This week on The Flickcast, Chris and Matt are back at it again. This week they’ve got a whole bunch of new topics, as well as one or two they just can’t seem to let go of.

This week the boys talk about the latest, greatest movie trailers including Ender’s Game, The World’s End and Captain Phillips. They also talk all-things Marvel and give their takes on Iron Man 3, Robert Downey Jr.’s money problems (hint: he doesn’t have any) and where Marvel goes from here.

They also discussed Sean Bean’s welcome return to TV, the Spock vs. Spock Audi commercial, the upcoming Dungeons & Dragons movie, the next-gen XBox, the sad passing of special effects pioneer ray Harryhausen and a whole lot more.

The boys made some picks this week with Matt’s being the amazing Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon and Chris’ being the amazing Ray Harryhausen effects masterpiece Jason and the Argonauts.

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, Google+ or via email.

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Of all the military sci-fi novels out there yet to be made into movies, I’ve always wanted to see an adaptation of Joe Haldeman’s The Forever War. I would also like to see John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War made into a movie or heck, even another try at taking Robert A. Heinlein’s Starship Troopers to the big screen.

That said, in spite of Orson Scott Card’s ridiculous personal opinions, his Ender’s Game is also a pretty great sci-fi novel it its own right, so a big screen adaptation of it is still a welcome development. That’s just what Summit Entertainment has done and to kick things off they’ve released the first trailer for the movie.

In it we get our first real look at Ender Wiggin (Asa Butterfield), a shy, complex and conflicted boy who turns out to be a military genius, and the rest of the supporting cast including Harrison Ford as Colonel Hyrum Graff and Ben Kinsley as Mazer Rackham. Truth be told, this looks pretty good and I look forward to seeing more.

Check out the trailer after the jump. Look for Ender’s Game in theaters on November 1.

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This video is pretty great. Harrison Ford was a guest on last night’s Jimmy Kimmel Live and agreed, reluctantly, to take some questions from the audience.

As expected, a few people in the audience had questions about the next Star Wars movie, which he didn’t really want to answer. What he didn’t expect was a certain Wookie to be in attendance. Things get out of hand from there.

Does he let the Wookie win? Find out for yourself after the break. Enjoy. We did.

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The other day when interviewed by a Chicago reporter from WGN9 at a ceremony for *Michigan Avenue* magazine, Harrison Ford was asked about the rumors of the “old gang” getting back together for the next Star Wars. Ford hesitantly replied, “I think it’s almost true. I think… I’m looking forward to it. It’s not in the bag yet, but I think it’s happening.” When listening to Ford, you can tell there’s more that he knows than he is allowed to say and until all the I’s are dotted and T’s are crossed, he probably isn’t going to be saying more.

Ford. Hamill. Fischer. All on screen together again. It really is a Star Wars fan’s dream come true. But that begs the question, what is going to happen in the new films featuring these main characters from the original trilogy?

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The concept behind The Expendables is admirable, mix together as many bad ass action super stars from the last three decades of film into one franchise. The cast list of the first film read like a who’s who of the greatest action talent, even going so far as to feature Arnold and Willis in cameos.

The second film, out this Friday, uped the ante with the original cast returning along with full roles for The Arnold, Bruce Willis and even Van Damme. As great as that group is how do you top it? Total Film had a chance to talk to the film’s producer Avi Lerner to ask that very question:

We’ve approached Clint Eastwood to be one of the guys, we’ve got a character in mind for him. We’re talking to Harrison Ford. [And we want] Wesley Snipes when he comes back from prison. I’ll give you one more name, we’ve got Nicolas Cage to play [one of the characters]… And we’re going to bring Mickey Rourke back, if he won’t be too crazy. I like Mickey. And of course, all the existing stars [will return]”

Wow, talk about reaching for the stars. Who knows if they will actually nail any of those guys, but it is good to see the producers won’t consider any action icon to big to approach. Which begs the question, when will they give Mel Gibson a call?

You can check out The Expendables 2 this week and stay tuned to The Flickcast for any testosterone riddled casting updates in the future.

Good news for all you Ender’s Game fans out there as there is finally some forward motion on the film. Ender’s Game has had a long journey getting from a novel to the big screen and finally has a production blog. Even though there is only a single image posted so far, producer Roberto Orci promises to have exclusives from the film over the next year. This would include guest appearances by well known cast members.

For those of you unfamiliar with the Orson Scott Card book series, here is a synopsis. Set in Earth’s future, the plot presents an imperiled humankind who have barely survived two conflicts with the Formics, an insect like alien species that are usually called “Buggers”. These aliens act much like gigantic super smart Earth ants and are very protective of their queen. In preparation for an anticipated third invasion, an international fleet maintains a school to find and train future fleet commanders.

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OK, so maybe not the first time, but this video from the folks at Dogfood Films is pretty hilarious. Already going viral, the video uses the hilariously awkward video of Harrison Ford playing Uncharted 3 in his lofty living room and splices in scenes from the first (and best) three Indiana Jones films.

Sure, we have to believe that Ford has seen all of these films at least a few times, but the reactions he has to some of the timeless scenes, especially the epic cringe that he pulls off while watching Temple of Doom are pretty hilarious.

Dogfood Films have been known for doing a few other film mashups, such as How Jingle All the Way  Should Have Been and a few others. It just goes to show that, if you’ve got the time, and you can obtain the footage, there is absolutely no limit to the things that can be drawn out for us to laugh at on YouTube.

Take a look at the video after the jump and check out Dogfood’s channel for more goodies.

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In just over a year’s time, you can expect Orson Scott Card’s name to join the likes of Suzanne Collins and George R.R. Martin as some of the best modern authors who have successfully crossed the threshold into the Film and TV medium. Card’s entry, of course, is the Ender’s Game series.

We got word a while back that Ben Kingsley is set to join the cast, which is a big name within itself, but now that’s getting completely squashed with the news that Harrison Ford and Little Miss Sunshine’s Abigail Breslin are joining the cast. From Variety.

Ford will play Colonel Hyram Graff, who’s in charge of training the young male recruits at an elite military academy. Breslin will play Valentine Wiggin, Ender’s older sister, while Steinfeld will play Petra Arkanian, Ender’s ally and trusted right hand.

Gavin Hood (“X-Men Origins: Wolverine”) is directing from his own script, which is adapted from Orson Scott Card’s award-winning novel. Summit Entertainment is co-financing and will release the film in the U.S. on March 15, 2013.

Set in Earth’s utopian future, “Ender’s Game” stars Asa Butterfield (“Hugo”) as the title character, a genius strategist who’s recruited by the government to help destroy an insect-like alien race.

Let’s hope this film doesn’t follow the critical responses that Ford’s last two sci-fi films, Indiana Jones & The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and Cowboys & Aliens, because those were definitely not the quality Ender fans will be looking for come March.

What is it with Ridley Scott? He doesn’t seem to be able to leave well enough alone. First he decides that what the world needs is an Alien prequel/sequel/spin-off with his upcoming Prometheus, in 3D no less.

Now he’s apparently come to the conclusion that what the world needs is a sequel/prequel to to his classic 1982 sci-fi masterpiece Blade Runner. Yes, you read that right. Mr. Scott will reportedly be directing a new installment of Blade Runner.

As it was when news of Prometheus first broke, it’s not clear if this new film will be a sequel or a prequel to the 1982 film that was loosely based on Philip K. Dick’s novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (answer: they do) Also not clear at the moment is if the new film will, in any way, feature Harrison Ford. My guess is it probably will, if only in a cameo.

Truth be told I find the idea of a Blade Runner sequel/prequel far less appetizing than a sequel/prequel to Alien. After all, James Cameron did a pretty great job with Aliens, which showed the franchise had some life in it. Plus, they ended up making a few more sequels which were less appealing. Still, they made them.

Blade Runner, on the other hand, has stood the test of time on its own. It’s evolved from a rather unsuccessful commercial debut into one of the most revered sci-fi classics of all time. Plus, it has never had a sequel, which also serves to add to its power and mystique.

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It has cowboys. It has aliens. It has cowboys and aliens. It’s not a bad film. It’s not a good film. It is a movie. That’s a pretty lackluster opener, but, walking out of the screening, I felt almost completely neutral about Cowboys and Aliens–it was like the things I liked and the things I disliked were in perfect balance.

The film doesn’t fail to deliver on anything the title promises, and you can lose count of the standard tropes from either genre that it hits, but it’s tough to maintain the toothy grin I expected all throughout. Though I’m getting ahead of myself.

Daniel Craig plays Jake Lonergan (one of many last names I suspect are puns but am not entirely sure), a notorious outlaw who awakes one morning with a heavy case of amnesia and one hell of a bracelet on his left arm. He makes his way to the nearest town, controlled by the gruff cattle rancher Colonel Woodrow Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford) and his uppity son Percy (Paul Dano), whose favorite pastime is terrifying the community at large and in particular the local bartender (Sam Rockwell) and his wife (Ana de la Reguera).

It’s not long before Jake endears himself to the locals, among them the soused preacher (Clancy Brown), the woman with a secret (Olivia Wilde), and, naturally, the sheriff (Keith Carradine) by punching out Percy, and not long after that that his identity is revealed, and he’s locked up. Still less longer, the aliens arrive, capture a handful of significant townsfolk, and everyone’s differences are set aside as they form a posse to recover the abductees. ‘round about this time, Jake discovers that his bracelet is able to sense the aliens and, better yet, can blow ‘em up real good.

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With the Blu-Ray release of the Star Wars saga coming this September, 20th Century Fox is titillating fans with a sneak peek at some of the extras, including this trailer of some footage cut from the original trilogy.

The clip shows a handful of glimpses at some deleted scenes, including the “wampas in the Hoth base” sequence. These aren’t from the digitally remastered/Greedo-shoots-first editions released in the late ‘90s; these are from the original original films, right down to the ‘70s film grain—and that’s not to say they look fuzzy. They’re as crisp and good-looking as you could want.

Fox plans to release Blu-Ray editions of both the original trilogy as well as the prequels and, for the fans who need every damn thing, a whopping nine-disc Complete Saga edition that will include over 30 hours of special features from deleted and alternative scenes like these to, well, pretty much anything else George has lying around in the archives.

You can view the trailer after the jump.

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In case you missed it, yesterday was International Star Wars Day. To commemorate the event or, in some cases, dash the hopes of nerds everywhere, Lucasfilm took the opportunity to announce the full details of the Strar Wars Saga’s impending release on Blu-ray.

Before you bother to read on hoping for some good news, I will save you the suspense. The original, unmodified original trilogy will NOT be in this collection.

Yes, that’s right, if we want to watch Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi in their original, non-Lucas tinkered with versions, we will just have to keep watching those “Definitive Collection” THX Laserdiscs. I’ve got mine, how about you?

However, if you don’t care about how things should be and, instead, want to keep rewarding George Lucas with money for fucking up his own movies, feel free to read on and get all the details.

The six films of the Saga are accompanied by three discs of extras totaling over 40 hours of material – some new, some old. Here’s the full press release from Lucasfilm.

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Welcome to the first Trailer Tuesdays where you’re sure to find the best highlights from film trailers released theatrically or virally in the past week.  Plus, we throw in one trailer that’s so ridiculous that it’s awesome.

This week we found two major summer blockbusters that will hopefully prove to be good, not just cool, as well as one indie horror that will hopefully prove to be as scary as it is original.

Cowboys and Aliens

See trailer here

This film is a perfect example of a terrible premise with a cheesy title that is executed so well that it might actually turn out to be good.  The best quote I’ve heard about this film was when director Jon Favreau was being interviewed about why he chose to do this concept, he replied saying that since lots of people believed that aliens visited ancient cultures such as the Mayans and Egyptians, why can it not be believable that aliens visited the Old West?  So as long as he’s sticking by the idea, I’m down.

Certainly the best choices that were made for this film were getting Daniel Craig for the lead and Jon Favreau of Iron Man fame to direct.  This combination is certain to bring some real credibility to this film.  Craig seems to bring an old-school “bad ass-ness” to this part that has been lacking from most modern westerns.

No one could draw an alien side-arm as cool as him.  And Favreau has an uncanny ability to make even the most ridiculous action scenes seem somehow grounded in reality.

Of course you can’t forget Olivia Wilde, who is quickly becoming the hottest female action star; Sam Rockwell, who popped out of nowhere in this newest theatrical trailer but is nothing short of amazing in everything he does; and Harrison Ford, who just goes without saying.

Overall, this trailer is exciting and gets you pumped on some great visuals.  Hopefully this will be even better than Iron Man, as well as the coolest graphics of the summer.

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This week’s pick is the 1978 release of Force 10 from Navarone, directed by Guy Hamilton (Battle of Britain). This was the sequel to the 1961 film The Guns of Navarone, which I wrote about last week. The film is loosely based off the novel of the same name also written by Alistair MacLean in 1968.

Robert Shaw this time portrays Keith Mallory as he and his accomplice Miller (Edward Fox) tag along with an American Colonel (Harrison Ford) who is sent into Yugoslavia to blow up a German held bridge which threatens Partisan forces in the region. The supporting cast include Carl Weathers (Sgt. Weaver), Richard Kiel (Captain Drazak), Barbara Bach (Maritza Petrovich), Michael Byrne (Maj. Schroeder), Alan Badel (Maj. Petrovich), and Franco Nero (Capt. Nikolai Lescovar).

The film opens up with a recap of the previous film (for those of us who like to watch sequels in reverse order), and tells of the successful mission led by Mallory, originally played by Gregory Peck, and Cpl. Miller (David Niven) as they destroyed the German gun emplacements on the tiny Greek island of Navarone. The film then flashes forward to a training camp in England where Mallory and Miller are once again called upon to take on another dangerous assignment.

Mallory and Miller are both promoted to Major and Sergeant, and are to attach themselves onto a unit known as “Force 10″, an American commando unit which is to conduct a sabotage mission against the German forces occupying Yugoslavia. Lt. Col. Mike Barnsby (Harrison Ford) is the commanding officer of Force 10 and is not thrilled with the idea of Mallory and Miller tagging along on their mission. Both Mallory and Barnsby put their differences aside and try to work with one another.

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Once again proving that Hollywood has indeed run out of original ideas and instead is looking to the past to try and generate something at least half-way decent, the production company behind such films as The Blind Side and The Book of Eli has now set its sights on a prequel and sequel to Ridley Scott’s classic 1982 sci-fi film Blade Runner.

The announcement came today from Alcon Entertainment, who are currently negotiating to secure the rights to the Blade Runner franchise from producer-director Bud Yorkin, who currently holds them. If Alcon is successful (and they probably will be) their franchise rights would be all-inclusive, but exclude rights to remake the original. Well, at least that’s something, right? Dodged that bullet.

The company’s co-founders and co-Chief Executive Officers Broderick Johnson and Andrew Kosove are, as you may expect, pretty excited about the prospect of getting their hands on Blade Runner.

“We are honored and excited to be in business with Bud Yorkin. This is a major acquisition for our company, and a personal favorite film for both of us. We recognize the responsibility we have to do justice to the memory of the original with any prequel or sequel we produce. We have long-term goals for the franchise, and are exploring multi-platform concepts, not just limiting ourselves to one medium only.”

Okay, they seem to talk the talk at least. But, of course, this is Hollywood and that could just be fan-service. Which, let’s face it, it probably is. All I can say after hearing about this is thank goodness they can’t do a remake of the original film. At least we will always have that.

Click through if you want to read the full press release.

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