Next year is shaping up to be a pretty gigantic year for movies. Between Nolan’s ultimate film in the Dark Knight saga, Peter Jackson returning to the Shire with The Hobbit, and the Marvel superfilm The Avengers. One film not on that list, but sure to please the fans is the sequel to Sylvester Stallone’s action movie love letter, The Expendables.

The new film, set to have almost twice as many famous faces in the action genre, is gearing up to have a pretty big marketing campaign behind it, as the last film grossed over $274 million worldwide. This time, we can expect to see names like Chuck Norris, Jean Claude Van Damme, and chinese actress Yu Nan join the cast. Here’s the synopsis.

The Expendables are back and this time it’s personal…The team is reunited when Mr. Church (Bruce Willis) enlists the Expendables to take on a seemingly simple job. The task looks like an easy paycheck for Barney and his band of old-school mercenaries. But when things go wrong and one of their own is viciously killed, the Expendables are compelled to seek revenge in hostile territory where the odds are stacked against them.

Hell-bent on payback, the crew cuts a swath of destruction through opposing forces, wreaking havoc and shutting down an unexpected threat in the nick of time — six pounds of weapons-grade plutonium; enough to change the balance of power in the world. But that’s nothing compared to the justice they serve against the villainous adversary who savagely murdered their brother. That is done the Expendables way…

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Now that just about every action hero from Jean-Claude Van Damme to Chuck Norris has been signed to punch and kick alongside Stallone in The Expendables 2, we can now see that some of the seasoned veterans are giving some screen time to the young up-and-comers as Knowing star Liam Hemsworth (brother of Thor, Chris), has joined the cast.

Liam, who is seeing nothing but hoge projects coming up, will have a pretty juicy part alongside some of the international actions stars joining in the fun. Here’s the report from Variety.

“The Hunger Games” star Liam Hemsworth has just been cast alongside Sylvester Stallone in Millennium Films’ action extravaganza, which will be released by Lionsgate.

Simon West is directing the star-studded sequel, which finds Stallone returning as team leader Barney Ross.

He’s expected to be joined by past co-stars Jason Statham, Mickey Rourke, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Terry Crews and Randy Couture. Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger are also back to expand on their cameos from the first film. Along with Hemsworth, other newcomers to the franchise include Jean-Claude Van Damme and Chuck Norris

According to reports, the film is set to start shooting next month, and will have an even bigger cast than we anticipated, with Stallone dropping names like Michael Beihn and Nicolas Cage in at the last minute.

All we know is that the film will be even bigger and more explosion-packed when it hits theaters next year.

Not many people know the name, but Walter Hill helped shape Hollywood in the early 80′s with films like The Warriors, 48 Hrs. and Streets of Fire.

He’s recently directed more TV than film and produced quite a lot, but now he’s getting back into the game with the upcoming action thriller, Headshot, which will star both Thomas Jane and Sylvester Stallone. Arrow in the Head explains the details of the film’s plot.

According to Jane, the deal is in place and the “script is fantastic” – although Hill is currently rewriting the piece, which was originally penned by Alessandro Camon (The Messenger).

In the film, Stallone will star as a New Orleans hitman who teams with an NYPD detective (Jane), as they are brought together by two vicious murders. The two proceed to take on all who stand in their way.

Jane said the following: “He’s a hitman, I’m a cop, and we’re just opposite in every f*cking way, and we need each other to get this job done. And of course I’m like, ‘As soon as this job’s over, I’m going to take you to jail, you know, you’re a killer.’”

So between this film and his plans to work on the upcoming Expendables 2, Stallone will be quite busy shooting and dodging bullets in 2012.

It’s that time of year again. The time when actors and actresses are honored for all the hard work they piled together in the 12 months leading up to one moment of pay off and a tiny little statue. We’re speaking, of course, about the Razzie Awards. These are the awards given out on the eve of Oscar night to those actors, actresses, and fimlmmakers who have produced some of the worst film projects to hit theaters in the past year.

Many remember last year’s big Worst Actress winner being Sandra Bullock, who went on the very next night to win an Oscar for a role in a completely different film. This year’s potentials could have the same luck, but we doubt it. Here’s the shortlist of actors from LA Times.

Among movies and actors shortlisted for the Razzies are Jessica Alba, who is eligible for worst supporting actress for four films (“The Killer Inside Me,” “Little Fockers,” “Machete” and “Valentine’s Day”), and Emily Blunt, eligible in the same category for her work in “The Wolfman” and “Gulliver’s Travels.”

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2010 may have been the year of the gun-toting action flick, but that doesn’t mean 2011 doesn’t get a little spillover. Expendables star Jason Statham is doing what he does best: shooting people while looking angry. This time, 3:10 To Yuma‘s Ben Foster joins in the fun as Statham’s would-be replacement. Here’s the synopsis:

Arthur Bishop (Jason Statham) is a ‘mechanic’ – an elite assassin with a strict code and unique talent for cleanly eliminating targets. It’s a job that requires professional perfection and total detachment, and Bishop is the best in the business. But when his mentor and close friend Harry (Donald Sutherland) is murdered, Bishop is anything but detached.

His next assignment is self-imposed – he wants those responsible dead. His mission grows complicated when Harry’s son Steve (Ben Foster) approaches him with the same vengeful goal and a determination to learn Bishop’s trade. Bishop has always acted alone but he can’t turn his back on Harry’s son. A methodical hit man takes an impulsive student deep into his world and a deadly partnership is born. But while in pursuit of their ultimate mark, deceptions threaten to surface and those hired to fix problems become problems themselves.

Enough drama to justify some kick-ass gun fights? We think so as the newest red band trailer shows some of the films less family-friendly scenes. Check it out after the jump, and catch The Mechanic in theaters on January 28th.

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There is very little that fan favorite actor Bruce Campbell can do that will get overwhelming disapproval from his legions of fans across the globe. Movies like My Name is Bruce, Army of Darkness, Man With the Screaming Brain, and of course any of the Spider-Man films has solidified Campbell as untouchable in the movie-watching community.

Now, he’s planning on taking that to the next stage, with an upcoming project in which he brings all of our favorite horror movie legends and throws them all in a movie together, a la The Expendables. In a recent interview with the LA Times, names like Kane Hodder and Robert Englund were thrown around, and the hairs on the backs of horror fans everywhere stood on end.

Yeah, “The Expendables,” or more like the “It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World” of horror. I want to get so many horror movie stars that people can’t possibly not see the movie. I want to give them other stuff to do. I want to have Kane Hodder be very particular about what he eats. I want Robert Englund to be a tough guy, like he knows tae kwon do or something.

I want to find out the hidden sides of all these people. Some will play themselves, some will play alternate characters as well. I may approach Kane Hodder to play Frankenstein. He could be Kane Hodder himself fighting himself as Frankenstein. It could be crazy. It’s a silly concocted story that we hope to do maybe in a year or so.

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Note: This week’s box office was an extremely tight race. When final numbers become available, the top two positions might change.

We actually had some movies over-perform at the box office for a change, and some little guys got to flex their muscles.  Lionsgate’s The Last Exorcism proved to be a polarizing movie.  It got a fairly positive 71% on Rotten Tomatoes, but Cinemascore reported a pretty dismal “D” grade from audiences.  Popular horror website  Bloody Disgusting reported that most readers absolutely hated the movie. (You can read our review of the movie here.)

However, the movie clearly piqued movie-goers curiosity, as the  $1.8 Million movie passed the $20 Million mark and made approximately $21.3 Million, a total that surpassed even the most optimistic of predictions. It will be interesting to see if the movie suffers a dramatic drop-off next weekend due to poor word of mouth.

Heist flick Takers closely trailed the horror film, and made about $21 Million.  The movie stars Matt Dillon, Chris Brown, Hayden Christenson, Paul Walker, Jonathon Schaech, and it-girl Zoe Saldana. It earned a measly 28% on Rotten Tomatoes, but clearly had a specific audience it was gunning for, and did a good job reaching it. Takers had the highest per/screen average for the weekend.

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This week on The Flickcast Chris and Matt are back after not doing a show last week. Fortunately, the boys are in good spirits and ready for action diving into a bunch of new topics for this week’s show.

Some of these topics include Scott Pilgrim and its box office performance, XXX parodies of mainstream film and television programs, X-Men First Class casting news, Fantastic Four casting news, the films of Edgar Wright and Piranha 3D and its sequel. In addition, the boys discussed the latest Machete clips, the new Black Swan trailer, the fake Comic-Con Captain America trailer and the brand new trailer for The Walking Dead.

In addition, Matt and Chris made some new picks this week including Matt’s pick of Operation: Endgame, featuring Rob Corddry, and Chris’ pick of the “bloody good time” film Piranha 3D.

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.

Several movies have made the grade with critics of late, but enthusiasm for Scott Pilgrim and now Piranha has not lead to large numbers at the box office.  It has been very disheartening to see how poorly some movies have done at the box office.

Piranha should have been a slam-dunk for the Weinstein Company and Dimension, but the film only managed to snag sixth place, and did not break $10 Million over the weekend.  That is with 3D ticket prices tallied in, which makes it even more disappointing.

Audiences that did see the movie didn’t really like it. The film only got an exit poll score of “C” from film-goers, according to Entertainment Weekly’s Hollywood Insider.

Nobody seemed  too interested in seeing any of the new offerings.  Holdover Expendables won the weekend with $16.5 Million.  The film dropped about 50%, and its two week total is $65 Million. Take that, naysayers.

Vampires Suck nabbed the number two spot.  The team that brought you the Scary Movie franchise, Date Movie,  Epic Movie and many more, decided to parody the Twilight franchise this time around.  The film has made about $18 Million since its opening day last Wednesday, with $12 Million of that coming from the weekend.

The Twilight series is ripe for parody, but the film clips for this film just weren’t that funny

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Well, Stallone and company have still got it. Score one for the aging action geezers, they dominated the box office with over $35 Million for the weekend. Expendables, a testosterone laden action movie, was a big hit with men, particularly those who grew up seeing members of the cast in iconic 80′s action movies.

Most people I know who saw it admitted that it was not a great movie, but thought that it delivered exactly what one would expect-lots of senseless action.  That is more than can be said for the priv-lit drama Eat Pray Love.

As you read in our review here on The Flickcast, the movie failed to capture what many women fell in love with from the book.  The inner turmoil of the protagonist was glossed over, disappointing fans of the book.  Still, Eat Pray Love, starring Julia Roberts managed to make  $23.7 Million.  This is the best opening Julia Roberts has had since 2001, when she co-starred in America’s Sweethearts, with Catherine Zeta Jones and John Cusack.

Sadly, Scott Pilgrim vs The World (one of my favorite films of 2010) didn’t fare very well at all. The film placed fifth, and only made $10.5 Million, far below expectations.  This is very similar to what happened with Kick Ass back in April.

Kick Ass was widely anticipated in film circles, hailed by critics and fanboys  alike as a great, original  movie, yet it failed to muster much at the box office.  Kick-Ass debuted to $19 million its opening weekend, shocking prognosticators.  After its entire run, the film only made $48 Million domestically.

Now, we have a film that has gotten even better reviews (as of this writing, it has an 80% on Rotten Tomatoes), and has had most  industry insiders cheering for its success, yet it barely registers in the top five for the weekend.  *Sigh*

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We here at The Flickcast have all been pretty excited at the prospect of Sylvester Stallone writing, directing and starring in basically the quintessential action film with the quintessential “who’s who” of action stars. There was a trailer leak for the film about a month ago, which was almost instantly taken down by the studio. But it looks like the first full trailer is here and here to stay.

The film is about a group of black ops agents who go up against an evil Eric Roberts and a third world country dictator. The premise isn’t really important, considering that the film brings together the LARGEST GROUP OF ACTION STARS EVER.

Starting at the top, the film features Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Terry Crews, Dolph Lundgren, Eric Roberts, Mickey Rourke, Bruce Willis, Randy Couture, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Danny Trejo, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. This cast is enough to make any action film fan salivate.

Check out the very first official trailer of the film after the jump. Be sure to catch Sly and company in the action-packed Expendables in theaters on August 20th, 2010.

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Though the term “bootleg” gets thrown around often in a negative light when it comes to the internet, sometimes it can be the only way to see footage from one of the most buzzed about films in production today. Of course, that film is Sylvester Stallone’s The Expendables.

The action packed film stars Stallone, Jason Statham, Steve Austin, Randy Couture, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Mickey Rourke, Terry Crews, Eric Roberts, with special cameos from Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger. The phone-shot trailer, shot in a theaters in Venice, shows off some of the action and comedy that we can expect to see in the film.

Check out the trailer after the jump, and enjoy the line “Bring it, Happy Feet!” from a yelling Sly.

The Expendables hits theaters August 20th of next year.

UPDATE: Well, that didn’t take long. The trailer is now gone. We’ll try to find another link.

Update 2: Here’s another link. Get it while its hot.

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