The CW’s pilot Arrow, based on DC property The Green Arrow, just released the first image of star Stephen Amell (Private Practice) as the titular character. The suit was designed by three-time Oscar-winning costume designer and frequent Tim Burton collaborator who most recently worked on Snow White and the Huntsman, Colleen Atwood.

The project centers on former billionaire playboy Oliver Queen (Amell) who, after being marooned for five years on a remote island, returns with a mysterious agenda and a lethal set of new skills that he uses in a war on crime.

David Nutter, who headed up the pilot for the Superman-themed series Smallville, will also be directing Arrow. “When I directed the pilot for Smallville, I knew that making Clark Kent relate-able would be the key to audiences believing in him as a hero,” Nutter said. “Arrow is a different show — darker and harder-edged — but it’s the same core idea. We’re creating a real, believable world in which Oliver Queen can do incredible things. Colleen Atwood’s great work on the Arrow costume reflects that effort.”

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In this case you can’t accuse Hollywood of not planning ahead. With Martin Campbell’s Green Lantern film still over a year from release, Warner Bros. is already getting ready for a sequel.

The studio has reportedly hired writers Greg Berlanti (Everwood), Michael Green (Kings) and Marc Guggenheim (Eli Stone) to put together a treatment for the next installment of Green Lantern. These are the same writers who penned the first film so obviously the studio must be pretty happy with their work to bring them back again.

Reinforcing that is the news that the trio, in addition to working on a new Green Lantern, will also be working on a treatment for another comic book adaptation: The Flash. According to the report, the writers would work on both treatments and would eventually be selected to write the screenplay for one of the two projects, although which one is still to be determined.

It’s encouraging that Warner Bros. seems to feel so confidant in Green Lantern. It’s a rare move by a major studio to work on a sequel to a film this far in advance, especially one that hasn’t even been finished or released yet. Let’s hope this means Green Lantern will be the awesome film we all hope it will be.

Green Lantern is currently filming in new Orleans with an expected release next year.

Welcome to the first edition of The Pull List Comic Reviews for 2010! This week both Blackest Night and Siege took center stage with numerous titles, but don’t worry as the Caped Crusader and the Wall Crawler make appearances, too. As always, WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD.

PULL OF THE WEEK:

Blackest Night #6 [of 8]
DC Comics – $3.99 US
Writer: Geoff Johns
Artist: Ivan Reis
Score: 9/10

When we last saw our heroes, well… let’s just say that some of them were no longer heroes. As black rings zoomed towards the Flash and Green Lantern, their friends and allies who had suddenly switched sides surrounded them. Superman. Wonder Woman. Green Arrow. And so on. With the universe slipping precariously into a never-ending pool of black, a new group of Lanterns have risen to the cause, and you won’t believe your eyes when you see who they are.

I’m starting to think that Geoff Johns should have been a major league pitcher as opposed to a writer, just with the sheer number of curve balls he’s thrown at readers throughout this series so far. Clearly outdoing himself, Johns put together a new group of Lanterns consisting of some of the most inspiring choices to date. The story beats keep pumping along, making the rapidly approaching ending all the more bittersweet.

Artist Ivan Reis continues to weave his magic in this series. Classic speedster moments? Check. Glorious double-page spreads? You bet. Jaw-dropping panels for significant moments? Of course! All this, and a slew of costume re-designs for the new Lanterns, just in case you didn’t know that Reis is drawing at a level that’s almost peerless. The art in this issue, and the series overall, can be summed up in one word: unparalleled.

The fifth installment of this mini-series received a Pull of the Week and a spot on the Best of 2009 list, so I wasn’t expecting an encore performance with this latest chapter. Shame on me. Both Johns and Reis raise the bar once again, and let the record show that, if this upward trend continues, I might not survive the series in its entirety. For sheer comic brilliance – and Lex Luthor! – this was easily the Pull of the Week.

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Welcome to another edition of The Pull List Comic Reviews! This week Jonah Hex takes top billing, a couple more Blackest Night mini-series debuts and a slew of over-sized annuals and one-shots invade your pull list. As always, WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD.

PULL OF THE WEEK:

Jonah Hex #50
DC Comics – $3.99 US
Writers: Justin Gray, Jimmy Palmiotti
Artist: Darwyn Cooke
Score: 9.5

The landmark 50th issue of Jonah Hex hits the stands, featuring a done-in-one tale of the scarred bounty hunter’s latest task: to locate and dispose of 50 various bad guys. The cost of victory, however, may prove to be too much to bear…

Jonah Hex is no stranger to violence. We’ve been exposed to his brand of “justice” for decades now, so it’s very easy to forget that, under all of that hatred, this killing machine does have a heart. Thankfully, writing team Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti weave a story that is sure to please the loyal Hex fans with plenty of merciless vengeance, while injecting a tragedy that goes to great lengths to humanize the central character.

Darwyn Cooke handles the art chores on this commemorative issue, further cementing how incredible a read this was. Gorgeous pencils accompany the artist’s usual cinematic flair, with numerous examples of how to kill a man mixed in with a few touching moments, and a final page that speaks volumes without the aid of dialogue. With the holidays around the corner, I’d gladly accept this final page in all of its original glory as a nifty Christmas gift.

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Add another change of TV show leadership to the list that already includes CBS’s The Good Wife as, according to The Hollywood Reporter, Marc Guggenheim is stepping down as showrunner on ABC’s first season drama FlashForward. Even though the show recently got an order for 9 more episodes (what is known as the “back nine” in TV production) it will be David Goyer taking the helm from here on out.

According to the trade, reasons for Guggenheim’s departure are not clear. But what is clear is that the show, in spite of good ratings for its debut, has since slipped. For adults 18-49 the show had a 4.1 rating at its premiere and dropped to a 3.1 for its fourth episode. Not the way they hope numbers will go.

Initially, Guggenheim had been brought in after the pilot to replace FlashForward‘s co-creator Brannon Braga, who also co-created and ran Star Trek: Enterprise and Threshold, due to his departure to run the latest season of Fox’s 24. Goyer had worked alongside Guggenheim since that point to learn the ropes and will now step up for the next nine episodes.

To be honest, its not that unusual for showrunners to leave shows and go on to something else. It happens. Still, you have to wonder if the ratings had remained consistent, would we even be talking about this at all? My guess, probably not.

FlashForward airs Thursday at 8/7C on ABC.

As we do each week (unless something goes horribly wrong) following is a list of all the great Marvel comics hitting store shelves this week. In case you don’t know how this works, new comics come out on Wednesday of each week unless Monday is a holiday or something. Then, they come out on Thursday.

Fortunately, today isn’t a holiday so Wednesday it is. So, be sure to head out to your local comic book store two days from now and pick up some cool new comics. Some of the Marvel titles we’re interested in this week include the latest issue of Punisher Noir, a new Dark Avengers, the second issue of Spider-Woman and the latest Invincible Iron Man.

Be sure to check out the entire list, and some great art from some of these upcoming titles, after the jump.

Comics On-Sale:

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #609

DARK AVENGERS #10

DARK REIGN: THE LIST – AVENGERS 2ND PRINTING VARIANT

DARK REIGN: THE LIST – HULK

DARK WOLVERINE #79

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As a new feature here on The Flickcast, Dave Press, who normally does our comic book recommendations, will be doing recaps of some of our favorite TV shows. Enjoy — Ed

The new Lost clone brought to us by Batman Begins writer David S. Goyer and Star Trek Deep Space Nine creator Brannon Braga is actually better than Lost. Which is really not hard to do. You know the premise: the entire planet blacks out for 137 seconds and everyone sees their individual futures for the date of April 29, 2010.

Joseph Fiennes, Shakespeare himself from the Oscar winning Best Picture Shakespeare in Love, leads a team of FBI agents that includes Seth McFarlane and “New Sulu” John Cho, to investigate the blackouts.

The first episode starts with Fiennes and his team encountering their blackouts. Fiennes, in his blackout, sees his board  in his office with various random and completely ridiculous names and numbers and pictures creating a mosaic of clues. As of the first episode his character is a recovering alcoholic, and as he drinks in his flash forward, his office is being invaded by Dead Presidents with machine guns and laser sights. Spooky.

Fiennes’s wife, played by Sonya Walger, sees herself with another man, which disturbs her and causes tenson between her and her husband. John Cho’s character doesn’t see anything, which frightens him to the point of thinking that he won’t be alive on April 29.

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