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 typical fashion for DC Entertainment and Warner Home Video, just as we get a brand new release, which in this case was Batman: Year One, we are already getting excited for the next animated project, Justice League: Doom.

The story comes from the Justice League story titled Tower of Babel in which one of Batman’s many “contingency plans” ends up putting the League, and the world, in imminent danger. If the story isn’t enough to excite you, the cast will surely put you over the edge.

Primetime television stars Nathan Fillion (Castle) and Tim Daly (Private Practice), the reigning voices of Green Lantern and Superman, respectively, join a group of eight actors reprising their famed cartoon roles, including Kevin Conroy (Batman: The Animated Series) as Batman, Michael Rosenbaum (Smallville, Breaking In) as Flash, Susan Eisenberg (Superman/Batman: Apocalypse) as Wonder Woman and Carl Lumbly (Alias) as J’onn J’onzz/Martian Manhunter.

With the team of Timm, Romano, and Montgomery behind the scenes, using the final script from the late Dwayne McDuffie, this JL story is sure to be one of the best that WB Home Video has put out. Take a look at the trailer after the jump and grab the DVD and Blu-Ray early next year.

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The year 2010 is here! With a new year comes resolutions to make, new goals in mind, and new schedules to follow. But it also means some brand new TV for us all to enjoy.

January 14th

This night brings the return of some of our favorite shows here at The Flickcast including 30 Rock, Bones, Fringe, Supernatural, Grey’s Anatomy, CSI, Private Practice and The Mentalist.

All these shows have been on hiatus, some for almost a month, so with these ratings giants this is sure to be the biggest night on TV all month, no matter what channel you’re watching.

Chuck

Everyone’s favorite geek-turned-spy is back, and Chuck is better than ever. After downloading the Intersect 2.0, we’ll see Chuck perform karate chops AND Spanish Guitar in his quest to keep his family safe and lead a normal life.

Chuck returns for its third season on January 10th with a two hour premiere, and a brand new episode the day after!

American Idol

Regardless of how you feel about this show, you can’t deny its cultural impact and the success it has produced. However, the fun in watching the first few weeks of American Idol is not the talented singers or the tense eliminations.

It’s watching all the people who really can’t sing try their hand at making it big and failing miserably. Let’s face it, with the economy in the can and the current political climate, we all need a little schadenfreude. Idol returns on January 12th on Fox.

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The last few years of television have shown us that the ratings darlings were either reality/competition shows, vast plots and casts where a suspension of belief were necessary, or the use of a microscope was employed… every week. Don’t call it a comeback, but times are a-changin’.

According to Variety, ABC has given full-season orders to Modern Family and Cougar Town, both sitcoms – “situation comedies” in case you’ve forgotten – revolving around normal, every-day characters and families dipped in abnormal circumstances. Even The Middle has scored enough viewership to convince the network to re-up and fortify its Wednesday comedy block, which has so far outperformed the same time slot from last year when the now-canceled Pushing Daisies and relocated Private Practice used to reside.

Is this a sign that sitcoms will once again return to prominence and dominate the airwaves? Possibly, however a case can be made for established television stars going back to the well and finding success with a new vehicle. Both Cougar Town and The Middle have comedic veterans as their centerpiece – Courteney Cox Arquette and Patricia Heaton, respectively – while Modern Family provides a good mixture of new talent with familiar faces that has been agreeable with viewers. As with anything television-related, stay tuned.

Television network ABC has effectively staked their claim to rule Thursday nights, if the return numbers from The Hollywood Reporter are any indication. But instead of trying to make sense of those numbers, let’s break it down in a more digestible format, and what you really need to know is that ABC crushed the competition.

Both Grey’s Anatomy and the season premiere of Private Practice won their respective time slots while FlashForward tied with CBS’ Survivor in theirs, translating to an almost clean sweep. While most of the other shows couldn’t produce the same viewership, they managed to stay the course and not drop too much. CBS’ CSI: Crime Scene Investigations and The Mentalist, Fox’s Bones and Fringe and The CW’s Vampire Diaries and Supernatural all enjoyed different levels of success.

Left in the cold, however, is NBC and their sinking line-up of programming. Parks and Recreation, Community and SNL Weekend Update Thursday managed to produce poor numbers. Even fan-favorite The Office only managed to do “average,” leading to the former home of “Must See Thursday” placing fourth among the top-tiered networks.