Any serious toy collector knows that it’s not Toys R Us that has the top quality new toys you need to display on your shelf. It’s the low production run collectibles that are sold at the comic book retailers that come from Diamond Select that you need to watch out for and snatch up the section they hit the rack. This past week at Toy Fair, Diamond revealed their upcoming slate of Marvel licensed products. This year’s line focuses on the Avengers movie, the Amazing Spider-Man film and a new lineup of Minimates.

Both the Avengers movie versions of the Hulk and Hawkeye are getting their first Marvel Direct treatment since the Hulk model will be updated from previous films and Hawkeye never his from his brief cameo in Thor.

In addition, the Amazing Spider-Man will be getting figures and busts made in the likeness of bother Spider-Man and the Lizard. These are the first images allowing people a true full unshadowed view of the Lizard who was disguised by shadow and fleeting high speed motion in the recent trailer.

Though Spider-Man purists may be able to get past the redesign of the Spider-Man costume, it is going to be a challenge for some to get over the look of the Lizard who somewhat resembles the look of the Goombas from the early 90s Super Mario Bros feature film. The duo will also be getting a Minimate treatment as well.

The Minimate line will also be giving other characters the treatment for the first time with new Minimates such as the new Ultimate Spider-Man and Dazzler. Take a look at the full gallery below and make sure to let us know what you think about all the upcoming Marvel characters from Diamond Select.

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This week on The Flickcast Chris and Matt chat about one of the bigger cultural events of this past weekend, the MTV Movie Awards. They delve into why people actually watch the awards, and some of their favorite moments. Plus, they talked all things iPhone 4, which was just announced this week.

Also, the boys weighed in on some pretty big casting news for Marvel fans with Stanley Tucci, Neal McDonough and Jeremy Renner joining various upcoming movies. Plus, they debated the various actors in the running to play the title role in the new Spider-Man reboot.

This week’s picks stayed in the realm of science fiction as Chris picked the recently released movie Splice, which is currently in theaters. Matt also stayed inside the sci-fi world as he picked the comic Serenity: Float On, which takes place after the film, and is written by comedian Patton Oswalt.

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 and MySpace or via email.

Jeff Blake, Chairman of Sony Pictures Worldwide Marketing & Distribution announced today that the upcoming Spider-Man reboot will be coming to theaters on July 3rd, 2012 in full 3D. According to Blake: “Spider-Man is the ultimate summer movie-going experience, and we’re thrilled the filmmakers are presenting the next installment in 3D. Spider-Man is one of the most popular characters in the world, and we know audiences are eager and excited to discover Marc’s fantastic vision for Peter Parker and the franchise.”

Set to be directed by Marc Webb (500 Days of Summer) with from a screenplay by James Vanderbilt (Zodiac), the still untitled Spider-Man film will quickly reboot the franchise that had starred Toby McGuire as Peter Parker. Now already eight years after the original film’s release, a new generation’s webslinger will step on to the silver screen.

With visuals like shooting webs and swinging through Manhattan, it seems like the Spider-Man franchise would work well in 3D as long as they were about to avoid the somewhat stereotypical “throw something at the screen” actions that some of these style films fall in to. Our main concern though is making sure there are no 3D song and dance routines down Broadway.

Coming directly from the “that didn’t take long” department comes word that Sony has already confirmed a new director for its next Spider-Man film and that person is (500) Days of Summer helmer Marc Webb. Representatives of Columbia Pictures and Marvel Studios made a joint announcement today regarding the decision.

In a joint statement by Amy Pascal, co-chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment, and Matt Tolmach, president of Columbia Pictures, the studio highlighted what went into the decision: “At its core, Spider-Man is a small, intimate human story about an everyday teenager that takes place in an epic super-human world. The key for us as we sought a new director was to identify filmmakers who could give sharp focus to Peter Parker’s life.”

“We wanted someone who could capture the awe of being in Peter’s shoes so the audience could experience his sense of discovery while giving real heart to the emotion, anxiety, and recklessness of that age and coupling all of that with the adrenaline of Spider-Man’s adventure,” continued the statement. “We believe Marc Webb is the perfect choice to bring us on that journey.”

Let’s hope so.

In the never ending quest for the perfect release schedule for big movies, studios often shift dates around in an effort to one-up the competition or, in some cases, counter-program so their movie is the only one of its genre coming out on a particular weekend. Other times, studios make changes that seem deliberately to undermine other movies. Case in point is today’s switch of Marvel Studios’ Thor movie from the original date of May 20, 2011 to May 6, 2011.

You may wonder why this is significant? Well, this is the same weekend that Spider-Man 4 is supposedly going to be released by Sony. Although, with the troubles the film is supposedly going through, it may end up getting the date pushed. Still, its a pretty interesting move on Paramount’s part.

Although this move does appear, at least on the surface, as an act of internal rivalry, the report states that Paramount simply did not want to wait on an “official” release date change for Spider-Man 4 in case other studios tried to get there first. This way, a Marvel movie still has a slot on the opening weekend of Summer. Makes sense I guess.

There were reports before the holidays that there were issues on the production of the new Spider-Man film. But at the time, those rumors were shrugged off as the production just breaking for the holidays. But now comes news via Deadline Hollywood that director Sam Raimi is having some issues with the script and trouble getting financiers at Sony to back his choice for the movie’s villain.

The big news is that with all big franchise films lately, release dates are announced far before production even begins, so there’s a setup of expectation from the viewing public, and the pressure on the filmmakers to meet that deadline. Spider-Man 4 – or Spider-M4n as it is rumored to be titled – was scheduled for release on May 11, 2011. That date is starting to look like an impossibility.

Previous versions of the script have been written by Jamie Vanderbilt (Zodiac), David Lindsay-Abaire (Inkheart), and Gary Ross (writer and director of Seabiscuit), and is now in the hands of Spider-Man 2 & 3 writer Alvin Sargeant. Hopefully, he’ll have better luck, Raimi will be happy, the studio will be happy and the film will move forward again.

Until then, stay tuned to The Flickcast for more on this developing story.

Spider-Man 3 was far from great but I will say Thomas Haden Church gave a pretty good performance as reluctant villain Sandman. Like Alfred Molina (Dr. Octopus) before him and Willem Dafoe (Green Goblin) prior to that. Church brought a tragic element to the role. Yes, they all ended up portraying villains but you kind of felt sorry for them. I’ll even go so far as to say as much as Venom sucked in the last film, Topher Grace had an ounce of that innate misery in his portrayal of Eddie Brock.

Well, perhaps we’ll see that again in Spider-Man 4 as Dylan Baker will be reprising his role as Dr. Connor. While we have yet to see his true villain side manifest as The Lizard in the films maybe it will finally happen. Collider reports:

“Baker joked with “Trick-r-Treat” writer/director Dougherty about his role in the film, with Dougherty saying that Baker’s character was “just appearing in the background” and that the possibility of the Lizard would just be “a cocktease for another year”. Baker apparently joined in the joking, but it’s unclear whether he was actually confirming a small role for Connors or if he was giving a wink and a nod.”

Come on Sam Raimi, give the fans what they want: The Lizard!  You’ve teased us for three films now, it’s time you gave Baker some green scaly skin and sharp fangs to do battle with Spider-Man. Perhaps more importantly, Baker fits the bill for that tragic quality I talked about above.

Speaking of actors that are due a real role in Spider-Man 4, Raimi confirmed that Bruce Campbell will also return for the film, “I promised him we would write something because I really love putting him in the pictures,” he told the network, adding, “I promised him a good meaty role.”

So, just what kind of “meaty role” do you give a guy who has played a different character in every film?  If Internet rumors hold any water Campbell could dawn the mask of Mysterio.  It would be a perfect role for Campbell when you consider the origins of the character (from Wikipedia):

“Debuting in Amazing Spider-Man #13, Mysterio is Quentin Beck, a special effects wizard and stunt man working for a major Hollywood studio with dreams of making a name for himself in the film industry. However, he came to see his career in special effects as a dead-end job, but realized that his expertise in illusions could make him an effective supervillain.”

Gee, a guy trying to make a name for himself in the film industry? Sure, Campbell is already a name in the industry, but this sounds like the perfect downtrodden character Campbell could really get into.  Here’s hoping this is one Internet rumor that will pan out.

Spider-Man 4 is set for a May 2011 release date.

With the fourth installment of Spider-Man slated for production in early 2010, Sony Pictures has shown a solid commitment to expanding the franchise even more by signing screenwriter James Vanderbilt (The Losers, Zodiac) to write the Spider-Man 5 and Spider-Man 6 sequels

Vanderbilt was the first writer on Spider-Man 4, but director Sam Raimi brought on David Lindsay-Abaire (Rabbit Hole) to rewrite him, and Gary Ross is currently rewriting that script. According to Variety, Raimi didn’t embrace all of Vanderbilt’s ideas, but execs at Columbia Pictures and Marvel Studios have. The fifth and sixth Spider-Man movies will have an interconnected storyline, which was originally discussed when Vanderbilt was signed on to write Spider-Man 4, but the idea of shooting a fourth and fifth film back to back with the original cast was scrapped.

Currently, it is unclear whether Raimi, Tobey Maguire or Kirsten Dunst will be back for future installments. If they aren’t, Vanderbilt’s script would most-likely be the blueprint for a franchise reboot with an all-new cast. Regardless of the established talent’s future involvement, Sony’s priority will be to release Spider-Man films on a more frequent basis. The lapse between films has grown with each installment. The second film came only two years after the first, but it took three years for a third installment, and four years will have passed when Spider-Man 4 opens in May 2011.

Stay tuned to The Flickcast for future developments on the Spider-Man franchise.

Last time on The Flickcast, your favorite trio discussed all kinds of interesting topics including the Twilight phenomenon, the MTV Movie Awards, the Megan Fox as Wonder Woman “controversy”, who we think should star in a Wonder Woman movie and that Matt, for some reason, doesn’t seem to like Jessica Biel or Hallle Berry.

This week the team discusses and debates a slew of new topics including Monday’s Apple announcements from the World Wide Developer Conference including cool, new iPhones and an update to OS X, what was cool and worth a look from the recent E3 gaming convention, the success and greatness that is The Hangover, Kirsten Dunst joining Spider-Man 4, the merits of movies in 3D and a whole lot more.

Chris, Matt and Christina also made some picks this week including one of Christina’s favorite reality shows Bridezillas, Matt’s pick of one of his favorite reality shows, Star-Ving featuring David Faustino of Married with Children, and Chris’ pick of Rob Zombie’s reboot of Halloween — which, believe it or not, he really liked.

Its a big episode, but one you won’t want to miss.

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.

Will all the speculation of late on the identity of the villains, if Mary Jane would be back and what the story is of Spider-Man 4, its nice to get at least some kind of confirmation on something regarding the film. What am I talking about? At least now we know Mary Jane will be in the film and Kirsten Dunst will be playing her.

According to an interview with the New York Post while doing press for The Taking of Pelham 123, Spider-Man 4 producer Todd Black was asked a few questions about his other upcoming movie that fans are, shall we say, a bit more enthusiastic about. According to Black in the interview, here’s a few tidbits of info about Spider-Man 4 he was able to drop:

Kirsten Dunst is definitely on board. Last month, director Sam Raimi said in another interview he didn’t know if the actor was going to sign up to play Mary Jane again, but according to Black, she has. Also, the movie will most likely not have a wedding between Mary Jane and Peter Parker. According to the Post, Black had no knowledge of that subplot. Also, the villain will not be Morbius the vampire. Black squashed that rumor completely in the interview.

As for who will be the villain, Black had this to say in the interview: “We’re just coming up with who the villain’s going to be now. We’ll be shooting in New York again. Trust me, people will appreciate who we pick, because it’ll be a big part of New York.” Black also confirmed in the interview that the villain will be one from the comics and not a character invented for the film.

So, now that we know that, who could the “big bad” be? Even with those clues its still pretty much a mystery. However, if I had to guess, I would go with the Kingpin, just as the writer of the Post article suggested. It seems plausable and he does have ties to New York, so he might just fit the bill. Anyone else have any suggestions?

While the movie doesn’t come out until 2011, and there’s no official word on what the story is, that hasn’t stopped the friendly, neighborhood marketing machine from releasing the very first poster for Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 4. It doesn’t reveal much, but it at least gives us hope that there WILL be a fourth film.

In a recent interview with Raimi, he said that playwright David Lindsay-Abaire (Inkheart) is working on the script and should have it done any day now. With that, should come details on what the next plot will be, including the villain, (Lizard and Morbius?). But until then, we have this teaser-ish poster to hold us over.

Spider-Man 4 is set to hit theaters on May 6, 2011, and will star Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst.

Recently over at CHUD, they posted an excerpt from a video interview with Spider-Man and Drag Me to Hell director, and all-around cool, guy Sam Raimi. The interview was primarily to promote his upcoming return to the horror genre with Drag Me to Hell — which looks awesome, btw.

However, during the interview, they also manged to sneak in a few questions about Raimi’s next project, a movie you might have heard something about: Spider-Man 4. In fact, we even talked a bit about it here at The Flickcast. Among the things discussed in the interview was a rather big bombshell that we might be seeing Spider-Man fight vampires in the next film.

Of course, if that’s true, that means the villain (at least one of them) will have to be Morbius — in addition to, or instead of, The Lizard, which Marvel’s Avi Arad has been hinting would be the next Spidey villain. So, will we really see Spider-Man battling vampires in the next film? Check out Raimi’s response to the question in the video over at CHUD. It’s pretty interesting.

Spider-Man 4 hits theaters May 6, 2011.