Next week sees the return of Spartacus, the Starz original series chronicling the life of the titular slave who rebelled against his Roman oppressors. The show’s official second season, called Spartacus: Vengeance, has been long in coming, and brings with it many questions in the wake of the tragic death of the first seasons’ star, Andy Whitfield.

The Flickcast recently partook in a discussion with series creator/exec. producer Steven S. DeKnight where, among other things, he talked about the transition from his original star to new Spartacus Liam McIntyre (check out our interview with the actor here), where the show is going from here and working with Joss Whedon.

On Liam capturing the essence of Andy Whitfield’s Spartacus -

…that’s really what drew us to Liam is that we didn’t want to try to duplicate (Andy). I mean, that will never happen. He was such a singular, amazing talent. But we wanted to find somebody that had the same base qualities of compassion. And I told all the actors when they auditioned that even though Spartacus may fly into a rage now and then, he never comes from a place of anger, it’s always from a place of a wounded heart. And we really felt like Liam captured that essence.

On no character being safe on the show - 

…on this show characters literally get the ax. I think really ultimately for me it’s always – it comes from the story is how is the story best served by a character death. I don’t ever want somebody to just die. It needs to have ramifications either emotionally or towards the plot. So that’s always the number one driving force of – on who do I kill.

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Last year, Beenox took a drastic departure from the Spider-Man video game experience by not only taking the open world sandbox enviroment out of play, but also for the first time creating a game that had multiple Spider-Men at the player’s fingertips with Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions.

This year’s iteration of the Spider-Man franchise brings a different experience as well. While the Spider-Men in Shattered Dimensions all shared a common goal, their actions were independent of each other.

Now, in Spider-Man: Edge of Time both Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2099 must work together to save the past as well as the future from a mad scientist who has interfered with the time stream by causing the death of Spider-Man.

Gameplay:

Much like the previous Spider-Man title, Spider-Man: Edge of Time focuses on contained levels instead of a free roaming city. The story is kept fairly on rails with little room for full exploration, though there are hidden collectibles that can be used to upgrade the powers of both Spider-Man and his 2099 counterpart throughout the game. As a result, the focus on much of the game revolves around combat.

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You may know him best as Malcolm, you know from the middle. Or maybe even a few of our readers will remember him as Agent Cody Banks. But now, Frankie Muniz is taking on a new role on the silver screen as the Pizza Man. And he isn’t just your every day delivery man, he has super powers.

At NYCC, the world saw the debut trailer for Pizza Man starring Frankie Muniz alongside former professional wrestler Diamond Dallas Page who plays Pizza Man’s arch nemesis and other notable stars like Shelly Long and Corbin Bersen. Pizza Man is the tale of a kid who mistakenly falls into super powers and how he must deal with. Sort of like Spider-Man but with pepperoni.

Frankie talks with us about just what kind of super hero Pizza Man is, learns from us what the definition of a rogues gallery is and gives us some insight into Diamond Dallas Page’s villainous character. This family friendly super hero flick should be coming to theaters early next year.

Take a peek below at our full interview talking all things Pizza Man with Frankie Muniz below.

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Last time we got behind the scenes with Val Kilmer and Laura Vandervoort about their roles as Spider-Man: Edge of Time’s top baddy and Mary Jane, respectively. Now, Beenox has released a special interview with the voice of Peter Parker a.k.a. The Amazing Spider-Man, Josh Keaton. Fans of Spider-Man will recognize Josh as the voice of Ultimate Spider-Man in Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions as well as Spider-Man in both Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and the Spectacular Spider-Man animated series. Also in this series of interviews is Katee Sackhoff who voices the Black Cat.

Along with its latest set of screen shots from PAX, Josh talks briefly about the encounters of Spider-Man: Edge of Time and how it will effect gameplay. As has been emphasized, actions taking place in the modern day will affect the world of 2099. He also talks about how the game is a race against time and if players don’t succeed, Spider-Man will die.

One piece of information that is news to everyone from Katee Sackhoff’s interview is that the Black Cat appearing in the game isn’t everyone’s modern day Felicia Hardy, but instead is a future version of the Black Cat that has been cloned over and over. Visually, she doesn’t seem to have as drastic a visual change as the Spider-Men of each time period does. The cloning process has shattered some of her personality which keeps some aspects like the sexual tension between the two present but on top of a splintered psyche.

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Even though SDCC is already a month removed, we still have some games news still to cover. One of those stories is that of Payday: The Heist. Coming from Sony Online Entertainment, Payday: The Heist is a four player cooperative shooter inspired by the combination of the movie Heat, the most famous heist movie of all time, and the game Left 4 Dead, a stunning example of cooperative shooter gameplay.

This isn’t the first time Heat has played inspiration to the video game world. Anyone who got into Grand Theft Auto 4 will remember one of the best missions of the game comes from the bank robbery based off of Heat. Now, instead of a third person single player experience, gamers can team up with up to three friends to take down a bank and try to escape with their winnings a la Left 4 Dead, minus the zombies.

Players need to be conscious of everything from hostages which can be used as currency to revive killed teammates to security cameras which can be disabled in order to reduce the amount of intel available to SWAT and hostage extraction squads.

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Sixteen years ago, Joel Schumacher took the man who had stolen the show in Heat and Top Gun and transformed him into Batman. Val Kilmer was at what should have been the pinnacle of the super hero movie world. Instead he is remembered for being in one of the most poorly received super hero films that strayed so far from the original vision of the character that many will still shed a tear of sorrow for Batman Forever.

Now, Val has turned to the dark side as he becomes Walker Sloan, an evil scientist of Alchemax. In Spider-Man: Edge of Time, Sloan will become the bane of existence for both the modern day Amazing Spider-Man as well as Spider-Man 2099 from his own time. Take a peek below at Kilmer’s behind the scenes interview as he explains the motivation behind Sload and how he becomes a man who might unmake the world in his own image.

In addition to Val Kilmer, Beenox has released a behind the scenes video with Laura Vandervoort talking about her role as Mary Jane. Vandervoort herself is no stranger to the super hero or sci-fi world after her role as Kara / Brainiac / Linda Danvers on Smallville or Lisa on V. A number of actresses have tackled the Mary Jane role including Kirsten Dunst in the most recent film trilogy and singer/songwriter Lisa Loeb in MTV’s animated version.

Take a look below at Vandervoort’s thoughts on the character as she talks about her respect for Mary Jane. Also get a quick peek at how the story itself not only crosses through time between Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2099 but the characters themselves even cross eras.

Make sure to stick right here for more on Spider-Man: Edge of Time coming out October 4th for the XBox 360 and PlayStation 3.

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WWE had an eventful first day at this year’s Comic-Con International. During their panel, WWE Champion CM Punk made a surprise appearance during the Mattel panel where the new head of the WWE, whom CM Punk referred to as a doofus during his already infamous shoot promo on Vince McMahon four weeks ago on Raw, was discussing the latest WWE toy line.

On the show floor, fans were treated to WWE Hall of Famer and legend, the Hitman Bret Hart and San Diego’s own Rey Mysterio doing an autograph signing at the Mattel booth. It has been a busy past week for Rey as on Monday night he defeated two men in order to advance in a championship tournament for the WWE Championship which Vince McMahon said he did not recognize CM Punk as champion as he was no longer a part of the company.

This upcoming Monday, the 619’s own biggest little man plans to take on the Real World alumni turned professional wrestler, the Miz. Both Rey and Miz have held a number of titles in WWE, including world championships, so the match looks to be something fans can really get behind on Monday night.

During our interview, Rey also mentions to us that this is actually his first ever Comic Con despite being a San Diego resident and how he has brought his kids to the show with him.

Take a look below at our interview with WWE Superstar Rey Mysterio below and stick to the Flickcast for more from the floor of San Diego Comic Con where way just might get a word tomorrow with WWE Divas Champion Kelly Kelly.

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At the Activision event here at Comic-Con in San Diego, I had the opportunity to speak with Dee Brown of Beenox. You may remember Dee from last year’s where we talked to him about Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions. Now, a year later, Beenox is getting ready to unleash their latest Spider-Man title known as Spider-Man: Edge of Time.

Dee tells us in the interview below that 11 years ago, he and the Beenox team set out to take over the world and from the looks of things, Spider-Man: Edge of Time looks to be another step in the process. We take the time to discuss with Dee the choices of this upcoming title including the decision to place Anti-Venom, a “good guy”, as one of Spider-Man’s antagonists as well as the announcement of the Black Cat in the game.

Activision and Beenox were also pleased to announce that Spider-Man: Edge of Time would be coming to both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on October 4th of this year.

Check out the interview after the break. Be sure to let us know your thoughts on Spider-Man: Edge of Time.

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Topher Grace recently went on a mini-city tour to promote his upcoming film, Take Me Home Tonight. Look for our review on Friday. In the meantime, we had the opportunity to sit down with Topher and talk about the film, which takes place in the eighties.

Synopsis: As the summer of 1988 winds down, three friends on the verge of adulthood attend an out-of-control party in celebration of their last night of unbridled youth.

The Flickcast: You are not a product of the eighties, so how did you come to do a movie about the eighties?  I know this was kind of your project. You helped conceptualize and produce the film, and acted  in it as well.

Topher Grace: I grew up watching Dazed and Confused, which was made in the nineties, but it was about the seventies. There’s also a movie made in the seventies, which was about the fifties, it was American Graffiti. We thought, ” This generation doesn’t have that kind of movie.”

There will be another movie about the nineties in about 10 years. Right now, no one has done this for the eighties. We’ve had movies that came out closer to the eighties, like The Wedding Singer, which I love, but which makes fun of the eighties, or spoofs it.

To be honest, you couldn’t really do that movie about the nineties yet. You need about twenty years in order to look back the same way George Lucas did or Richard  Linklater did with those other two movies. Right now if we tried to do a nineties one, it would probably be grunge, and those big jackets-you could figure some stuff out, but I think it would be more like The Wedding Singer.

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A couple of weeks ago, I named The Company Men on my top 10 films of 2010 list. The movie tracks a handful of employees at a large company, and follows their stories through the economic downturn.

It’s an amazing film (full review will run tomorrow) that captures all the anguish, anger, and fear I have witnessed through my own friends and family experience. This movie absolutely nails it, and it can be difficult to watch at times, because it hits so close to home.

When I was given the opportunity to interview director John Wells, I jumped on it.  This film means a lot to me, and I couldn’t wait to talk to the man who wrote, directed, and produced it. Wells has an impressive filmography as a producer on a myriad of projects.

He served as executive producer during the entire run of television’s ER and The West Wing. He has also been President of the Writer’s Guild of America.  Although he has directed several television episodes, this is his first feature film.

Right before we started the interview, I told him how much the movie meant to me, and shared a few personal stories about friends and family members who have suffered since the recession.

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Back in October, Hatchet 2 made history as being the first film to be released by a major movie theater chain (AMC) with no rating.  Horror aficionados hailed the decision as breakthrough, now a horror movie could be seen as the director originally intended.

Their praise was cut short when the chain abruptly pulled the movie from their theaters before its opening weekend was over. There was a storm of controversy; fans cried censorship, and AMC blamed poor ticket sales.

No one knows the real story, but one thing is clear-Adam Green and the production crew got completely screwed over.  Today, the movie finally comes out On Demand at several different outlets. I got to speak with director Adam Green  along with stars Danielle Harris and Kane Hodder about the film earlier this year.

Green is a well-respected horror director, previously know for Hatchet, a film that introduced a new horror icon named Victor Crowley.  He also directed the criminally underrated Frozen. Danielle Harris has been affectionately dubbed a scream queen for her appearances in Rob Zombies Halloween and Halloween 2, along with the television series Fear Clinic.  Kane Hodder is nothing short of a legend in the business, having done stunts for over 72 well-known films, and acting in many as well.

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Edward Norton’s latest film Stone opens nationwide today.  The film was one of the featured Gala screenings at Fantastic Fest last month and you can check out our review of the film right here. We got a chance to sit down with Norton and some other film journalists for  a round-table discussion of the film during that time.

In the movie, Edward Norton plays Stone, a man serving a prison term for arson.  He is going through a series of interviews with a parole officer (Robert De Niro) who is responsible for determining whether or not Stone should be eligible for parole.  Milla Jovovich and Frances Conroy co-star.

Round table: I feel that if a different actor had played the character [of Stone] with the cornrows, and the profane language, that it might have come across as a stunt. Could you articulate how you bring a character to life without falling into any traps like that?

Edward Norton: (laughing) I don’t think I can.  John Curran and I were on the fence about many aspects of the character, but then I met a couple of guys in this prison north of Detroit.  I was really having a hard time figuring out what I felt the specifics of Stone should be.

I got John’s themes and his sense of these characters crossing each other on their path,  in a way, but I didn’t know what we were channeling it through in terms of the character.

Less than a week before we started, I happened to meet a guy I was  hypnotized by and  I had John come over and meet him.  Then we walked out and John was like,”If you can get anything like that, that would be amazing.”  I ended up miming a couple of people in particular, but that look and voice were one guy in particular.

The character, the thing about him,  is that superficially he doesn’t  look or seem like he would  be a strong candidate for a spiritual transformation.  But the thing I think anchored it for me is that the things he is saying are really at odds with that  sort of presentation that you sort of could laugh at or dismiss.

Mainly because his anxiety is so real, and I think the way you can take something so audacious and ground it is if you are not being condescending to the character. His anxiety and desperation are very real, and his conviction that he deserves to be listened to and he deserves to be reconsidered is real.  You’re going to have to look at him from different angles and he is going to be hard to reduce.

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