There’s been plenty of speculation about who will take on the pivotal role of Mary Jane Watson, love interest of Peter Parker (aka Spider-Man) in the upcoming reboot of the franchise. Now it seems speculation can end because according to reports, the awesome Emma Stone is going to be offered the role.

Stone, coming off of great roles in Easy A and Zombieland, seems a natural for the part and according to the reports is a favorite of Sony, the studio home to the Spider-Man franchise. With the role of Mary Jane seemingly a lock for Stone, attention can then turn to the other pivotal female role in the film: Gwen Stacy.

The top contenders for that role include Glee’s Dianna Agron, Mia Wasikowska, Georgina Haig and Dominique McElligott. Of those, I would probably lean towards Agron who could definitely pull of the role. Still, at the moment, no clear front runner has emerged.

Whatever happens with the part of Gwen Stacy, its great to see Emma Stone is becoming a bigger actress in Hollywood. She’s a talented girl who can go far. I, for one, hopes she does. Of course, when this deal is finalized and the one for Gwen Stacy as well, we’ll let you know.

What do you guys think? Is Emma Stone the right choice for Mary Jane Watson? Who should be Gwen Stacy?

UPDATE: Apparently, things got a bit reversed as Emma Stone has actually made a deal to star as Gwen Stacy instead of Mary Jane Watson. Odd?

Easy A is a modern twist  on the classic novel The Scarlet Letter, and it’s a nice throwback to all the 80′s teen comedies like Can’t Buy Me Love and The Breakfast Club. A standout performance by up and coming actress Emma Stone elevates this comedy above most in the genre.

Olive is a beautiful, smart and self-assured high school student who suffers the same fate of all gorgeous ladies in romantic comedies-she can’t get a date.  Yeah, right.  Olive spends her Saturday nights at home singing to her dog. Rather than fess up to that fact, she tells her best friend that she was out with a college boy, and implies that she lost her virginity.

Word of the (pretend) coupling travels quickly via texting and such, and Olive is soon rebuked by the females at the school for being  the school slut.  At the same time, she has a new found popularity with the men, who believe they might have a shot at her.

When her best male friend (who is gay) waffles on whether to come out of the closet or not, she urges him to wait until after high school. They concoct a plan to silence his tormentors; she’ll pretend to sleep with him and everyone will think he is straight.

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High school comedies have gotten a pretty bad reputation as of late. If it weren’t for films like Mean Girls or the original series of Scary Movie films, the genre would be completely devoid of appeal of any kinda. Then we have a film like Easy A, which looks like it could just break that mold once again.

The film stars Emma Stone, who most fans fell in love with during her role in Zombieland, and other just consider the “poor man’s Lindsay Lohan”. Either way, she’s on the rise in Hollywood, and Easy A could just be her big picture to make that happen.

The film is a modern-day take on The Scarlet Letter, except it takes place in high school, and there’s no actual sex. The cast is what will turn heads the most, bringing names like Thomas Haden Church, Patricia Clarkson, Malcolm McDowell, Stanley Tucci, Lisa Kudrow, and Fred Armisen to a film that could just turn out to be “not every other high school movie.”

Don’t take our word for it. Myspace is bringing us the first 10 minutes of the film, which you can check out after the jump. Check it out, let us know what you think, and catch Easy A in theaters this Friday.

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While half of the geek community is ranting about Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool and the other half is gushing about Ryan Reynolds as Green Lantern, there seems to be a third fictional hero victorious in getting the first release. That hero? Paper Man.

In a plot that conjoins Superman with Drop Dead Fred, Paper Man is about a boy (Jeff Daniels) who’s best friend is a superhero (Reynolds) he created in his mind. The boy grows up to become a failed writer who can’t let his childhood go. Along the way he meets a girl (Emma Stone), who shows him that being an adult isn’t all that bad.

The script comes from Kieran and Michelle Mulroney, brother and sister-in-law of actor Durmot Mulroney. While we still may be months off before we get to see Reynolds’ CG Green Lantern costume, we do get to check him out in a faux-Superman suit with bleached blonde hair.

Check out the first trailer for the film after the jump, and be sure to catch Paper Man in select theaters starting April 23rd.

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Zombieland was one of the most entertaining films I saw in 2009 and I was eagerly awaiting its arrival on Blu-ray this week. Unlike the George Romero zombie films of the past, Zombieland is a unique blend of “The Odd Couple meets the zombie apocalypse.” Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, and Abigail Breslin have great chemistry together as the last few remaining humans in a world gone zombie.

As a die-hard fan of apocalyptic films such as The Last Man on Earth, The Omega Man and The Quiet Earth, Zombieland takes you into a world that has only recently fallen into chaos and shows how those would react when hordes of flesh eating ghoules are waiting for you around every corner.

As I scrolled through the special features on the Blu-Ray disc, I was excited to see that they had added several features that made the disc worth adding to my vast collection. The first feature is “Beyond the Graveyard” which allows the viewer to access picture in picture commentary throughout the feature to learn more about the scenes and special effects associated with them.

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February is in full swing and this week brings a host of new movies and some great classics hitting Blu-ray for the first time. This week’s releases include the first time on Blu-ray Casablanca, Unforgiven, Gangs of New York, Pan’s Labyrinth and The Godfather I and II.

There are also several Dr. Who TV movies, a couple seasons of TV’s Dynasty, Volume 3 of Batman: The Brave and the Bold and the Blu-ray release of Zombieland with Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin (pictured above).

Check out this week’s new releases:

Movies

Adam ~ Hugh Dancy, Peter Gallagher, Amy Irving (Blu-ray and DVD)

Amelia ~ Hillary Swank, Richard Gere (Blu-ray and DVD)

Casablanca ~ Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains (Blu-ray)

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas ~ Johnny Depp, Benicio Del Toro, Tobey Maguire (Blu-ray)

Gangs of New York (Remastered) ~ Leonardo DiCaprio, Daniel Day Lewis, John C. Reilly (Blu-ray)

Planet Hulk ~ (Blu-ray and DVD)

Love Happens ~ Jennifer Aniston (Blu-ray and DVD)

Mystic River ~ Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Kevin Bacon (Blu-ray)

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This week, we’ve been bringing you lots of goodies from the release of Zombieland on DVD and Blu-Ray. Since the DVD comes out today, we thought we’d put up two fun featurettes from the release, after giving you two deleted scenes yesterday.

In the first featurette, we go behind the scenes to see how they made their zombies look so realistic in the film. Actress Amber Heard (Pineapple Express) gets to sit in the make-up chair for hours before shooting in order to get her “zombification” just right. Also, we take a look at how some of the extras got to look so undead.

In the second featurette, stars Abigail Brezlin (Little Miss Sunshine) and Emma Stone (The Rocker) get to see one of the first zombies getting made up for the film. Abigail then decides to go on a mission to convince the filmmakers to let her be a zombie, just once.

Check out the features after the jump, and be sure to pick up Zombieland on DVD and Blu-Ray today.

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I firmly believe Zombieland was one of the best films of 2009. It simply came out of nowhere, defied expectations, and even went so far as to inspire some of us.  Given the films success it’s no surprise that a sequel would be on the horizon. Now, Variety is able to confirm that a sequel is in development and chances are it will be in 3D:

“Everyone had fun watching (the first) ‘Zombieland’; making it a more visceral experience can only make it better,” said the film’s producer Gavin Polone. “I don’t think you want to see ‘Ordinary People’ in 3-D. But ‘Zombieland’ is clearly one movie that will benefit from (the technique).”

Now, I’ve never been sold on the whole 3D thing.  Personally, I think it’s a gimmick and haven’t gone out of my way to see any recent 3D films.  Simply put, I have yet to find a compelling reason to see a film in 3D over its standard counterpart.

That being said, Zombieland may just be the film I actively seek out a 3D theater to see it in.  It was so brilliantly campy that it begs to bring that pseudo third dimension to the adventures of Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson) and Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg). It’s perfect, and so would a title of Z3D.  Okay, that may work better for a third film, but it’s still cool.

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Though Zombieland hit theaters a week ago, it’s still making headway with viral marketing on its official site. Over at the site, we’ve just stumbled across a cool new tool that is bound to get even the most timid of zombie fans excited.

Welcome to Zombify-Yourself.net where you can turn yourself into a flesh-eating member of the undead, without having to go through all the trouble of being bitten and the actual eating of flesh. The site uses a flash application to upload a picture of your choosing, and adds in great features like “bleeding eye cavity” or “missing lips” to complete your zombie look.

With Zombieland coming it at number 1 at the box office last weekend, and taking home roughly $30 million in a week, we are bound to see more from this franchise, in either a possible sequel or, if we’re lucky, a good old-fashioned Hollywood reboot.

Catch Zombieland in theaters everywhere now.

Zombieland opened this week and let me tell you it is, in my opinion, one of the best films of 2009. Only a day into its release Hollywood insiders were predicting the movie could go onto make $30 million in its opening weekend. If that happens it means Zombieland will have made back the $26 million and change it cost to make. While those numbers may not carry the weight of the billion dollars The Dark Knight made Zombieland’s rapid return on investment cannot be overlooked. Hollywood, take note, Zombieland should be the new standard of success.

All that said, I’m not writing a review of Zombieland by any means (Chris already wrote a great one), nor am I looking to talk about the merits of the film, of which there are many. No, I’m casting all the business stuff aside for the moment to speak about one thing: inspiration. You see, immediately after watching Zombieland I got home and was compelled to write (in this case a novel I’m working on). I had in me a burning desire to create. Therein lies the true success of Zombieland. For this writer, it spurred the creative forces that drive cinema.

How did it do this?  Simply put, the film was honest. There was no allusion to a grand design or twist ending. The characters were endearing and story practically A to B simple. Moreover, it defied stock conventions of the genre.  The girls weren’t running away screaming and guys not always the most heroic. These were characters anyone in the theater could relate to personally or through friends they probably know.  Being able to create that rapport with the audience was the secret weapon of Zombieland.  It connected with viewers (trust me on that, I saw the response from the packed theater first hand) and even if only for a few moments at a time they could see themselves in that world of zombies and loved it. Those are the moments writers, specifically, aspire to.

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Part monster movie, part buddy road comedy with a dash of romance thrown in, Zombieland manages to deliver on pretty much every level. Featuring terrific performances by the entire cast, including Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin, this film is able to deliver genuine laughs, genuine scares and genuine entertainment for its entire running time. Its a solid piece of filmmaking by director Ruben Fleischer, and writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, that should definitely find an audience.

The premise of the film is, as it should be, relatively simple. The world as we know it has come to an end due to some unspecified reason and the dead are now walking the earth. In this world we first meet Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) who, being the introverted, Mountain Dew drinking, pseudo-loser he is, has managed to stay alive due to his nature and adherence to rules he’s come up with as a new citizen of Zombieland. His rules, such as “Cardio Good, Bathrooms Bad, Always shoot zombies twice, etc.” and his loner, anti-social nature have served him well and enabled him to survive.

So, its somewhat against his better judgment that he decides to team up with Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson) on a road trip to find out if any of his family might still be alive in, you guessed it, Columbus. In case you’re wondering, the names characters call each other in Z-land are where they’re from and not their actual names. Better to not develop real ties with anyone seeing as how they might be eaten by zombies at any moment. This provides a bit of insight into the characters and also a bit of humor as well.

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We here at The Flickcast have been pretty vocal about our love of all things zombie, so it only makes sense for us to swoon over new footage of this Fall’s horror comedy Zombieland starring Jessie Eisenberg and Woody Harrelson. Now hitting the web is a new swear-tastic “Redband” trailer with slightly more footage.

Written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, (who’s claim-to-fame is creating the reality-tv parody The Joe Shmoe Show) and directed by Ruben Fleischer (who directed 3 episodes of The Jimmy Kimmel Show), the film focuses on two men who have found a way to survive a world overrun by zombies. Check out the new trailer after the jump, which has slightly more footage, and much more zombie-goodness.

The film stars Jesse Eisenberg (Adventureland), Woody Harrelson, Emma Stone’s (Superbad) and Abigail Breslin’s (Little Miss Sunshine) and is said to be “Hollywood’s answer to Shaun of the Dead”, but will probably shake that stereotype once we finally see it on the big screen October 9th.

Check out all the “Redband” zombie action after the jump.

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