Note: If you have any interest at all in seeing this film, I firmly advise that you go in completely cold and don’t read this until after you’ve seen it.

I don’t know if Chronicle is the first found-footage superhero film, but I’m certain it’s the best—and will remain so for a very long time. I had no idea what the film was about, and when it opened with a shot of a gloomy teenager filming the door to his bedroom while his drunk father angrily shouts to let him in, I groaned.

Goddammit, another one of those movies. When the kid said he was going to start filming everything, I groaned again. Dying mother? Ugh. Ugly kid clad in black? Blarg. By the time the kid started filming his cousin driving him to school and brought up Schopenhauer, I was about ready to check out.

Then it took a turn from the typical High-School-Sucks Movie into Horror, and I started to get interested. Then it took another turn into the Jackass realm. And just when I thought it would settle on Superhero Film, it just lingered on having a lot of fun with superpowers. But the best twists are saved until the end. Needless to say, when one character threw a baseball at another and it stopped dead in midair, I was hooked.

Continue Reading →

Super is an odd film, it is hard to take it out of context from the other recent films that it resembles. Both Kick-Ass and Defendor came out last year, and they all tackled very similar subject matter. From a film perspective Super is late to the party, and doesn’t really do anything that the other films didn’t do already. However, there is one area where the film stands out as very much the superior, it’s soundtrack!

Like the previous two films mentioned the soundtrack is populated with quirky tracks that epitomize the title character and their awkward journey through super-heroism. Super excels here with music that perfectly captures the tone of the movie and flows from one track to another with relative ease, which is a tall task when you are combining such different types of music. The selected source music tracks are generally fun to listen to and the score elements are universally excellent with Tyler Bates bringing some truly epic tracks that frankly are way better than the film deserves.

My first listen to the album was before I saw film which usually makes it harder to get wrapped up in the soundtrack because you have no visual base from which to tie to the movie. In that raw, first impression I was already taken with how the music promised a lighter tone with some several dark undertones. The track titles referenced god and religion several times and when the soundtrack needed to be epic, it delivered in spades. I would easily say that on a sound track level it was everything an independent superhero film needed it’s soundtrack to be.

Continue Reading →

Direct-To-DVD features have developed a certain negative stigma. Usually they have significantly smaller budgets, B to Z level actors and scripts that make Tyler Perry read like Shakespeare.

So when Sony Pictures Home Entertainment announces the upcoming release of their new direct-to-DVD superhero movie Cross, we take a very skeptical mentality. It would take at least a solid concept, well rounded cast and a fun trailer to instill the slightest bit of enthusiasm for the project. So you can imagine our surprise when this film offers up all three!

Yep. You heard that right: Cross has a straightforward–albeit interesting–core concept that allows a surprisingly strong cast to let lose and have some fun making a pulpy sci-fi action B-movie. This movie isn’t going to be The Dark Knight, or even its big screen cousins Constantine and Push. No, Cross looks like it knows it’s place and revels in the absurdity inherent in being direct-to-DVD.

The movie stars Brian Austin Green (The Sara Connor Chronicles), Vinnie Jones (X-Men: The Last Stand), Jake Busey (Starship Troopers), Michael Clark Duncan (Daredevil) and Tom Sizemore (Strang Days), and hits DVD on May 31st.

Check out the first full-length trailer after the jump!

Continue Reading →

With the last season of Smallville swiftly moving along, The Flickcast decided to talk to one of the most convoluted characters to reside in the sleepy town, Tess Mercer. She’s been a good girl, bad girl, and somewhere in between- so in essence a real woman.

Popping on the scene as the mysterious heir and CEO to LuthorCorp in Season 8, she’s since been through many tenuous trials. She’s fought to save humanity, albeit killing a few in her way.

She’s survived multiple deaths, multiple kryptonite-fueled personalities of Clark Kent, and multiple conspiracies. The best is yet to come.

The Flickcast: You were first cast in Season 8 of Smallville, did you think the show would continue for many more seasons?

Cassidy Freeman: I thought this was a one year job. I mean they signed me on for three, so they had me if they wanted me for three. But I was told maybe a year and every year we get renewed. It’s almost like a roller coaster ride of a path. I feel like the end of this series has had such strength to it.

I mean, I’ve watched it all in wanting to get familiar with the show and I’m not saying that just because I’m in it, but I think that they’ve taken some chances and we’re more grown-up and I really, really enjoy being in it and watching it.

TF: Tess Mercer’s walked as much on the side of light as that of dark. What are your thoughts on playing this complex character?

Continue Reading →

Every once in a while, we’ll get an opportunity to check out a new indie film from out of nowhere and get blown away by it. Sadly, this happens less often than we would like, but in this case, it was completely true.

We recently got to check out the short film The Legacy, written and directed by Mike Doto, about a boy who discovers that his father is the world’s greatest superhero. The film is, by all definitions of the word, fantastic. It captures some of the elements that made the original Superman films so great, without treading into campy territory.

With that in mind, we got a chance to sit down with the writer/director of the film, Mike Doto, about what it took to make the project, and where he goes from here.

The Flickcast: With a concept like The Legacy, what drove you to this idea? Were you a big comic fan growing up? If so, which books were you inspired by the most?

Mike Doto: For The Legacy I really wanted to get back to the roots of why I wanted to be a filmmaker to begin with. I feel like I grew up in a time when movies really connected with kids and I’ve never forgotten the impact that those films have had on me.

Most of these films starred a young protagonist that I could relate to quite easily, films such as E.T., Goonies, Wargames, D.A.R.Y.L., The Last Starfighter, and Back to the Future. What I’ve learned is that these weren’t just kid movies, these were movies for all ages, they appealed to the both the young and the young at heart.  So I thought about what movie I would have written when I was 10-years-old and I decided that I probably would have written a movie about being a superhero.

Superman was my boyhood hero so naturally that’s the hero I wanted to emulate.  In thinking further about the Superman story I decided that it would be more effective to write a film about the relationship between the father and the son since this is at the heart of the Superman character. I actually wasn’t a big comic book fan growing up. I was a huge fan of the Superman movies, but I didn’t really spend much time reading comics.

I would much rather dress up as a superhero or play with my action figures and imagine what that world would be like to live in. Even though a camera wasn’t rolling, I think this was the start of my filmmaking career although I didn’t realize it at the time.

Continue Reading →

Regardless if people are still watching and some people feel strongly that NBC’s Heroes has run its course, the network is still promoting the show and still airing it. With the season finale (and perhaps the end of the show entirely) weeks away, NBC has sent us some videos giving you a behind the scenes look and interviews with some of the cast.

In the videos, you can go on the set and get an inside look at the show. Plus, you can how the cast and crew work together in the filming of each episode and hear from stars Masi Oka and Greg Grunberg during some of their downtime on set.

Even if the show’s future may be incertain, it’s still nice to see that the cast is behind their show and willing to talk about it in order to keep fans interested. Normally, I would chalk this up to simple desire to see their job continue.

But in this case, they seem to actually be genuine and really love the show. Maybe we should give Heroes another chance?

Check out Heroes Monday nights at 9/8C on NBC.

Continue Reading →

Nathan Fillion has been many things in the eyes of fans, from the cocky superhero Captain Hammer to the captain of Serenity, Mal Reynolds. A few fans even saw him as the Green Lantern. But who does Nathan Fillion really see himself playing on the big screen? Why, the Greatest American Hero, of course!

In a recent interview Fillion did with The Flickcast, he mentioned that he thought he’d be perfect for the role originally made famous by William Katt. The 1980′s TV show was about high school teacher Ralph Hinkley who is asked to become a superhero after being given a special alien suit with powers that he never really learns how to use or control. The show also co-starred the awesome Robert Culp as FBI agent Bill Maxwell and Connie Sellecca as Hinkley’s significant other.

The show went on for three seasons, spawned a spin-off, and eventually made it’s way into 80′s fanboy obscurity along with Jem and Fraggle Rock. The show has recently made a bit of a revival with William Katt working on a comic adaptation.

Check out a clip from our exclusive interview with Nathan Fillion on his superhero aspirations after the jump.

Continue Reading →

With comic big screen comic adaptations on the constant rise, it was only a matter of time before a true fan favorite gets his 15 minutes in the limelight. That news came today as Warner Bros. green lit production for a Green Lantern live-action film.

The film has already been given a shiny $150 million budget, which isn’t bad considering Fantastic Four had $100M, Iron Man had $140M, and Watchmen had $150M.

Production will begin in July with shooting to start at Fox Studios Australia in Syndey by November under the helm of director Martin Campbell (Casino Royale). Shooting in Sydney also helps the film out financially due to a favorable exchange rate and a 15% location rebate.

No word yet on casting, or which Lantern we could be seeing on the big screen (rapper Common has expressed his interest in playing John Stewart), but rumors so far have included names like Emile Hirsch (Speed Racer), Chris Pine and Anton Yelchin (Star Trek), Sam Worthington (Terminator Salvation), and Ryan Gosling (The Notebook). Who would YOU cast as the Galactic Peacekeeper?