Last night during the season premiere of America’s Got Talent, all five of the NBC viewers were treated to an extended ‘super’ preview of The Amazing Spider-Man. Basically it super-sized the most recent trailer with an extended scene, some dubstep-ish cues and a couple of choice new shots.

The movie is in an odd place for the general public. We are not that far removed from the Raimi series, and despite the vocal internet backlash to the third film, it was a success. So Sony has to win over a skeptical public on top of the already difficult task of competing with this summer’s other two comic book goliaths.

To Sony’s credit this extended trailer marks the most interesting and inciting glimpse at their reboot. It showcases one of the most important aspects of Peter Parker that was almost missed completely in the Raimi films, the personality of Spider-Man.

Spider-Man is a wise-cracking, naive, and most importantly noble hero. There is a duality to Peter that is much more subtle than in a character like Batman, but is no less important. If the Marc Webb reboot can tap into that, we can all be in for a very pleasant surprise this summer.

Check out the full trailer after the jump.

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Most of us will be seeing The Avengers in a few days and The Dark Knight Rises trailer is still on everyone’s mind. So Sony wants to remind you all that they have a pretty big deal super-hero movie coming out too.

The new posters for Amazing Spider-Man are nothing particularly exciting, although the standing Spidy one ditches that all too familiar blue-tinted cityscape for a far more intriguing and realistic color scheme. In fact I think that one now ranks as my favorite of the posters for this flick.

The second of the new posters actually reminds me of those classy Dark Knight posters with Batman standing watch over a blue-tinted Gotham from inside an office building. The Spider-Man poster has what looks like a very similar blue-tinted city, but it looks more like he is busting through the glass. Might it be a subtle dig at The Dark Knight, or might I be reading way to much into a similar image? I vote the latter.

You can check out these two new posters after the jump, and don’t forget to catch The Amazing Spider-Man in theaters this summer.

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One of the biggest enigmas in the crowded summer blockbuster season is how will the average movie goers take a rebooted Spider-Man so close to the success of the Raimi trilogy. How the reboot is received is going to be an important indicator for the longevity of the comic book movie as we know it.

In the last decade comic book films have rewritten a lot of the rules for how major franchise movies act in cinemas, pretty much demolishing the previous axiom that sequels suffer from standard diminishing returns. Now the success of an event film has much more to do with the reception of the previous film in the series and over all franchise health.

This summer brings two old comic book standards to the big screen, the team-up and the reboot. If these are successful it could signal to other studios that movie going public is keen on these characters, and will show up for a good film starring them even if the story is going back to the beginning.

So a lot is at stake, and as such the marketing push for The Amazing Spider-Man has been going strong for awhile now, keeping ole web head in our minds during the spring and early summer event film season. The newest bit of advertising is a brand new poster featuring some battle damaged Spidy. A really great, simple image that is reminiscent of the Raimi era character posters, while still feeling very much a part of the new tone for the series.

You can check out the full poster after the jump.

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In an interview with E! Online, Transformers star Josh Duhamel revealed that he hasn’t been contacted about the fourth film of the Transformers series. According to the recent interview, none of the original series cast has been asked to return for the fourth film.

“I don’t think anybody’s doing it,” Duhamel told the site. “I know Shia [LaBoeuf]‘s not doing it. I don’t think Tyrese or Rosie [Huntington-Whiteley] or anybody else is doing it.”

He’s not surprised about the silence, though. “Whenever these movies make that much money they’re going to make as many as they can,” he said. “[But] I haven’t heard anything about it. They haven’t called me.”

The plan now is to reboot the series, which means they can dump all those now-expensive stars and make some new ones. This is following the foot steps of the Spiderman reboot, The Amazing Spiderman.The popularity of the series is not based on the star power of the actors and actresses, but rather the Transformers themselves, as proven by the success of the last film even without star Megan Fox.

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Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance co-director Brian Taylor is set to write and direct a live action adaptation of the iconic video game Twisted Metal. Sony Pictures has offered Taylor a 7-figure deal to head up the film.

Like the game, the film will revolve around an underground event that pits a number of combatants in a fight to the death. They are outfitted in armored weaponized cars that are pimped out with heavy weaponry that includes missiles and machine guns. Each character is set to have their own specialty weapons and style similar to the game. The sole survivor will get any wish granted.

It is rumored that the film will include such signature contestant characters as Sweet Tooth, a homicidal clown who drives an ice cream truck, and Doll Face, a young woman who is trapped behind a porcelain mask and who drives an 18-wheeler.

This is the first project that Taylor will helm solo. He has always teamed with Mark Neveldine on such films as the Crank series. There have been two so far, and they are talking about making a third, in 3D, as well as a possible future Ghost Rider. The team will continue to write and direct films together.

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This week, JC & WallE get into it with their thoughts on the recent trailer reveals for The Last of Us, Fortnite, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, The Amazing Spider-Man and Transformers: Fall of Cybertron. JC also gives his final edition of The Long Grind focusing on The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim. Don’t worry though, the Long Grind will return in 2012 with new epic games to discuss.

The Topic of the Week this week is a very special one. A few weeks ago, the Bitcast crew talked about realism in games. This week, JC had the honor of sitting down and talking to a member of the United States Marine Corps who was involved in the conflict at the Battle of Fallujah in late 2004, considered to be one of the harshest battles in modern warfare history. This marine shares his perspective on gaming, movies and television  and how it relates to his experiences. We thank this individual for his time, his service and for sharing his experiences with us.

For their Now Playing, JC gives some insight in the recent Voltron XBLA release as well as how Christmas shopping reminded him of his time playing Dead Rising while WallE talks Madden 12. The duo even gives some not so subtle hints on what games they wouldn’t mind getting for Christmas.

Don’t forget to tune in next week for the Best Games of 2011 show and make sure to follow everyone on Twitter including @theflickcast, @thebitcast, @thejohncarle & @JWWallE. Finally, don’t forget to subscribe to The Bitcast on The Flickcast iTunes feed.

The Amazing Spider-Man is one of the biggest upcoming movies of 2012. As anticipation continues to grow, Sony has unveiled the official website for the new web-slining blockbuster. Most noteworthy on the site are a series of new stills and a synopsis that promises more Spider-Man films in this new universe.

“Like most teenagers his age, Peter is trying to figure our who he is and how he got to be the person he is today. In his journey to put the pieces of his past togetherhe uncovers a secret that his father held… a secret that will ultimately shape his destiny as Spider-Man. This is the first in a series of movies that tells a different side of the Peter Parker story. On July 3rd, 2012, the untold story begins.”

The movie is going to be a very important step in the evolution of the comic-book movie. Up to this point comic book movies have generally held to the Hollywood rules of modern franchises, but one of the aspects of the comic book medium that keeps these characters relevant for so long is their ability to adapt and evolve on the fly. Even if that means rebooting a character that is still incredibly popular.

If The Amazing Spider-Man is a hit than we can see studios more willing to allow new filmmakers a chance at established characters with out waiting for the character to grow stale in it’s current style. The movie is set to hit theaters July 3rd, 2012.

Saturday night, Spike TV held its annual Video Game Awards show which, as promised, gave the first looks at some huge trailers for 2012′s gaming landscape.

Naughty Dog gets to step away from their blockbuster Uncharted series to work on a new IP titled The Last of Us. This new title takes a different approach from the recent string of zombie / infected scenarios where it looks like it can be a game of stealth and horror mixed together. It isn’t a world like Dead Rising or Left 4 Dead where the creatures flood the street and makes the possibility of combining the stealth and horror genres pretty intriguing.

This has the possibility of becoming a fantastic PlayStation exclusive franchise. The trailer for The Last of Us is definitely one of the great surprises from the VGAs this year.

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One of the hardest villains in Spider-Man’s rouge gallery to visualize on film is going to get his time to shine next summer. After years of teases in the Raimi films, The Lizard will finally be front and center in a movie. So naturally his appearance is going to be very important to sell the character. They have shown off the scaly monster at Comic-Con this year, but not everyone could watch that footage, and only blurry images and video can be found online.

We now have a pretty good look at the character, or more appropriately his design. SpiderMedia has posted concept art that showcase his rather unique appearance. The Lizard looks like a giant, man-size reptile, so from that respect the design does what it is supposed to do. On the other hand, this looks more like a goomba from the Super Mario Bros. movie, so the jury is still out.

Those who might doubt the validity of the concept art can rest assured that officially licensed PEZ dispensers have also been seen. ComicBookMovie has pictures of the dispensers depicting the new Spider-Man and his reptilian foe. It is clear that the mold of the Lizard is more than similar enough to the concept art to give credence to both.

You can see both images after the jump.

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What would a day at Comic-Con be without a lot of news and announcements? Well, a pretty boring day for sure.

Fortunately, we won’t have that problem today because hot on the heels of the first teaser trailer being released, we’ve now got the first teaser poster for The Amazing Spider-Man (courtesy of the fine folks at First Showing). That’s right, it’s a teaser poster which, much like the one for The Avengers, doesn’t really reveal all that much.

Fortunately, we’ve already seen quite a bit with the teaser trailer so the lack of info on the poster isn’t all that much of a problem. At least this one is a bit better than the one for The Avengers which, to be honest, it pretty boring.

In case you’ve forgotten, The Amazing Spider-Man is directed by Marc Webb. It stars Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Rhys Ifans, Martin Sheen, Sally Field, Irrfan Khan, Denis Leary, Chris Zylka, Campbell Scott, C. Thomas Howell, Julianne Nicholson and Annie Parisse.

It hits theaters on July 3, 2012. That’s plenty of time for some much better posters and for Webb to convince us Garfield was the right choice for Peter Parker.

Check out a larger version of the poster after the break.

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Over the last couple days an unofficial bootleg of the new The Amazing Spider-Man teaser trailer has been making its way around the Interwebs. We waited to bring you the official, real one so that we could put it up and not have to take it right down again.

Anyway, it’s here and for the first time we get to see Andrew Garfield in sort of action as Peter Parker and his alter ego, your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. Reaction to the teaser has been mixed around The Flickcast offices (especially where Garfield is concerned) but still, the teaser is pretty good and does help convey some of what it must be like to have Spider-Man’s powers.

It also delves more into the character moments of the upcoming film, which is probably due to director Marc Webb’s background and his stated desire to make a “smaller” film. Sadly, it is still an origin story even though it seems to be told in a different, yet very familiar to almost anyone alive, way.

Obviously, we’ll have much more time to judge the film as its release gets closer. Meantime, check out the new teaser after the break.

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Reboots are all the rage these days. Ever since Chris Nolan and David Goyer rebooted the Batman franchise 8 years after we got the first taste of rubber nipples, studios have been all about rebooting series that have either run their course or were never good to begin with.

That’s exactly what Sony Pictures has in mind when they couldn’t come to an agreement with Raimi, McGuire, and the rest of the cast/crew of the original Spider-Man trilogy. Now, Sony has charged 500 Days of Summer director Marc Webb to turn The Social Network‘s star Andrew Garfield into our new favorite neighborhood Spider-Man.

A lead like that and a director who has no real experience working on a superhero project is enough to worry most fans. However, a brand new batch of photos from the set have arrived thanks to EW, and they are pretty pleasing to a fan’s eye.

Web shooters? Check. Blonde Gwen Stacy? Check. Denis Leary as a do-gooder cop? Double Check. These images are more than enough to get us excited for the upcoming film, we just can’t wait to see how they look in motion with a trailer due any day now.

Check out the full gallery of images after the jump and expect to see more from Sony’s Amazing Spider-Man next week at Comic-Con International. The film is currently set to hit theaters July 3rd, 2012.

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