We all know unconventional superhero stories are all the rage right now, between Kick-Ass, Green Hornet, and the popular BBC series Misfits. Now one indie filmmaker is taking that trend to the web with a super low-budget short about your not-so-average super powered crime fighters in Lazy Teenage Superheroes.

Filmmaker Michael Ashton, who shot, wrote, cut, and did VFX for the short, brings humor, pop culture references, and the voice of this generation all together in a classic comic team-up setting. Here’s the synopsis.

Tyler is your average awkward teenager just trying to get by like the rest of us. Until one day, he moves in with three unusual roommates – Mitchell, Calvin, and Richard all have extraordinary, super human abilities. Although Tyler still has one thing they don’t have: ambition. Lazy Teenage Superheroes follows Ty as he tries to get his new “super” friends to put down the video games, get off the couch, and use their powers to help save the world, instead of themselves.

There are some low budget elements that you have to look past in order to get some some amazing visual effects and storytelling. With any luck, this will turn the heads of a few Hollywood bigwigs and allow them to realize that productions like these are what fans of the genre are looking for, not things like The Cape or a sequel to Ghost Rider.

You can check out the short after the jump, which is rapidly approaching the 500,000 views mark on YouTube in just over a week. You can also hit up Ashton’s official site for more details on the production.

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Despite some tepid reviews, Green Hornet ran away with the top spot this weekend.  The Seth Rogan comedy/action hybrid made about $34 M, which is good enough to be the third highest January opening ever. About 69% of the film’s take was from 3D screens. It was a pricey film to make ($110 M), so it will need to build on its opening weekend momentum.

Vince Vaughn’s latest film The Dilemma made about $17 M, placing it solidly in second place. True Grit only dropped 23%, and made an additional $11 M.  This $38 M film just passed the $125 M mark.  Kind of reaffirms your faith in movie audiences, doesn’t it?

If that tidbit of intel warms your heart, then wait for the next news: we had a trifecta of terrific movies occupying the top five this week.  In addition to True Grit, The Kings Speech and Black Swan had great weekends.

The King’s Speech actually surged 41% in its eighth week in release for a cool $9 M. It is still playing on less than 1600 screens, so those are some impressive numbers. Very quietly, the film has made $44 M to date.

Black Swan has also done remarkably well. Made on a shoestring budget of $13 M, Natalie Portman’s star vehicle now totals almost $73 M in box office receipts, without a 3D screen in sight. Gwyneth Paltrow has not been as lucky. Her movie Country Strong fell completely out of the top ten this week, coming in at number twelve. In four weeks, the movie has only made $13 M.

Barney’s Version opened on only four screens, but it managed to make $17,925 per/screen.

While most people protest that the main character is the most important part to any incarnation of The Green Hornet, there is a huge argument to be made that the true heroes are Kato and Black Beauty, the tricked out car of The Green Hornet. That’s certainly what they’re going for in Seth Rogen and Michel Gondry’s upcoming film, as Rogen even toured around the country with Black Beauty last summer pimping the film.

In the film, Rogen stars as billionaire snob Britt Reid, who’s father is murdered, making him vow justice and take down the crime lords in his town. He’s joined by Jay Chou’s Kato, a martial arts and weapons expert who helps Britt fight crime as The Green Hornet.

Written by Rogen and Evan Goldman, the writing team behind Superbad and Pineapple Express, you can expect this film to be less on the serious side, and more mocking the campiness of the original Green Hornet TV series.

In a new clip, we get to see the origin and birth of Reid’s car, Black Beauty. Check it out after the jump and catch The Green Hornet in 3D and 2D theaters on January 14th.

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It’s funny how the general perspective on Seth Rogen and Michel Gondry’s upcoming Green Hornet for Sony has changed over the past year. The film was destined to fail several times after playing musical chairs with the director, pushing the date back more that 6 months, and converting the film to 3D after it was in the can. However, now that the film has been released to critics, word is coming out that the movie may be worth something after all.

The script comes from Rogen and Evan Goldberg, the best friend team that brought us Superbad and Pineapple Express, so you know these two can at least bring the funny. The biggest concern has been the trailer that was released, which shows the film in a very unfunny light.

After checking out what things looked like on the set, however, this could end up being just an editing error, and the movie may just be what we expect in a campy superhero comedy.

Check out the behind the scenes featurette after the jump and catch skinny Rogen in The Green Hornet in theaters on January 14th in both 2D and 3D.

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It’s been the week of trailers as studios gear up for the all-important holiday movie season. So far this week we’ve seen Red Riding Hood, Cowboys and Aliens, The Mechanic, Green Lantern and quite a few more.

This time around we’ve got another trailer featuring Seth Rogen as action hero Green Hornet. This one goes deeper into the story and gives us a better look at what we can expect action-wise and humor-wise from the movie.

Of course, even though Rogen is keeping it sorta serious here, you can still expect to see quite a bit of humor in the film. After all, if the Iron Man formula has taught Hollywood anything it’s that action and humor go hand in hand. It’s just too bad this movie doesn’t have Robert Downey, Jr. in it. Oh well.

Check out the trailer after the jump. The Green Hornet, which in addition to Rogen features Cameron Diaz, Christoph Waltz and is directed by Michel Gondry, hits theaters on January 14.

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It’s been quite a journey for the production of Seth Rogen’s The Green Hornet. We all remember when Asian actor/director Stephen Chow (Kung Fu Hustle) was signed to direct and play Kato, and that changed. Then Michel Gondry came aboard, and Nicolas Cage was attached to play the antagonist, and that changed. Christoph Waltz then got the part, but the studio felt the movie would look better in 3D.

Finally, after all of the pieces finally fell into place, we’ve got ourselves a trailer, and not a bad looking one to boot.

The film stars Rogen as billionaire brat Britt Reid, who pretty much does what he wants, and couldn’t care less about the consequences. He’s introduced to Kato (now played by Jay Chou) and they decide to take back their crime-infested city by adopting the persona of The Green Hornet, a masked crime fighter.

The film has been panned by critics who have gotten glimpses of footage, and even the studio has pushed the film back to try and salvage what money they’ve already spent. There’s no telling whether or not the film will be a bust or not, but at least we have a fancy trailer to keep us thinking.

Check it out after the jump, and catch Rogen’s Green Hornet in theaters January 14, 2011.

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For years, members of both genders have cowered in the shadows with their secret interest in what goes on behind the closed doors of Clark Kent’s apartment, or on the wedding night of Spider-Man and Mary Jane. Kevin Smith even built a career on the former. Now, fans everywhere will get to witness as the two worlds of Porn and Comic Books cross over.

With the rise in comic book popularity, there also comes the realization from the adult industry (finally) that there is a market for this type of movie. Using the protection of the “parody law”, stating that anything deemed a parody can not be considered an infringement on copyright, industry leader Vivid Entertainment recently announced their newest Superhero imprint.

“The parodies under this new imprint will pay tribute to the world’s most popular comic heroes,” said Steven Hirsch, Founder/Co-chairman of Vivid. “Axel already started pre-production on a parody of Superman, which will be followed by those of The Green Hornet, Spider-Man, Wonder Woman, Captain America, Thor, and The Incredible Hulk.

We made the decision to create the imprint after working with Axel on “Batman XXX: A Porn Parody”, an Axel Braun Productions movie to be distributed by Vivid. Axel truly did an amazing job with it, and we agreed that together we could mine the really rich treasure of superheroes and have a lot of fun doing it.”

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This week on The Flickcast Chris and Matt are joined by comics historian and host of Crazy Sexy Geeks Series Alan Kistler to talk about all manner of new and exciting topics. Among those discussed include reactions and commentary on Kick-Ass, the new incarnation of Doctor Who featuring Matt Smith, Joss Whedon’s direction and vision for The Avengers, the postponment of the next James Bond film, great comics of the past, present and future and a whole lot more.

The three also made some great picks this week including Alan’s pick of The Losers movie and more, Matt’s pick of Martin Campbell’s Cast a Deadly Spell and Chris’ pick of the new comic S.H.I.E.L.D.

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.

Fans who have been waiting to see if Seth Rogen can really deliver as a masked crusader are one step closer to either breathing a sigh or relief, or eating their proverbial hats. Some brand new set pics have surfaced showing off Rogen taking on the role of Britt Reid’s alter ego, and by the looks of them, he may be emerging as a true pulp hero. While these aren’t the first pics we’ve seen from the film’s set, they are the first we’ve seen of Rogen in the domino mask and fedora.

Written by Rogen and partner Evan Goldberg (Superbad) with Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) sitting in the directors chair. The Green Hornet follows the adventures of Britt Reid, newspaper publisher by day, masked superhero by night, and his sidekick Kato (Jay Chou). Starring alongside Rogen is Edward James Olmos, Cameron Diaz, and Christoph Waltz.

Since the movie doesn’t hit theaters until December 17, 2010, we’ll be seeing plenty more where these came from. In the meantime, check out the brand new, action-packed images of both Rogen and Chou running around in costume after the jump!

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With the publicity for Seth Rogen and Michel Gondry’s Green Hornet picking up steam in the past monh or so, more news has come out on the casting of the main villain in he film, Mr. X. The role was originally set to go to Nicolas Cage, but for whatever reason (possibly the fact that he’s got another superhero film in the works with Kick-Ass), Cage has stepped down from his role.

We now recieve word that the role will instead be taken on by Christoph Waltz, fresh from playing the Nazi baddie in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds.

“I’m told that ICM’s actor Christoph Waltz who won Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival for playing a Nazi in Inglourious Basterds (and is a shoo-in for an Oscar nomination) has now been cast as villain Chudnofsky in Sony’s The Green Hornet opposite Seth Rogen and Cameron Diaz.

Since Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds came out — and crossed the $100M mark this weekend – Waltz has been offered a lot of big movies by a lot of big directors. And he’s getting big bucks now. How great he’s found success at age 52.”

This is the second news of an actor getting replaced from the film after Stephen Chow stepped down from both directing and the role of Kato. See Waltz, Rogen, and Cameron Diaz in theaters for Green Hornet on December 17, 2010.

Seth Rogen’s Green Hornet has been in and out of the news in recent weeks. From the bizarre casting of Edward James Olmos and Nic Cage to the last minute release date from next summer to December of next year. It now looks like we’re getting our first look at some of the cast, with new set photos.

There are only a few photos to check out, thanks to our friends at SuperHeroHype, but they give us a glance at Rogen’s Britt Reid, Cameron Diaz as his squeeze, Lenore Case, and even our very first look at Taiwanese actor Jay Chou as the Hornet’s faithful sidekick, Kato.

Check out the images after the jump, and you’ve got plenty of time before you can see Michel Gondry’s first take on the super hero classic in theaters on December 17, 2010.

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Even though he didn’t divulge exactly what character he’s going to be playing or very many other details, everyone’s favorite Admiral Edward James Olmos did say he’s joining the cast of the Seth Rogen starrer The Green Hornet. During an appearance this past weekend at Wizard World in Chicago, the Battlestar Galactica star and The Plan director said that he’s definitely in the film — as told to the folks at Hollywood Snitch, who were on-hand for the event.

According to Olmos, he was leaving the convention and pretty much heading to the set to start work — or that’s the way he made it sound at least. Said the actor/director: “I’m on my way to do The Green Hornet. It’ll be a lot of fun with Seth [Rogen], Nicolas Cage and Cameron Diaz.”

That’s just about as vague as you can get and still be information. Of course, it is news that Olmos will be in the film, so that’s something. Still, it would be nice to find out what character he’s going to be playing. We already know that Asian pop star Jay Chou will be playing Kato in the film, that Nicholas Cage is playing a bad guy and that Cameron Diaz is the love interest. But what of Olmos?

My guess is that he’ll be some sort of authority figure, much as he’s been on BSG and even way back in the Miami Vice days. I’m going to go out on a limb and say he’s a cop in the movie and maybe even a world-weary cop reluctantly forced to allow The Green Hornet to go about his crime fighting business. Along the way they build a grudging respect for one another and finally learn to work together to help save the city they both love. We’ll see if I’m right.

The Green Hornet, directed by Michel Gondry, also stars Seth Rogen, Nicholas Cage, Cameron Diaz and Jay Chou. It hits theaters in 2010.