This week sees the release of several new movies and TV shows, some for the first time ever on Blu-ray. Of the ones coming out this week, we’re excited for a few of them in particular.

These esteemed examples of entertainment include Crazy Heart, Batman, Batman Returns, Fist of Legend, the first season of Merlin, the DVD release of the classic Battleship Potemkin and  an obscure direct t0 dvd movie called Crimes of Fashion featuring Big Bang Theory‘s Kaley Cuoco and Megan Fox. And, of course, the non-3D Blu-ray release of Avatar hits stores this Thursday (pictured above with Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana).

Movies

Avatar ~ Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver (Blu-ray and DVD)

Battleship Potemkin ~ Alexander Antonov, Vladimir Barsky (Blu-ray)

Batman ~ Michael Keaton, Jack Nicholson (Blu-ray)

Batman Returns ~ Michael Keaton, Danny DeVito, Christopher Walken (Blu-ray)

Cheech & Chong’s Hey Watch This! ~ Cheech Marin, Tommy Chong (DVD)

Crazy Heart ~ Jeff Bridges (Blu-ray and DVD)

Crimes of Fashion ~ Kaley Cuoco, Megan Fox (DVD)

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This week On the Radar a bunch of gaming news about Halo and Gears of War, Red Sonja switches up celebrity hotties, Mark Strong talks Sinestro in Green Lantern and Tom Arnold takes to the sea to fight aliens!

Court dismisses Marvel, Stan Lee law suit.  Excelsior!

While Stan Lee has been working overtime on film cameos and convention appearances he’s also been dealing with legal fights.  This one was between Stan Lee Media Inc. and it’s former board members.  At it’s most basic level the case was over ownership of mainstream characters like Spider-Man, the Hulk, and Fantastic Four.

The judge dismissed the case based on two primary factors.  First, the shareholders did not acquire their shares until a year after the issue of ownership occurred and second, said shareholders should not have waited nearly a decade to file their case.  No word yet on whether the decision will be appealed so until next time true believers…

Halo movie will be happening at some point

What should be an easy sell as far as a video game adaption, Halo has struggled to gain traction with studios.  However, Frank O’Connor of Microsoft Game Studios has said the film will happen eventually:

“We’re going to make a movie when the time is right,” he said. “We own the IP. If we want to make a movie, the scale of all the other stuff that we do changes dramatically. We make tens and tens of millions of dollars on ancillary stuff, toys, apparel, music and publishing. If we do a movie all of that will grow exponentially. We have some numbers if we do a movie, but it changes everything. It also changes our target and age demographic.”

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This week in New York City, the annual Toy Fair convention hits the Jacob Javits Center and thousands of new and popular toys and toy properties are shown off. There were, of course, some less-than-interesting booths, but we know what you want to see, so we went straight to the newest lines of toys and statues based on some of the upcoming movie and TV properties.

Obviously, Toy Story 3 had a huge presence at the show, given the fact that it’s the best hybrid of toys and film out there today. Tim Burton’s Alice In Wonderland had some great new figures of the whacked out Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter. LEGO stepped up their game with some brand new LEGO Star Wars playsets, including a great “Luke on Hoth” scene.

Diamond was also in attendence with some great new Ghostbusters products, including a new Ghostbusters replica sign for those hardcore fans. Finally, there were some great new 12-inch figures for the upcoming Jonah Hex film, including our first look at John Malkovich from the film.

Check out our Movie Toys picture gallery from the show after the jump, and be sure to check back in tomorrow to see what else we’ve got to show you from this year’s Toy Fair.

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I have made no secret about the fact I think both Transformers and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen were awful.  The scripts were weak, or practically non-existent in the case of the sequel, and editing so bad it was difficult at times to see what was going. Case in point, director Michael Bay kept the fight scenes moving at rapid pace then would cut to a slow motion shot of Shau Lebouf shouting “Optimus!” or Megan Fox running away. Now, as much as I can appreciate Fox’s particular “assets” moving in slow-mo, it would have been better to slow down the scenes I was really interested in, robots fighting.

Be that as it may, I have defended Bay in the sense he knows how to appeal to the masses and can make a profitable film.  Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen took in approximately $823 million dollars worldwide and that figure is set to grow even larger based on record setting DVD sales:

“Paramount Home Video sold 7.5 million DVD/Blu-ray copies of “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” in its first week of release including 1.2 million Blu-ray’s, making it the year’s highest selling HD title. To put that in perspective, “Twilight” was the years biggest selling title and has sold 8 million copies since March 21st.”

If my math is correct that’s about another $150 million in the bank (using an average DVD price of $20). Not a bad week at all to be Paramount or Michael Bay. Bravo, Mr. Bay!

I may not like your take on one of my favorite childhood toys but I can’t argue with your success. You’re like the McDonalds of filmmaking. The food may not necessarily be a healthy choice, but we all keep coming back for more.

I’m not sure if this news should be taken as good or bad, but it seems writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman are officially off Transformers 3.  The dynamic duo of writing are probably two of the biggest names in Hollywood scribe circles these days having penned the fist two Transformers movies and this past Summer’s Star Trek reboot.

When asked why they are leaving Orci stated: “The main reason we would move on is because we risk getting stale and comfortable. If you only sing one song for too long, you miss the opportunity to sing news songs. We’ll see.”

With the pairs departure all the writing duties at this point fall to Ehren Kruger along with whatever Michael Bay wants to contribute (more explosions!).  This may not be such a good thing as Kruger is attributed for adding a lot of the comedy to the scripts which I felt did a disservice to the overall tone and pace of the story.

Getting back to my good/bad comment above,  I think it’s both.  It’s bad in the sense if there was anything positive about either movie (of which there was little as far as I can tell) it probably came from these two writers.  It’s bad because without Kurtzman and Orci the third Transformers film can only go downhill from here.  Not that it has far to go to hit rock bottom.

On the flip side, this will certainly free up the pair’s time to work on the sequel to Star Trek and continue producing their hit show Fringe. Even in Kurtzman and Orci’s absence I’m certain the next Transformers installment will go onto make a load of cash which makes it even more surprising the two would make an exit.  That said, I have to respect them for turning down a huge payday in favor of their craft.  My hat is off to you both.

Transformers 3 hits theaters July 1, 2011.

In what was undoubtedly not very surprising news, Michael Bay has confirmed on his website that there will, indeed, be a Transformers 3. Not only that, the film will hit theaters earlier than its rumored release of July 1, 2012 and will, in fact, be coming to a multiplex near you in 2011, a full year earlier. But wait, there’s even more — and this, while not entirely surprising, is a bit unexpected.

Not only will there be a Transformers 3 and it will be coming out a year earlier than expected, Bay also confirmed that franchise star Megan Fox will be in the third film as well. Given the seemingly hostile nature of their recent public spat, it appears Bay at least has decided to live and let live. I’m sure the many millions of dollars the franchise has made had nothing to do with it.

Bay wrote on his website that he met with ILM in San Francisco Thursday morning, followed by a flight to Rhode Island with Kruger to meet with Hasbro about new characters. “Well, it’s official: We have a great ‘Transformers 3′ story,” Bay said on his site. “Today is Day One.” This point is not better illustrated by the countdown clock now running at Bay’s site. As of today, it shows 636 days until Transformers 3 hits theaters. So, start planning accordingly.

Even though Bay has publicly confirmed Fox’s involvement in the third film, the beautiful star herself has not, as yet, commented. In addition, Shia LaBeouf was not mentioned by Bay at all, so there’s no confirmation on if he will be in the third film along with Fox. Although, according to other sources, both Fox and LaBeouf are slated to return, as is Exec. Producer Steven Spielberg and co-writer Ehren Kruger. So, we can probably expect announcements from Fox and LaBeouf’s people soon.

Transformers 3: The Blatant Grab for Cash hits theaters on July 1, 2011.

Jennifer’s Body is the eagerly awaited follow up to 2007′s indie film juggernaut Juno.  Screenwriter Diablo Cody exploded onto the pop culture landscape, became an overnight sensation, and won an Academy Award for penning the story. Almost immediately after her catapult to fame,  a backlash began against the writer. The anti-establishment proclaimed her over-rated. So the question riding on this film is this:  Is she a one-hit-wonder or is she a legitimately talented screenwriter?

I don’t believe she ever had a chance of lightning striking twice and you can only star in a Cinderella story one time. However, Cody wisely chose to distance herself from her freshman debut and completely changed genres for her second movie. The result is this comedy/horror hybrid about a voracious vamp who develops an unhealthy appetite for the flesh of male classmates. Since the movie revolves around teenagers, Cody is able to drop plenty of her trademark dialogue, (or Cody-isms as we bloggers like to call them). Hot boys are “salty morsels” , boobs are “smart bombs” and Jennifer (Megan Fox) sneers “you’re so Jell-o” to someone she thinks is jealous. If you were annoyed by the snarky dialogue in Juno,  you won’t be doing yourself any favors by seeing this movie. However,  I  enjoyed the dialogue and found that it added a deliciously campy feel to the movie.

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Break.com recently posted a heartfelt PSA from Megan Fox, who encouraged high school kids everywhere to stand up against peer pressure and not be afraid of being different. “What really matters,” Fox explains, “is being yourself, and if that includes slowly killing, then eating every boy in your school, then I say do it.”

Wait…what?

It turns out the PSA is actually promoting the black comedy/horror flick, Jennifer’s Body, Diablo Cody’s follow-up to Juno. Fox plays Jennifer Check, a sexy, popular cheerleader that every girl wants to befriend and every boy wants to date. Jennifer’s interest in boys changes significantly after a satanic ritual goes horribly wrong, leaving Jennifer possessed by a demon who feeds off the boys at her high school.

Jennifer’s Body also stars Amanda Seyfried, Johnny Simmons and Adam Brody and will be devouring audiences on September 18.

Catch Fox’s special PSA after the jump. Strong language is used, so viewers beware.

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Even though Warner Bros. dropped these brand new posters during Comic-Con a day or so ago, that doesn’t mean everyone has seen them yet. Plus, they’re both pretty cool. So, for those of you who haven’t had a look, we’ve got the posters for both Jonah Hex, featuring Josh Brolin and Megan Fox, and the reboot of A Nightmare on Elm Street, featuring a somewhat obscured shot of Jackie Earle Haily as Freddy Kruger.

Of the two, I find the Jonah Hex poster to be the more interesting — at least in terms of the way its designed and who it features. Obviously, if the movie is called Jonah Hex you need to show that character and the actor who portrays him on the poster. That’s pretty much a no-brainer. What’s funny is that the poster also features Megan Fox prominently and lists her above the title right next to Josh Brolin.

Why do I find this unusual? Well, according to Fox herself, she plays a minor role in the film — that of a world-weary prostitute — and isn’t really all that important to the story. So why is she featured so prominently on the poster? Well, as you’ve probably figured out already, she’s kinda a big name at the moment and Warner Bros. obviously wants to capitalize on her fame as much as possible. Makes sense, especially as Jonah Hex might be a somewhat difficult sell to a middle America who may or may not have ever heard of the comic on which its based. Seems like a smart decision by the Warner PR department to me.

Jonah Hex hits theaters on June 18, 2010 and A Nightmare on Elm Street arrives on April 30, 2010  . Check out larger versions of the posters after the jump.

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Last time on on The Flickcast, your favorite trio of talented talkers discussed a whole slew of topics including the T.J. Hooker movie, the “Red Band” trailer for Jennifer’s Body featuring Megan Fox, rumors of a new, live-action Star Wars TV series and much more.

This week, Chris, Matt and Christina are back and hit the ground running with a brand new episode. Some of the many topics this week include Ryan Reynolds as Green Lantern, Natalie Portman in Thor, AMC’s reboot of the classic The Prisoner TV series, the potential Smallville Superman movie and much much more!

The team also makes more picks this week including Christina’s pick of survival show I Survived, Matt’s pick of another BBC called Being Human and Chris’ pick of the movie V for Vendetta, adapted from the graphic novel by Alan Moore and David Lloyd.

As always, if you have comments, questions, critiques or offers of sponsorship, feel free to hit us up in the comments, on Twitter and at Facebook, MySpace or via email. Thanks for listening.

Last time on on The Flickcast, your favorite trio of talented talkers discussed a whole slew of topics including the proposed remake of An American Werewolf in London, the Watchmen Director’s Cut, Comic-Con in San Diego, changes to the number of Best Picture Oscar nominees and the death of Michael Jackson.

This week, Chris, Matt and Christina are back with a brand new episode and ready for action. Among the subjects covered this time around are the T.J. Hooker movie, the “Red Band” trailer for Jennifer’s Body featuring Megan Fox, rumors of a new, live-action Star Wars TV series, Katie Holmes’ appearance on So You Think You Can Dance? and much more!

The team also makes more picks this week including Christina’s pick of the Curtis Hanson film Wonder Boys, Matt’s pick of the Doctor Who spinoff Torchwood and Chris’ pick of the 1987 vampire biker movie Near Dark, starring Heroes alumni Adrian Pasdar and directed by The Hurt Locker‘s Katherine Bigelow.

As always, if you have comments, questions, critiques or offers of sponsorship, feel free to hit us up in the comments, on Twitter and at Facebook, MySpace or via email. Thanks for listening.

Previously, we only had a bit of information and a few pictures from the upcoming film Jennifer’s Body to bring you. Granted, they were pictures of Megan Fox and co-star Amanda Zeyfried so it wasn’t such a letdown we hope. But now, thanks to the gang at Shock ‘Til You Drop, there’s a brand new trailer for the film that we can bring you as well.

In case you don’t happen to be familiar with Jennifer’s Body, the the film centers on a gorgeous cheerleader (Fox) who is possessed by a demon and starts killing and feeding off the boys in a small Minnesota farming town. Her less attractive best friend (Zeyfried) must kill her, then escape from a correctional facility to go after the Satan-worshipping rock band responsible for turning Fox’s character into a kill-crazy monster.

If the movie sounds pretty cool you can probably thank one person in particular for that. That person is, of course, screenwriter Diablo Cody who proved her ability to create quirky end endearing characters with her previous work on Juno. If this movie manages to live up to that script and also be a good horror film as well, we just might have something here.

Jennifer’s Body, which features Megan Fox, Amanda Zeyfried, Adam Brody, J.K. Simmons and Amy Sedaris, hits theaters on September 18. Check out the full “red band” trailer after the jump.

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