One of the surprise films of 2010 was Matthew Vaughn’s Kick-Ass. Based on the Mark Millar and John Romita Jr. graphic novel, the movie told the tale of a high school nerd who decides to be a super hero, despite his lack of any super powers.

The movie was a loud, vulgar, and gory explosion of awesome and it left many wanting more. Unfortunately the movie landed director Vaughn a chance at the “big leagues” and he went on to make the best X-Men movie to-date. With the head honcho otherwise occupied, it looked as if Kick-Ass 2 might not see the light of day.

Well that turns out not to be the case. Deadline is reporting that Universal is in talks to make the sequel as early as this year”

Universal Pictures is in talks to make Kick-Ass 2, with Jeff Wadlow directing his script. I’m told the intention is to get the film in production by August. Discussions are just getting underway with such original cast members as Aaron Johnson, Chloe Moretz and Christopher Mintz-Plasse, and they will have to be signed to new deals to reprise their roles.

The Wadlow script was actually written at the request of Vaughn who wanted work on the sequel to happen while he was occupied in the X-Universe. At first the concept of losing Vaughn might seem harsh to the fans of the first film, but knowing that he was involved at some point early on, and gives his blessing now is an encouraging sign.

No, we’re not talking about a posthumous sequel to Nietzsche’s philosophy book. For those of you who don’t remember, Beyond Good and Evil was a third-person action/adventure title released by Ubisoft way back when in 2003. While it didn’t sell especially well, it has remained a fan favorite even into the new generation of gaming; combining traditional action and platforming with puzzle solving, combat, and even some photography elements.

Ubisoft official Michel Ancel (creator of the Rayman series) announced recently that long-anticipated sequel was not shelved, but “In an active creation stage [and] at this moment we are only focusing on the game and making it the best game that we can.” While no platform info or release date has been announced, it would seem that the game is being created with next-gen consoles in mind. Ancel added, “We focus on the game. We create it first, then we’ll see what can run it. We don’t say 2013 because we don’t know when it will come. We’re working to create a great game and it needs more tech.”

Check out the first (alleged) screenshot of Beyond Good & Evil 2 after the jump, as well as the official teaser that debuted early last year.

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Stephen Sommers first GI Joe film was a spectacular miss. It had a lot of the right elements in place, but they just failed to come together in any meaningful way. Thankfully some one still sees the potential in what direction Sommers was taking the franchise.

The sequel GI Joe: Retaliation is on the way and it looks like it excised many of the original movie’s problems, as well as many of the original movie’s characters. Here is the official synopsis:

In this sequel, the G.I. Joes are not only fighting their mortal enemy Cobra; they are forced to contend with threats from within the government that jeopardize their very existence.

Notice how that synopsis is not very long? This film looks to not be burdened by over complicated plots, and as the new trailer suggests it instead relies on some potentially awesome action. GI Joe works best as a franchise when the action is first and foremost.

In addition to better action the film also boasts a much improved cast, anchored by Dwayne ‘The Rock’  Johnson, who typically excels in these types of roles, and Bruce Willis who is Brice Willis.

Check out the full new trailer after the jump.

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The Hunger Games is a certified mega success. It made a metric ton of bank at the box office and feels like it is only just beginning it’s reign in the limelight. So it seemed like a forgone conclusion that director Gary Ross would continue forth with the franchise and tackle the next installment. Not so fast.

The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that the negotiations are in a rocky place:

Sources say Ross, 55, would like a significant raise for a secondHunger Games, but Lionsgate didn’t kick off negotiations with him until about three weeks before the first film’s March 23 opening. By then, with tracking suggesting a huge opening weekend, Ross and his CAA reps were in no hurry to bargain.

Lionsgate has a script from Simon Beaufoy that Ross has yet to revise. The studio is in a rush to start the next film in the fall, though Fox might upset Lionsgate’s plan by exercising its option on Lawrence to start another X-Men movie first. (Fox’s option would trump Lionsgate’s hold on Lawrence, say sources.) Adding urgency: Lionsgate already has booked a November 2013 release for Hunger Games: Catching Fire.

Lionsgate has it’s hands full in juggling the stars and the schedule to make sure Catching Fire hits cinemas in November 2013, so Gary Ross better be careful and not negotiate himself right out of the movie. He deserves a payday for the massive hit he made the first film, but lots of franchises are doing just fine with a rotating director carousel these days.

There has been talk of a third Bill And Ted film for quite some time. A few weeks ago it was stated by Alex Winter that the script has been written, by the original writers no less, and is waiting on a green light. Winter intially made this proclamation at a screening of his cult classic film Freaked, but it didn’t really register.

Yesterday Winter actually re-affirmed the news via a twitter back and forth:

@kelly_carlin: is it true? Bill & Ted’s 3? > Hey Kelly. -Script done? Check. -We love it? Check. -Green light? Working on it!

That’s so totally awesome! Knowing that there is a completed script, written by the guys that did the originals, and loved by at least half of the original Wyld Stallyns is most excellent news indeed.

Part of what makes this story so fun, beyond the reaffirmation of a completed script, is that Kelly Carlin, to whom Winter was responding, is George Carlin’s daughter. There is an awesome symmetry to the impetus of this story comes from Rufus’ daughter herself.

Here’s hoping that the powers that be decide to put a little money down and give us a chance to take another wild ride with the saviors of humanity. San Dimas High School football Rules!

The Muppets was one of the best films of last year. An amazing mix of nostalgic respect, unrelenting optimism and brilliant songs that rank among the very best in the franchise. A sequel to such a successful film is inevitable.

The Vulture is reporting that the deal for said sequel has already been made, but one key element of the first film is thus far absent:

[Jason Segel] won’t be returning to the keyboard. Segel, a star of How I Met Your Mother — now in its eighth season — has a burgeoning film career, and Disney insiders tell Vulture that between his commitment to the CBS sitcom, his other feature-writing efforts, and promotional work for Five Year Engagement (due out this coming April) and Judd Apatow’s This Is Forty (in December), there won’t be time to collaborate on a Muppets sequel.

This only means he might not be apart of the writing stage, but with Nicholas Stoller (his original co-writer) and director James Bobin signed on the original flare should still be present. The news also doesn’t mean Segel couldn’t star in the sequel either, so it is possible this is only a minimal, semantics based departure.

So good, potentially great, news for Muppet fans out there, but we hope once they move forward with the movie they bring back Bret McKenzie too. His song stylings fit the Muppets perfectly.

The original Bioshock is a modern gaming classic. Proof that visual style and excellent storytelling are paramount qualities that can over come simple and semi-linear game play. Then the sequel came out and it sucked.

The hope is that Bioshock: Infinite can deliever the magic from the original, and everything we have seen to this point promises to do just that.

2k Games announced today that the much anticipated sequel is going to officially hit on October 16th, 2012. Setting up this marquee title in the early fourth quarter window that is becoming the premiere release season in the video game world.

One aspect of the upcoming game that has fans so excited is that it isn’t really all that much of a sequel. Bioshock: Infinite is not set in the underwater world of Rapture, but instead will take place in the flying world of Columbia. Such a dramatic change is hopefully going to help rekindle the since of awe and wonder that the original game had in spades.

The game will also be set in a different time period, actually going further back in time to a a full one hundred years ago, 1912, instead of the familiar late 1940′s of the first two games. We at The Flickcast certianly can’t wait to get our hands on this exciting new game.

The original Vacation movie is a bona fide classic. The film was made during the primes of Chevy Chase, John Hughes and Harold Ramis, three of the most prolific names in 80s pop culture. It spawned a hit and miss franchise that most people remember fondly to this day. So this news was inevitable.

The Hollywood Reporter has announced that the guys who wrote Horrible Bosses, John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstien, have turned in a script for a new Vacation movie and New Line is keen to give the duo the chance to direct too.

Daley and Goldstein’s Vacation script, first set up in 2009, plays like both a sequel and a reboot of the franchise that began with the 1983 Harold Ramis-directed comedy National Lampoon’s Vacationand continued with European Vacation, Christmas Vacation and Vegas Vacation.

A now grown-up Rusty Griswold, the son of the Chevy Chase character in the original series, experiences a misadventure with his own family.

The American Pie franchise lives in two planes of existence. For some the movies represent a loud and raunchy franchise that has slipped from the main stream and lives in the proverbial cinematic dumpster. For the rest of you American Pie represents something much more, and those direct to DVD sequels don’t even register in your mind.

As far as the theatrical films are concerned, the franchise has been about growth and the slow onset of adulthood. We have been with Jim and his friends through some of his most important life milestones, and we as an audience have grown up with them.

So the impending release of American Reunion has a chance to really be something special for an entire generation of film fans, and thankfully this most recent trailer has amped the nostalgia levels all the way to eleven.

Of course reckless nostalgia can be a really bad thing, and that will be the one test the movie will have to pass to be any good. However, the high school reunion plot should provide an easy in for a fond looking back tone. So long as they do not over milk it, odds are we will be in for a pleasant treat this April.

Check out the new trailer after the jump.

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We here at The Flickcast don’t like to judge films based on their rating. While it might be in vogue to jump on the hate wagon when a popular franchise goes for a PG-13 instead of an R, none of that matters if the story is good. The rating should be dependent on content, and that content should be determined by what ever choices lead to the best possible movie.

That said, it is hard not to feel a little enthusiasm when the current rights holder to the Terminator franchise tweets outs gold like this:

@meganeellison: @terminatorfans We can’t really tell you guys anything about Terminator BUT it will be an R rated film as God and James Cameron intended.

In the years since the release of the first two Terminator films, action and violence has grown more and more accepted by the MPAA, leaving films like T2 as examples of very soft R rated films. The franchise doesn’t “need” an R rating in the same way a Zombie film or a Slasher movie does. However, knowing that at the very center of all things Terminator  an R rated film means in the writing phase there will be no compromises, which is very encouraging after the debacle that was Terminator: Salvation.

The second Hangover movie was a success. The movie might have suffered from being to much like the original, but the original was pretty damn awesome, so there was still lots to like. So a third installment seemed likely, and now according to The Hollywood Reporter the final hurdles are being cleared as we speak.

Dealmaking on the studio’s third installment in the raunchy comedy franchise is wrapping up after dragging on for months due in part to the salary demands of its three stars. Sources close to the negotiations say Bradley Cooper, Zach Galifianakis and Ed Helms are asking for $15 million each (against backend) to reprise their roles, and they now are likely to get it.

The next Hangover film is said to be a departure from the formula of the first two films. It is risky to stray to far from a proven formula, but knowing that the filmmakers actively want to make a film with these characters that we know and love with out an inexplicable third memory blacked out party is a great sign.

Warner Bros. is hoping to bring the story to Los Angeles, with filming beginning in the summer. Hangover 3 has a tentative release date of Memorial Day 2013.

With Twilight coming to an end and with Harry Potter already over, the world of young adult fiction franchises is looking pretty thin. The next series to take a stab at filling the void left by sexy vampires and teen wizards is The Hunger Games. The books are widely popular and the upcoming films are headlined by hot and talented young actors who could carry a series for a few years, so it behooves the studio to hedge their bets and begin working on the sequel as soon as possible.

TheWrap.com recently revealed that the studio has brought on writer Simon Beaufoy, whose credits include The Full Monty and Slumdog Millionaire, to begin work on adapting the second novel in the series. This isn’t exactly a huge surprise as a November 2013 release date has already been penciled in for the second film.

Director Gary Ross is supervising the script writing process as he plans on jumping into the sequel as soon as he is done with his work on the first film. Beaufoy is a very interesting choice who has had great success with recent adaptations winning an Oscar for his adaptation of Slumdog Millionaire and receiving another nomination for his work on 127 Hours. You can say what you want about a film that is aiming for the Twilight audience, but you have to give them props for using quality, talented people.