news means that the studio has to go back and convert the original film stock into something that can handle 3D, while still looking state-of-the art.

This conversion will set the release date of Clash of the Titans back to April 2nd, from it’s original date of March 26th. The studio seems convinced that this is the best plan of action, according to an interview with The Hollywood Reporter:

“We are experienced and have been successful in the conversion of 2D to 3D going back to such hits as ‘The Polar Express,’ select scenes in ‘Superman Returns’ and the last two Harry Potter films,” Warners domestic distribution boss Dan Fellman said.

“We’re excited about 3D and look forward to bringing a rich, involving visual experience to audiences around the world,” Warners film group president Jeff Robinov said.

The production on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 and Part 2 are still ongoing, which means that the respective release dates of November 19th and July 15th, 2011 will probably remain unchanged.

Previously on The Flickcast, we brought you lots of info about director Louis Leterrier’s upcoming film Clash of the Titans including the first images of star Sam Worthington as well as the first two trailers. This time around we’ve got the new international trailer to share with you.

In this new video, we’re treated to more of Persius and his adventures riding Pegasus, fighting the Kraken and trying not to get turned to stone by Medusa. We also get more with Liam Neeson and Ralph Fiennes because this is, after all, the international version of the trailer so the movie has to appeal to people other than those of us in the U.S.

Also, they seem to have moved past the whole “Titans will clash” slogan and adopted “Damn the Gods” instead. A slight improvement in my opinion.

Check out the latest trailer after the break. Clash of the Titans hits theaters on March 26.

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Louis Letterier’s new movie, Clash of the Titans, or as it’s come to be known on the Internet from the previously released trailer the movie where “Titans. Will. Clash” has a new trailer that finally gives me a reason to look forward to the film. No, it’s not Gemma Arterton, who will also be gracing us with her presence in Prince of Persia, or the giant CGI Kraken — though it does look cool.

No, it’s the appearance of Mads Mikkelsen, the cuddly villain that wept blood in 2006′s James Bond reboot Casino Royale. Clash of the Titans, written by the team of Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi (Aeon Flux and The Tuxedo), stars Sam Worthington, Gemma Arterton, Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, Pete Postlethwaite (Romeo + Juliet) , and Danny Huston (X-Men Origins: Wolverine).

Check out the brand new trailer after the jump, and catch Clash of the Titans in theaters (and possibly IMAX) on March 26, 2010.

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While many of us were less than impressed with the first trailer for Clash of the Titans when it hit the web. It looked pretty, but mostly the line “TITANS WILL CLASH” left many people a little worried about how the studio would handle the Desmond Davis classic.

Recently, the Internets got their collective hands on the first posters from the film, showing off Sam Worthington taking down Medusa, riding Pegasus, and a cool new tri-fold poster. Warner Bros. immediately got wind and forced those on the web featuring the posters to take them down. Now it looks like the studio has “officially” released the images in high quality for our enjoyment, and they do look pretty cool.

Alongside Worthington as Perseus, the film stars Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, Danny Huston (X-Men Origins: Wolverine), and Gemma Arterton (Quantum of Solace). Check out the full-sized posters after the jump for Clash of the Titans, hitting theaters everywhere on March 26th.

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