There’s a lot of interesting stuff on the radar this week. An Avatar alumni could face off against Conan, Modern Warfare developers bring a fight to Activision, and director Guy Ritchie may be breathing new life into the heroes of Camelot.

Fox finds its shadow for $1 million and David Slade may be the man

Fans of the comic book series The Shadow rejoice as it seems the reboot continues to move forward.  While it was thought Sony and director Sam Raimi (Spider-Man, Army of Darkness) would bring a new version of the character to the big screen things have changed somewhat.

After Raimi began shopping the property around Fox decided to purchase the rights. Sadly, it sounds like Raimi may no longer direct, possibly replaced by David Slade.  Slade directed the vampire film Thirty Days of Night which, unfortunately, felt just that long in the theater. Here’s hoping he can put a little more adrenaline into The Shadow.

How I Met your…Smurf?

Neil Patrick Harris will be venturing to the land of blue, three apples tall creatures in Smurfs: The Movie.  The How I Met Your Mother star won’t be playing a Smurf though.  As this film will be a mix of live action and animation, Harris will be playing the lead live action character.  Too bad, I would have liked to know just which Smurf he’d play.  ”Awesome” Smurf maybe?  Let us know your picks in the comments.

‘Wolverine 2′ starts shooting next January

X-Men Origins: Wolverine was pretty good, but it was missing one thing: ninjas!  Hopefully that will be rectified in the sequel which is set to begin shooting next January.  Delving into Wolvie’s Japanese mythos the script follows stories penned by two pretty big names:

“Based on a story cycle by Frank Miller and Chris Claremont, Wolverine’s adventures in martial arts will be a love story featuring a Japanese actress, I am told. ‘It’s a beautiful story,’ says a source, ‘and will be very different than the first film.’”

Okay, I’m not really sold on the “love story” angle but considering the number of women that went to see Wolverine (pretty much for mutant hunk, Hugh Jackman) at least this will be one you can take your girlfriends to.

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With 2009 and the ‘aughts’ portion of the new millennium coming to a close, Chris and Matt decided to forgo the usual news and commentary for this special episode of The Flickcast and instead, focus on some of the great movies, tv, comics, games and all things geek that were the best of 2009. In addition, the boys also made some picks of one or two of the highlights of the entire ‘aughts’ decade.

Some of the topics discussed include Chris and Matt’s favorite movies of 2009 such as Star Trek, Inglourious Basterds, Zombieland and Drag Me to Hell as well as some of their favorite 2009 tv shows including Community, Cougar Town and continuing series such as Fringe and The Big Bang Theory. The boys also made some picks of their favorite comics and games of the year including Blackest Night, Old Man Logan, Modern Warfare 2 and Ultimate Alliance 2.

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.

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If you love video games and think they deserve more recognition, how about an awards show to help them get more time in the spotlight? If you think that’s a good idea, you’re in luck so read on from this official press release.

Between now and December 7th, community voting is open for the Gamers’ Choice awards. It’s a very unique and cool (if not first of its kind) voting mechanic: there is one video for each nominee, and each video view counts as a vote. Each video contains clickable links to easily navigate around all the categories and nominees. There’s even a community contest, with five $1,000 shopping sprees up for grabs.

The awards show itself will be held at the Redbull House in Santa Monica, CA on 12/11/09, one day before the VGA’s. Then on 12/15/09, a special episode of Inside Gaming will feature all of the winners and related industry news.

The “Inside Gaming Awards” will form two special editions of the “Inside Gaming” series. The first special was broadcast Friday, November 27th, 2009 with “Inside Gaming’s” host “The Dead Pixel” launching over 90 nomination videos across 18 categories. Nominees will be eligible for two separate awards – the official industry “Inside Gaming Award” and a “Gamer’s Choice Award”, which will be chosen by community votes between the dates of Nov. 27th and December 7th.

Community votes will be counted based on the number of views each nomination video receives during the two week voting period. Check out the full list of Inside Gaming Awards Nominees for 2009 after the jump.

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Game publisher Activision and game producer Infinity Ward have announced that their new game, the hotly-anticipated Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 , has become the biggest game launch in history with estimated sales of $310 million in North America and the United Kingdom in the first 24 hours. This according to internal estimates at Activision.

As you probably know, unless you’ve been living in a cave, Modern Warfare 2 was released on Tuesday, November 10th at over 10,000 retail outlets in the U.S. which held midnight openings to meet consumer demand. In its first day, it sold approximately 4.7 million copies in just North America and the United Kingdom, again according to internal Activision estimates.

Obviously, the folks at Activision were pretty excited about all of this.

“The shattering of these entertainment records is a testament to the compelling, cinematic and uniquely engaging experience that the Call of Duty brand delivers,” said Mike Griffith, CEO, Activision Publishing, Inc. “Modern Warfare 2 has taken interactive experience to unprecedented heights setting a new standard for entertainment.”

Works for us. Hey, we got our copies of the game here at The Flickcast HQ gaming lounge, how about you?

There’s not much more to be said about the upcoming Modern Warfare 2 game that I haven’t said already. Until I get a copy to talk a look at and can play it for more than ten minutes, as I did at a recent event, I can only go by what I’ve seen so far. And so far, what I can say is that the game looks awesome!

I think you would agree, judging from the other information we’ve brought you about the game previously, that Modern Warfare 2 looks to be the game to beat this holiday season. Now, thanks to our friends at Activision (you know who you are) we can bring you the new launch trailer for the game featuring all the modern warfare, helicopters, gunfights, explosions and kick-ass action you’ve come to expect from this franchise and that this game delivers in spades.

Be sure to check out the new trailer after the break. Because this game, and trailer, is full of bloody game goodness, by clicking through to watch you certify you are eighteen years of age or older. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, from Activision and Infinity Ward, hits store shelves next Tuesday, November 10th.

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As we may have mentioned before, we’re pretty excited here at The Flickcast for this game to hit store shelves. Modern Warfare 2 represents the ultimate in first-person-shooter action and from what we’ve seen so far, looks to be able to take its place among the elite of games in that space. Prior to today, we’ve been able to bring you some info about the game including an earlier trailer and a look at the awesome, customized XBox 360 console dedicated to it.

Today, we’ve got another brand new trailer for you from the game, courtesy of our friends at Activision. This time around, the trailer shows a lot more of the exciting gameplay you can expect from this game. It also gives you some insight into the story and talks about the cost of war. Plus, did I mention that quite a bit of stuff blows up? Well, it does and its awesome. All in all, a very cinematic trailer which makes me even more anxious to play the fully completed game.

Modern Warfare 2 is for all next-gen consoles like XBox 360 and PS3. Look for it to hit store shelves on November 10th. Meantime, check out the brand new trailer and see for yourself after the jump.

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Last night at a special event sponsored by Activision and Infinity Ward, our own Chris Ullrich got a chance to take a look at the new multi-player features of the upcoming game Modern Warfare 2. Check back later for all the scoop on that and on the game itself. In the meantime, another cool piece of news was made public last night that is sure to please hard-core fans of the Call of Duty franchise and those of you who need a cool new console to play your games on.

Microsoft’s own Major Nelson made the announcement last night that there would be an exclusive global XBox 360 console based on Activision and Infinity Ward’s Modern Warfare 2 game. Not only that, this console would have unique styling elements and feature a 250 GB hard drive, which is more storage than any other XBox 360. Interested? Of course you are. Here’s all the info from the official press release.

And also, be sure to check out our bigger pics of the new console after the jump.

Microsoft Corp. and Activision Publishing, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATVI) today brandished the latest weapon to help gamers take to the battlefields for the global launch of the year with the announcement of the Xbox 360 Modern Warfare 2 Limited Edition Console. Infinity Ward’s “Modern Warfare 2,” the blockbuster sequel to the best-selling first-person action game in history, “Call of Duty® 4: Modern Warfare®,” was the inspiration for the console’s high-speed, low-drag, battle-ready design, which is available for pre-order today at U.S. retailers and in other regions later this week.

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We’ve been following Modern Warfare 2’s development pretty closely here at The Flickcast because we love first person shooters, modern weapons and because it just looks so cool. Back in May, we brought you the first extended trailer for this highly anticipated game and it was, in a word, awesome. This time around, we’ve got the brand new trailer for Modern Warfare 2 called “Flag Runner” to share with you today.

In this one, which also looks awesome, we’re treated to extended scenes of action and gameplay footage sure to excite even the most jaded FPS fans out there. The Call of Duty series continues to be one of those game franchises that never fails to disappoint and this game, especially based on this new trailer, looks to not only continue that trend but to smack it in the face, turn it in another direction and make it even more awesome.

In case you’re one of the few people not familiar with the game, its brought to you by the folks at Activision and Infinity Ward and takes up where the first game (Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare) left off several years later with Sergeant “Soap” MacTavish who leads an elite, multinational commando unit, Task Force 141, to counter the resurgent Russian Ultranationalist organization. Of course, lots of gunfire, explosions, helicopters and mayhem ensue. That’s gonna be fun.

The game hits store shelves on November 10th. In the meantime, check out this brand new trailer after the jump. Because this game is an M-Rated game, by clicking through you certify you are eighteen years of age or older. Enjoy!

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