Another network has joined in and has announced their schedule for the Fall. Like NBC, ABC, CBS and Fox, The CW has stepped up to let us all know what they have in store for next season.

In addition to returning shows such as Smallville, One Tree Hill, Gossip Girl and Supernatural, The CW is debuting two new shows in the Fall, Nikita and Hellcats. To help them find success, these new shows will be given coveted timeslots following the networks biggest hits.

Nikita, which features Maggie Q in an update to Luc Bessons action film La Femme Nikita, will air on Thursdays following The Vampire Diaries and Hellcats, which is produced by Smallville’s Tom Welling and follows a pre-law student turned cheerleader, will be on Wednesdays following America’s Next Top Model.

Smallville and Supernatural are also back together but now will air on Friday nights. The network labels its new Monday lineup as “the Left Coast/Right Coast pairing of 90210 and Gossip Girl.” The network also announced it will launch a new reality series called Plain Jane this summer.

Check out the full schedule after the jump.

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Now that Marvel has settled on Chris Evans to play Captain America in director Joe Johnston’s The First Avenger: Captain America, they can turn their attention to filling other important roles in the film. With Hugo Weaving already playing Red Skull, the next role to be filled will be Cap’s trusty sidekick Bucky Barnes. The actor selected for that? Sebastian Stan.

Stan, who’s recent work includes NBC’s Kings, the CW’s Gossip Girl and roles in Hot Tub Time Machine and the upcoming Black Swan, has reportedly signed on for five or six pictures as Bucky, a teenaged orphan who, after discovering the identity of Captain America, joines forces with him to fight the Nazis during WWII.

During one of Cap’s last battles, Bucky is killed but then later returns to modern comics continuity in the form of The Winter Soldier. Marvel hasn’t confirmed Bucky’s status as The Winter Soldier only that Stan will be playing the character.

Shooting on the film starts this summer in Europe. Obviously, we’ll be following this one very closely.

Even though filming is still some time away, recently director Joe Johnston told MTV Splashpage a casting decision on who would portray Captain America in The First Avenger “was weeks away.” Well, weeks have gone by and according to Deadline Hollywood, the list of actors for the titular role has been narrowed down to five finalists.

The five front-runners for the role of Captain America are, according to the site, Chace Crawford (Gossip Girl), John Krasinski (The Office), Scott Porter (Friday Night Lights), Mike Vogel (Cloverfield) and Michael Cassidy (Smallville). All five actors have reportedly agreed to test deals with Johnston and Marvel Studios to try out for the role.

Not only must these actor agree to test for the role, if eventually cast, they must also sign for nine other options, including potential sequels to The First Avenger. This makes sense considering the upcoming Marvel movies and their desire to team them all for a potential Avengers movie in the future. Still, that’s a lot to negotiate.

Of course, fans everywhere have their personal favorites and I we have ours. Picking from this list as if these were the only choices, our first choice would be Smallville‘s Michael Cassidy. He’s able to do the action as well as being a pretty good actor as well, so he’d be good for the part.

Sadly, our favorite choice of all and not on this list, Joel Gretsch (The 4400, V), is probably too old now, even though he would be great in the part. No matter who they choose, let’s hope they take this movie as seriously and do as great a job on it as Marvel did with Iron Man. Cap deserves no less.

Who do you think should play Captain America in The First Avenger?

Some early renewals for some popular shows over on the CW have just come in. The network has given the green light for new seasons of Supernatural, Vampire Diaries, Gossip Girl, 90201 and America’s Next Top Model.

No word on any other renewals of yet for shows we’re interested in, like Smallville, but with these early ones announced, it’s only a matter of time before we hear about more. The Supernatural and Vampire Diaries renewals weren’t completely unexpected as they’ve been doing well in the ratings, but for some reason I thought Top Model was on its last legs. Oh well, another season of beautiful models doing photo shoots in skimpy outfits can’t be all bad, right?

Here’s all the info from the CW about these renewals from their official press release:

THE CW ANNOUNCES EARLY PICKUPS FOR FIVE SERIES

Freshman Hit “The Vampire Diaries,” “Gossip Girl,” “90210,” “Supernatural” and “America’s Next Top Model” To Return Next Season

February 16, 2010 (Burbank, California) ─ The CW Network has given early pickups to five series for next season, including four signature dramas and the reality hit AMERICA’S NEXT TOP MODEL. All five shows will return in Fall 2010.

The series receiving early renewals include this season’s breakout hit THE VAMPIRE DIARIES, The CW’s most-watched show (4.6 million viewers) and the network’s number one show among adults 18-34 (2.5/8). THE VAMPIRE DIARIES premiere generated the largest audience in network history for a series debut (5.7 million total viewers). THE VAMPIRE DIARIES has improved The CW’s performance Thursday at 8:00 p.m. by 114% among women 18-34 this season.

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As reported previously, Blake Lively was rumored to be in the running to play the female lead in the upcoming Green Lantern movie, opposite Ryan Reynolds as Hal Jordan. Well, Variety is reporting that she has indeed landed the role and is set to start filming when the movie goes into production later this spring.

Blake Lively, best known for her role on the CW’s series Gossip Girl and in the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series, will later this year be seen opposite Ben Affleck in the movie The Town. As mentioned in the previous post, her being a newer star makes it easier to lock her down into a contract where she’ll appear in, hopefully, many sequels and not limit her role solely to that of a love interest. ‘Carol Ferris’ is both a vital part of the Green Lantern mythology as the head of the aviation company that employs the former Air Force pilot, and also has played the part of super-villain, in the form of ‘Star Sapphire’.

Not being too knowledgeable of Lively’s career, or talents, I have to say I’m fairly interested in this casting decision and look forward to seeing where it goes. Although, counter to what I had stated in my first post, I think it would have been interesting to see the film cast an older woman that runs the business and is also a viable leading love interest.

The Martin Campbell (Casino Royale) directed movie, has a script by Marc Guggenheim and Michael Green (with Michael Goldenberg working on a new draft) and is scheduled to be released in June of 2011.

Here’s a list of some of the new movie and TV shows coming to DVD and Blu-ray this week that we’re looking forward to seeing. Also, there’s some classic movies hitting Blu-ray for the first time this week as well.

Of all the new releases, we’re particularly interested in the Blu-ray version of The Last Starfighter, Dexter Seasons 1-3 on Blu-ray and the debut of season one of Sons of Anarchy on DVD.

Check them out.

Movies

The 5 Deadly Venoms ~ Five Deadly Venoms (DVD)

Hannah Montana The Movie (3-Disc Combo Pack Blu-ray + DVD + Digital Copy) ~ Miley Cyrus, Billy Ray Cyrus, Lucas Till, and Emily Osment (Blu-ray)

Husbands (Extended Cut) ~ Ben Gazzara, Peter Falk, John Cassavetes, and Jenny Runacre (DVD)

Julia ~ Tilda Swinton (DVD)

Kagemusha – Criterion Collection ~ Tatsuya Nakadai, Tsutomu Yamazaki, Kenichi Hagiwara, and Jinpachi Nezu (Blu-ray)

Last House on the Left (2009) ~ Garret Dillahunt, Monica Potter, Tony Goldwyn (DVD and Blu-ray)

The Last Starfighter 25th Anniversary ~ Lance Guest, Dan O’Herlihy, Catherine Mary Stewart (DVD and Blu-ray)

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