After an arduous search for the actor who could play John McClane’s son in the newest installment of the Die Hard franchise, 20th Century Fox has finally settled on Jai Courtney.

Courtney is best known for playing Varro in the Starz series Spartacus: Blood And Sand. In the series, Courtney played a close friend and confidante of Spartacus until they were forced into a battle to the death. Courtney has had a bit of a big screen surge as he will next be seen starring opposite Tom Cruise in Paramount’s One Shot, the Christopher McQuarrie directed adaptation of the Lee Child bestseller. He is also attached to star opposite Aaron Eckhart in I, Frankenstein.

A Good Day To Die Hard, the fifth installment of the Die Hard franchise, puts McClane on unfamiliar ground, taking the hard-ass  New York City cop to the streets of Moscow. The flick introduces McClane’s estranged son Jack (Courtney). The McClane’s butt heads due to their similar personalities. Despite their differences, they must work together to keep each other alive and keep the world safe for democracy. This film positions Courtney to become a recurring character alongside Willis, and possibly take over for Willis as the lead as the sequels continue.

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This week on The Flickcast Chris and Matt work alone and without a net covering all kinds of new topics including Toy Fair 2010, the box office success of Valentine’s Day and The Wolfman and new adaptation announcements such as Dean Koontz’s Frankenstein and Dracula (aka Vlad the Impaler). They also discuss the oddness and length of recent movie titles, the Avatar prequel novel, the potential endings for ABC’s Lost and who rules Bartertown.

They both also made some good picks again this week incuding Matt’s pick of Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant and Chris’ pick of the Martin Scorsese gangster classic Goodfellas, featuring Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci and Robert De Niro.

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.

With Universal’s The Wolfman bringing in over $30 Million in its first weekend, it’s only expected that other studios will be giving the green light to some interesting scripts involving some of Hollywood’s other classic monsters. The first news of that is that Dean Koontz’s best-selling Frankenstein book series, a 21st century spin on the classic tale, is getting an adaptation to the big screen.

According to Variety, the film may just put the good doctor and his creation into the passenger seat for a bigger murder plot.

Project places the doctor — a socially prominent and successful businessman — and his super-human original creation Deucalion in modern-day New Orleans. Winter and Botwick are aiming to launch a franchise. “These books have enough twists and turns to keep the public coming back to the theaters for many years to come,” the duo said.

The story centers on a pair of street-smart detectives who encounter Deucalion while investigating a murder, leading them to a bizarre array of “engineered” humans.

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While Universal is ramping up their marketing for the upcoming Wolfman reboot, and Summit is rolling around in giant piles of cash thanks to angsty teen vampires, there are still a few classic monster franchises left to be tapped. That’s where Lakeshore Entertainment and Death Ray Films come in.

The studios have teamed up and optioned the comic book I, Frankenstein, originally written by Kevin Grevioux. The book mashes up the genres of classic movie monsters with crime noir in an epic miniseries. In the book, Frankenstein’s monster has learned to control his anger and now stands as the only hope for humanity against an army of supernatural forces. Meanwhile, Dracula is a kingpin of crime and the Invisible Man lives his life as a secret agent.

With Universal and other studios revving up their use of the latter two franchises, you can expect them to not make the final cut, and focus on Frank. The film has been on the shelf for nearly a year, until genre studio Lakeshore Entertainment, who presented other cult faves as Gamer and Underworld, recently purchased the rights to turn I, Frankenstein into a film.

Original creator Grevioux, who penned all of the Underworld films will be taking on the script, while Patrick Tatopoulos, who directed the same, will be stepping in to direct. Production is set to begin this July, but there hasn’t been any rumblings as to who could play the gigantic green detective. Our choice? Tony Danza Mickey Rourke.

Cult movie legend Bruce Campbell has been in and out of the limelight about a dozen times since his indie debut in Sam Raimi’s 1981 classic, Evil Dead. Since then, he’s been attached to most of Raimi’s other projects, from Spider-Man to Hercules and Xena. Back in 2007, Campbell decided to branch off a bit and spoof himself in the film My Name is Bruce.

The film was enough of a hit with fans that Bruce says they’re going back for a sequel.

In the film, Campbell plays an exaggerated version of himself, when a local town is tormented by an ancient demon, they figure to call the guy who’s fought them over and over again in movies. The movie carries some of Raimi’s horror/comedy formula, while pumping out some great moments. According to a recent e-mail to Ain’t It Cool News, Campbell is ready for a second go.

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