This week On the Radar we’re talking about how Michael Bay simply isn’t impressed with 3D conversions, Harold and Kumar are set to return for a Christmas movie, Big Bang Theory‘s resident babe takes on a big screen role and will Two and a Half Men lose its star actor?

Kenneth Branagh talks Thor

With all the news of Iron Man and Captain America sweeping the Internet we haven’t heard a lot about Thor lately.  Well, director Kenneth Branagh has offered up some information about the production this week:

“Inspired by the comic book world both pictorially and compositionally at once, we’ve tried to find a way to make a virtue and a celebration of the distinction between the worlds that exist in the film but absolutely make them live in the same world,” Branagh said. “It’s about finding the framing style, the color palette, finding the texture and the amount of camera movement that helps celebrate and express the differences and the distinctions in those worlds. If it succeeds, it will mark this film as different…. The combination of the primitive and the sophisticated, the ancient and the modern, I think that potentially is the exciting fusion, the exciting tension in the film.”

Holy cow!  That update reads as though it was being delivered as a Shakespearean monologue.  Here’s hoping Branagh still remembers we’re comic book fans at heart and want to see some series action as well as crafty dialogue. Bring the thunder, Branagh, not the theater.

Big Bang Theory’s Cuoco heads to the big screen

While not Kaley Cuoco’s first film role it is her first big debut project since the explosion of popularity around The Big Bang Theory.  Cuoco is set to star in I Hop, a film by Alvin and the Chipmunksdirector Tim Hall:

“[Cuoco] will be playing the sister of James Marsden’s slacker loser Fred, taking him in after their parents kick him out and finding herself also saddled with Brand’s Easter Bunny Jnr, following his accidental injury by Fred.”

With James Marsden and Russell Brand already signed on it’s hard to decide just what this film will be like.  Mind you, is anyone going to say “no” to more Kaley?  I’m definitely not.

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Not sure if this is a good idea or not as he’s pretty much expresseed zero desire for any kind of ramantic relationshiop on the show but Sheldon Cooper (aka actor Jim Parsons) will be at least going on a date (and potentially more) before the end of this season on The Big Bang Theory.

According to THR, actress Miriam Bialik (recently of CBS’ Til Death)  will make an appearance on the season finale of the show as a “female version of Sheldon” he meets on the online dating service eHarmony. If things go well she may end up as a recurring character on the show, potentially giving Sheldon an actual girlfriend next season.

Once again, not really sure if this is a good idea or not. One of the most appealing things about Sheldon as a character is his single minded belief that he’s unique in the Universe and any kind of relationshio would be a waste of time.

If he ends up getting a girl it seems like that would be a fundamental shift in character for him. Although, maybe he’ll realize that he needs to share his genius with the world via offspring? Could happen.

No matter what we’ll find out when the season finale airs on May 24.

This week on The Flickcast Chris and Matt are back after last’s week’s break with an all new episode talking about a slew of new topics. Some of these topics include Chris’ SXSW report on great new films like Monsters, Helena From the Wedding, Winters’ Bone and Kick-Ass, discussions on Captain America casting, Scream 4 news and how to save Fox’s 24.

The boys also made picks this week including Matt’s pick of the great CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory and Chris’ pick of the new FX series Justified starring Timothy Olyphant.

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.

The People’s Choice Awards, which were broadcast last night from Los Angeles’s Nokia Theater, are an awards show where, you guessed it the people pick the winners. This year, which was no real surprise, the people picked vampires.

The Twilight Saga, True Blood and The Vampire Diaries all got trophies Wednesday at the 36th annual event. Twilight won four trophies, including favorite movie, franchise and onscreen team for the trio of Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner, who also picked up the breakout male actor award.

Winners in the movie categories included Sandra Bullock as favorite movie actress, Hugh Jackman as favorite action star, The Proposal as favorite comedy movie and Up for favorite family movie. Sacha Baron Cohen, appearing as himself and not as his alter egos Borat or Bruno, presented Johnny Depp with a special award as favorite movie actor of the decade.

HBO’s True Blood and the CW’s supernatural series The Vampire Diaries were selected as favorite TV obsession and favorite new TV drama, respectively. Other winners in categories such as movies, TV and music included Inglourious Basterds as favorite independent movie and Lady Gaga as favorite pop and breakout music artist.

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Among its many virtues (and believe me, there were many) Battlestar Galactica had a terrific bunch of actors in it. Because of their high quality, its should really be no surprise that many of them, including Katee Sackhoff and Tricia Helfer to name a few, have gone on to do more work in TV and look to have long careers ahead of them. To that list we can add one more name: Michael Trucco.

Trucco, along with How I Met Your Mother co-star Virginia Williams, are set to star opposite Sarah Shahi (last seen on of one of my favorite recent shows Life) in the upcoming USA drama pilot Facing Kate. The show, in case you’re not familiar, concerns a divorced San Francisco woman (Shahi) who leaves her job as a lawyer to become a mediator following the death of her father, who headed a law firm.

Trucco will play Kate’s ex-husband, who’s also an attorney, a charmer, and who, surprise surprise, still has feelings for her. Williams will play Kate’s “obsessive and controlling younger stepmother who is determined to keep her husband’s firm.” Could be interesting. And really, who doesn’t want to see Anders in more shows? I know I do. He’s cool.

This week on The Flickcast your favorite trio celebrates a milestone episode 25 and discusses a whole bunch of new topics including the Emmy Awards, Neil Patrick Harris’ hosting performance and Dick Cook stepping down from Disney. They also take on topics such as Christopher Nolan’s plans for a Dark Knight sequel, Johnny Depp’s future as Jack Sparrow and the future of the Pirate’s franchise, the Kirby family lawsuit, the season premiere of Heroes and a whole lot more.

Also, the team makes another set of great picks this week including Christina’s favorite CW show Gossip Girl, Matt’s pick of the web series The Legend of Neil and Chris’ pick of The Big Bang Theory, his favorite show involving four geeky physicists, the hot girl across the hall, Star Trek, robot wars and Comic-Con.

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.

Thanks for listening.

Here’s a list of some of the new movie and TV shows coming to DVD and Blu-ray this week that we’re looking forward to seeing. Also, there’s some classic, and not-so-classic, movies hitting Blu-ray for the first time this week as well.

Of all the new releases, we’re particularly interested in the Blu-ray versions of movies and TV shows like Army of Darkness, Hero, An American Werewolf in London, The Big Bang Theory Season Two and Bonanza. Yes, some of us are even excited about the debut of X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which drops today on Blu-ray.

Check them out.

Movies

An American Werewolf in London (Full Moon Edition) ~ David Naughton, Jenny Agutter, Griffin Dunne (Blu-ray)

Army of Darkness (Screwhead Edition) ~ Bruce Campbell, Embeth Davidtz (Blu-ray)

Bionicle: The Legend Reborn ~ Dee Bradley Baker, Jeff Bennett, Jim Cummings, and Michael Dorn (DVD)

Child’s Play ~ Roslyn Alexander, Jack Colvin, Brad Dourif (Blu-ray – 2009)

Deep Impact ~ Morgan Freeman, Tea Leoni, Elijah Wood (Blu-ray)

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