It’s time for an all-new episode of The Flickcast! And it’s a special one. It’s our 300th episode.! We know, right?

On this week’s show Chris and Joe don’t really do anything special to commemorate the 300th episode, but they do discuss all sorts of new and recurring topics. Some of these topics include Fear the Walking Dead, The Last Ship, Mr. Robot, the upcoming Shannara Chronicles, Netflix and Hulu, Strike Back and the tragic death of director and horror icon Wes Craven. There’s also the usual more.

Picks this week include Chris’ pick of the Wes Craven classic Scream and Joe’s pick of the novel The Martian, soon to be a major motion picture.

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, Google+ or via email.

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While we were away at Comic-Con last week, a few interesting things seemed to happen. Not only did we get word that Frank Darabont would be leaving Walking Dead, but in gaming news, it looks like Freddy Krueger will be returning to the consoles for the first time since the mid 1980s as the final DLC character for Mortal Kombat.

The news comes as bit of a surprise at first, because not many people think of the Nightmare on Elm Street killer when they think about fun playable fighting characters, but then it makes some sense when you realize that this is Warner Bros’ way of cross pollinating between brands.

The character will be available in a few weeks, and will be fully loaded with tons of claw-slashing and hellfire-based moves and combos. Note that this is also the most recent version of Freddy, and not the original Robert Englund version of the character we’ve loved for decades.

It is a shame that this is the alleged “final” DLC character for the game, as Warner has some pretty cool other franchises that they could dip into, as long as they stay away from any of the territory that was covered in Mortal Kombat Vs. DC Universe.

Who wouldn’t want to see Scorpion take on Voldemort or watch Sub Zero get pummeled by Zach Galifiniakis from The Hangover or even watch Sherlock Holmes slap the hell out of Shang Tsung? Let’s hope that the DLC does well enough for WB to look into a few more options down the road.

In the meantime, check out the full DLC trailer after the jump.

There is very little that fan favorite actor Bruce Campbell can do that will get overwhelming disapproval from his legions of fans across the globe. Movies like My Name is Bruce, Army of Darkness, Man With the Screaming Brain, and of course any of the Spider-Man films has solidified Campbell as untouchable in the movie-watching community.

Now, he’s planning on taking that to the next stage, with an upcoming project in which he brings all of our favorite horror movie legends and throws them all in a movie together, a la The Expendables. In a recent interview with the LA Times, names like Kane Hodder and Robert Englund were thrown around, and the hairs on the backs of horror fans everywhere stood on end.

Yeah, “The Expendables,” or more like the “It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World” of horror. I want to get so many horror movie stars that people can’t possibly not see the movie. I want to give them other stuff to do. I want to have Kane Hodder be very particular about what he eats. I want Robert Englund to be a tough guy, like he knows tae kwon do or something.

I want to find out the hidden sides of all these people. Some will play themselves, some will play alternate characters as well. I may approach Kane Hodder to play Frankenstein. He could be Kane Hodder himself fighting himself as Frankenstein. It could be crazy. It’s a silly concocted story that we hope to do maybe in a year or so.

Everyone knew that Iron Man 2 would handily win the box office this weekend, but estimates for the final take were all over the place.  Now the dust is settling, and Iron Man 2 looks to have made around $133 Million, which places it as the fifth best opening ever. Brisk early ticket sales were causing some to predict that Iron Man 2 might challenge the all time record for an opening held by The Dark Knight ($158 Million), but it fell quite a bit short of that.

According to Entertainment Weekly,  Iron Man 2 received an “A” Cinemascore from exiting audience members, and that will translate into great word of mouth and box office stamina.   The film didn’t face any competition from new releases, save for some smaller indie releases.  Iron Man 2 is also a bona fide international success, after two weeks in release, its international box office haul is around $194 Million.

Nightmare on Elm Street fell with a resounding thud, losing 72% of its opening weekend numbers.  Seems everyone who intended to see it saw it the first week, which is fairly typical of horror movies.  Nightmare made about $9 Million and has made $48 Million in its first two weeks.  How to Train Your Dragon was in the number three spot, and just slid past $200 Million in total ticket sales in its seventh week in release.

Well, it didn’t make a killing, per se, but the Nightmare on Elm Street remake took in a healthy $32 Million over the weekend to win the box office. The film only cost about $35 Million, so it will easily make back its budget. Entertainment Weekly is reporting that there was a drop in box office from Friday to Saturday, which is never a good indicator of box office stamina.

That other 80’s horror franchise, Friday the 13th, opened to about $40 Million in February of 2009. It also had a drop off from Friday to Saturday, and  went on to gross about $65 Million domestically during its run. Looks like Nightmare will follow a similar trajectory.

How to Train Your Dragon took the number two spot, after occupying the top spot last week.  It only dropped 29%, and it has been out for six weeks now. HTTYD made $10.8 Million over the weekend. Date Night continues to enjoy brisk business after one month in release. The film only dropped 27%, and earned an additional $7.6 Million, and was followed very closely by The Back Up Plan with $7.2 Million.

Limping across the fifth place finishing line was the Brendan Fraser film Furry Vengeance.  It had a reported budget of around $35 Million, and has an embarrassing Tomatometer reading of 2% on Rotten Tomatoes.  I think that is lowest I have ever seen. Ouch.

The real money making went on overseas. It’s rather unusual to see a big tent-pole movie released overseas before it is released in the States, but Iron Man 2 opened up to over $100 Million.  According to the Los Angeles Times, the film is trying to open ahead of the World Cup in June, and the opening is 26% greater than the foreign opening of Iron Man.

It’s pretty much a given that Iron Man 2 will win the box office next weekend, but the question is, how much money will it rake in? If you’ve got an answer, let us know in the comments.

When Platinum Dunes announced plans to remake the original Nightmare on Elm Street, I had mixed feelings. I was a fan of the original series, and watched all seven movies. I even watched that dreadful Friday night program Freddy’s Nightmares. I guess you could say I have a soft spot for the film series.

However, when Jackie Earle Haley was announced as the new Freddy Krueger, he was fresh off an electrifying performance as Rorschach in Watchmen, and I was officially on board with the remake. I couldn’t think of anyone better to step into the role previously played by Robert Englund.

So while watching the remake, I was surprised at how odd it was to see someone else play the role. I didn’t dislike Jackie Earle Haley’s performance (though I do wish he hadn’t sounded exactly like Rorshach), but I guess I didn’t realize that Robert Englund had become synonymous with Freddy Krueger in my mind.

One of the major issues many fans of the original Nightmare on Elm Street films have about the upcoming reboot is the look and style of the film’s villain, Freddy Krueger. The main appeal to the original 6 films (and full season of the Freddy’s Nightmares TV series) was that Robert Englund brought a witty cynicism to the character, making him the antagonist, but still entertaining.

Much like the Friday the 13th franchise, towards the later films, fans were going to watch Jason, and really didn’t care about the teens that were getting slaughtered. Now, with Jackie Earle Haley donning the glove and sweater, many fans have been worried whether he would continue the “hilariously evil” style that Englund and Craven brought to the character. He was like Groucho Marx with a burnt face and claw.

In a new clip from the film, we finally get some chatter from Freddy, which is exactly what we’ve been looking for. It’s slightly darker than the originals, which is the same case for the Friday the 13th reboot, but it’s still a nice nod to fans of the original.

Check out the clip after the jump, and be sure to stay awake for A Nightmare On Elm Street when it hits theaters this Friday.

Things were awful quiet at the box office this weekend, you could hear a pin drop at your nearest multiplex.  The combined gross of the top four films this weekend did not even hit the $50 million mark.  Also, audiences did not have a lot of love for new movies this weekend, as How to Train Your Dragon won the weekend over The Back-Up Plan, starring Jennifer Lopez, and The Losers.  Ultimately, Dragon dropped about 23% from last weekend and made $15 Million on its fifth week in release.

The Back-Up Plan was no doubt a disappointment for fledgling film company CBS films, and for Lopez.  The company’s first and only other release was Extraordinary Measures, the Harrison Ford/Brendan Fraser medical drama that was released in late January.

That film only managed $11.8 Million in its first three weeks in release, so The Back-Up Plan is faring a bit better, with $12.2 Million for the weekend.  Still, it is a very underwhelming gross for an opening weekend, and CBS films and Lopez could definitely have used a hit.

In fourth place came an action movie that a lot of people thought would win the weekend.  The Losers is based on a comic book, and features a sexy ensemble cast, and plenty of explosions. Audiences barely gave the $25 Million film a second glance, and it limped into fourth place never breaking $10 Million in ticket sales.  It stands at $9.6 Million.

The first trailer for the Platinum Dunes’ remake of A Nightmare On Elm Street popped online via MySpace last night just in time for Halloween. Well, a month or so before really but still, in time. While it’s not really a full trailer, it still manages to give you a lot of clues about Freddy’s origin and how it may be different — or similar — from what you’ve known in the past.

This teaser also offers us the first look at Freddy’s new make-up. Sadly, you don’t really get a very good look at Freddy in this teaser, but if you’re super curious you can always take a still from the teaser and manipulate it in your favorite image editing program for a better look. Or, you could just head over here and someone has already done the work for you.

The brand new A Nightmare on Elm Street hits theaters April 30, 2010. In the meantime, check out the teaser after the jump and remember, don’t fall asleep.

Well horror fans, the wait is over. We’ve finally gotten a glimpse of Jackie Earle Hailey as Freddy Kruger in the upcoming reboot of A Nightmare on Elm Street. Fortunately, at least from what we can see in this picture, it looks like the filmmakers of this new version are sticking pretty close to the original vision for everyone’s favorite killer who stalks their dreams.

Of course, as this picture is pretty dark, its hard to see exactly what the new Freddy really looks like, but at least the hat and sweater look exactly right for the character — not to mention the creepy mood lighting and the hand made of knives. Oddly enough, if I didn’t know this was Jackie Earle Hailey in this picture, I could almost guess that is was. Something about his posture and having just seen him in a similar hat while watching the Watchmen director’s cut makes it almost impossible not to think its him.

With any reboot or remake people are going to cry foul and decry that the original is always going to be better. Truth be told, I’m frequently one of those people, so I know how it is. Fortunately, it looks like I might have to give this movie a real chance — especially if it continues to follow this great start. The reboot of A Nightmare on Elm Street hits theaters on April 16, 2010.