In case you didn’t realize it, there’s a lot of groups in Hollywood that like to give awards. From the Screen Actors Guild to the Writers Guild to the big one, the Academy Awards, it often seems that Hollywod loves awards as much as it likes making movies.

Besides the ones mentioned above, there’s another group that gives awards each year: film and TV producers. That group, collectively known as the Producers Guild of America or PGA, has released its nominations today and we’ve got them for you, and the rest of their press release, below. Check it out.

LOS ANGELES, CA (January 3, 2012) – The Producers Guild of America (PGA) announced today the motion picture and long-form television nominations for the 23rd Annual Producers Guild Awards. The categories include: The Darryl F. Zanuck Producer of the Year Award in Theatrical Motion Pictures; The Producers Guild of America Producer of the Year Award in Animated Theatrical Motion Pictures; and The David L. Wolper Producer of the Year Award in Long-Form Television. The documentary film category and other television category nominations were already announced by the Guild in December 2011.

All 2012 Producers Guild Award winners will be announced on January 21, 2012 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. This year, the Producers Guild will also award special honors to Leslie Moonves (Milestone Award), Steven Spielberg (David O. Selznick Achievement Award in Theatrical Motion Pictures), Don Mischer (Norman Lear Achievement Award in Television), Stan Lee (Vanguard Award), and IN THE LAND OF BLOOD AND HONEY (The Stanley Kramer Award). The 2012 Producers Guild Awards co-chairs are Paula Wagner and Michael Manheim.

Continue Reading →

Even though this is technically a blog, we like to think of ourselves primarily as writers here at The Flickcast. Many of us have even been paid to write over the years and you can bet that pretty much everyone here has one or two screenplays, comic books or other literary works they are currently working on. It’s just the nature of things.

So, when the Writer’s Guild of America announces the nominations for outstanding writing for Television, we take notice and bring you all the details. That’s especially true when the top nominees are shows we really like.

One such show is Showtime’s freshman drama Homeland, which received 3 nominations including best drama series, best new series and best episodic drama. Homeland tied with perennial favorites Modern Family, Breaking Bad and Boardwalk Empire for the most nominations.

In addition to Homeland, Game Of Thrones, The Killing, New Girl and the Matt LeBlanc comedy Episodes all received nominations with Showtime getting a first time record of six for its shows. You may be wondering where Mad Men is in all of this?

Sadly, as the fifth season of the show was delayed, it didn’t make the cut for eligibility for this year’s awards. That’s probably okay as it gives a few other shows, like Homeland and Game of Thrones, a chance to shine. Can’t have Mad Men taking up all the awards, now can we?

The winners will be announced at the 2012 Writers Guild Awards on Feb. 19, 2012, at simultaneous ceremonies in Los Angeles and New York. Click through for the full list of nominee.

Continue Reading →

In most areas of real life, endings can often be difficult. This can also be be true if you’ve created and produced a very successful television series that’s wrapping things up. In many of those cases, like withThe Sopranos and LOST, fans were very unhappy with the way those series ended.

Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner doesn’t want his show to end like those and doesn’t want fans to end up disappointed. In fact, he’s already thinking about and planning the ending to his show.

”It came to me in the middle of last season,” said Weiner. “I always felt like it would be the experience of human life. And human life has a destination. It doesn’t mean Don’s gonna die. What I’m looking for, and how I hope to end the show, is like … It’s 2011. Don Draper would be 84 right now. I want to leave the show in a place where you have an idea of what it meant and how it’s related to you. It’s a very tall order, but I always talk about Abbey Road.

What’s the song at the end of Abbey Road? It’s called ‘The End.’ There is a culmination of an experience of people working at their highest level. And all I want to do is not wear out the welcome. I was 35 when I wrote the Mad Men pilot, 42 when I got to make it, and I’ll be 50 when it goes off the air. So that’s what you’re gonna get. Do I know everything that’s gonna happen? No, I don’t. But I just want it to be entertaining, and I want people to remember it fondly and not think it ended in a fart.”

• Robots are badass, and that’s just what we get from Paul Oakenfold’s newest music video for “Beautiful Machine“.

• Who doesn’t love profanity? That’s why this collection of 100 best uses of the word F*ck from films is right down our dirty alley.

• The internet may just be popular, as Cartoon Network’s MAD managed to cram tons of memes into this spoof titled ThunderLOLcats.

Continue Reading →

• Alec Baldwin is very excited to be the first host of this season of SNL, so excited he felt the need to hump Bill Heder.

• Netflix had a pretty big week, between splitting off into 2 companies and pissing off their clientele. This song pretty much explains it all.

• What happens when the world’s biggest game of dodgeball starts on a football field? Complete pandemonium.

• One of the wrongest-yet-funniest comedies on TV started back up this week as It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia returned to FX. In order to prep for the season, here is the blooper reel from last season.

Continue Reading →

It’s not particularly surprising that Mad Men and Mildred Pierece had the most nominations today when Melissa McCarthy and Joshua Jackson made the 2011 Primetime Emmy announcement. Jane Lynch will be hosting the 63rd Annual Primetime Emmy Awards on Sunday, September 18.

For the complete list of nominees, head over to the Emmys website. We’ve just got the ones we really care about for you here. (aka The Big Ones).

Of course, the fact that Community isn’t nominated in the Outstanding Comedy category just makes these awards that much less special. Plus, I wouldn’t want to be nominated in a category against Peter Dinklage for Game of Thrones. He’s pretty much got that one in the bag

Check out the nominations below.

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series

Jim Parsons, The Big Bang Theory
Johnny Galecki, The Big Bang Theory
Matt LeBlanc, Episodes
Louis C.K., Louie
Steve Carell, The Office
Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series

Steve Buscemi, Boardwalk Empire
Michael C. Hall, Dexter
Kyle Chandler, Friday Night Lights
Hugh Laurie, House
Timothy Olyphant, Justified
Jon Hamm, Mad Men

Continue Reading →

Welcome to another edition of On the Radar where we delve into all corners of the entertainment, tech and geek Internets for news, views and whatnot that may have escaped our regular coverage during the week. Let is know if we missed something interesting.

Let’s get started!

• Now that Transformers 3 has made some of the most money in theaters this year, a few people are claiming that Michael Bay ripped himself off with re-rendered scenes from The Island.

• Who needs new formulas when we’ve got something as classic and plentiful as the Final Destination franchise. Here’s an example with the newest trailer for #5.

• Ladies, swimsuit season is right around the corner, and with these Monster Bikinis, you’ll definitely be the talk of the geeky town.

• Forbes recently uncovered that Sarah Jessica Parker is the highest paid actress in Hollywood. The weird part is that she’s only payed in sugar cubes and carrots…

• Sad to see a few favorites on this list, but here are the top 10 biggest flops of 2011 so far. (We still have to get through Captain America)

• Jon Hamm is a man of many emotions, and you can see them all in the Jon Hamm Emotions Challenge!

Continue Reading →

You may know her best as Trudy Campbell on Mad Men, or recently as the neurotic publicist in Scream 4, but for fans of NBC’s Community she will always been Annie Edison. Taking time out of her busy schedule shooting a movie, Alison was kind enough to sit down for a press interview to give us the scoop on what we can expect from the upcoming two-part Community season finale.

The episode centers around an end-of-the-year picnic where the dean announces plans for a “small, quick, safe, game of paintball.”  What follows is an epic battle in which alliances are formed and broken, and friendships are put to the test.

The finale will include a very special cameo from Josh Holloway, most famous for his role as Sawyer on Lost, who arrives as a mysterious character in the game.  TV spots and online clips have already begun to hint at a certain chemistry that will form between Holloway’s character and Annie.

Alison herself confirmed that there were sparks on set that the writers wanted to play up in the final episode.  And yes, she also hinted that there were to be a few Sawyer-esq lines for the Lost fans.

Continue Reading →

Even as some networks are changing the way they provide programming to Netflix’s Instant Streaming service, the company is still managing to add programming as well. Case in point is the announcement late yesterday that Netflix is entering a new area of business. That business? Syndication.

This new endeavor will begin with an exclusive deal between Netflix and Lionsgate to stream up to seven season of the Emmy-winning AMC TV series Mad Men. Under the deal, the first four seasons of Mad Men will be available on Netflix’s “Watch Instantly” service beginning on July 27. Additional seasons will be added as they finish airing on AMC.

The announcement comes days after AMC announced it had made a deal to keep Mad Men on the air for three more years, bringing the total number of seasons to seven. So, expect to see a lot more Mad Men for years to come. Seeing as the new season of Mad Men won’t debut until 2012, the new Netflix deal gives viewers a chance to catch up with all the previous episodes.

See, who says you never get anything good on TV?

This week on The Flickcast Chris and Matt have no guest and have to go it alone. Fortunately, that’s just what these two rogue adventurers love to do.

So, with that in mind, the discussion turns to topics including Zack Snyder’s Sucker Punch, Green Lantern casting news and controversy, Natalie Portman’s, um, acting in Your Highness, AMC vs. Matt Weiner for the fate of Mad Men season five and the latest costume and potential fate of the new Wonder Woman TV series.

And for a third week running, no Charlie Sheen. We know you appreciate it. Gifts of cake are always appreciated.

Of course, your hosts also made some picks this week including Matt’s pick of Repo! A Genetic Opera (yep, you read that right) and Chris’ pick of the sadly short-lived Aaron Sorkin series Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.

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.

In a rather bold move AMC has decided to officially greenlight a fifth season of its Emmy-winning, flagship series Mad Men without a deal in place for creator/exec-producer Matt Weiner. The network is exercising its option with the series’ producer Lionsgate TV and work will start on the new season shortly.

While this may seem bold, and it is, it’s not unprecedented. In fact, AMC did the exact same thing two years ago when it was almost in the exact same position and negotiations with Weiner were dragging on. Sadly, even thought his may seem like good news for Mad Men fans, there’s at least one bit of bad. Because of the still unresolved negotiations with Weiner, the premiere of Season 5 is being pushed from the Summer to early 2012.

Here’s the full statement from AMC: “AMC has officially authorized production of season 5 of Mad Men, triggering our option with Lionsgate. While we are getting a later start than in years past due to ongoing, key non-cast negotiations, Mad Men will be back for a fifth season in early 2012.”

While some may slam Weiner for holding things up the delay isn’t all about money, at least not directly for him. His part of the deal is reportedly already in place, which would make him the highest paid showrunnner on TV with close to $30 Million for two years. The delay has more to do with creative elements of the show.

Continue Reading →

AMC is at it again with a new, intriguing show that looks to take its place among their best offerings such as The Walking Dead, Mad Men and Breaking Bad. The new show, called The Killing, is based on a successful Danish television series called Forbrydelsen, and tells the story of the murder of a young girl in Seattle and the subsequent police investigation.

It “ties together three distinct stories around a single murder including the detectives assigned to the case, the victim’s grieving family, and the suspects.” It also “explores local politics as it follows politicians connected to the case. As the series unfolds, it becomes clear that there are no accidents; everyone has a secret, and while the characters think they’ve moved on, their past isn’t done with them.”

We’ve got a new trailer for the show to share with you today which looks pretty darn interesting. Check out the first look after the break.

The Killing debuts on  April 3rd on AMC.

Continue Reading →