In today’s big budget movies, almost anything you see could be a visual effect. From buildings to cars to giant flying robots and more, the men and women who create today’s modern visual effects are masters of their craft and are able to take an ordinary scene of two people staring into the void and turn it into a piece of movie magic.

We’ve seen the “after” of all this work in hundreds blockbuster movies, but what about the “before”? Well, a new website wants to highlight just that. Over at Before VFX, they’ve collected a ton of photos from various blockbuster movies that show what the site calls “The Canvas” of the visual effects shot.

In other words, they show what the scene was actually like before any visual effects were added and before an audience ever saw one frame. It’s a fascinating look into just how much goes into the making of a modern movie blockbuster and how much we owe the VFX artists who do this work every day.

Plus, as Dustin Rowles at Pajiba put it, it shows us “how little credit we give A-list actors for their ability to interact and engage with green screens.” How little credit indeed. It can’t be that easy.

Check out several pics after the break and head over to Before VFX for a ton more.

Say what you will about Tom Cruise, his movies are usually pretty entertaining. Most recently, we enjoyed the latest in the Mission Impossible franchise and are actually looking forward to more.

Next up for Cruise is the sci-fi action extravaganza Oblivion. In the film Cruise plays one of the last humans on earth after an alien war devastates the planet. After rescuing a beautiful stranger from a downed spacecraft, he stumbles upon survivors of the war who paint a much different picture of Earth’s past. . . and its future.

The film is directed by by Tron: Legacy‘s Joseph Kosinski and also stars Morgan Freeman, Olga Kurylenko, Melissa Leo, Zoe Bell and Andrea Riseborough. Look for it to arrive on April 19th.

Check out the new trailer after the break.

With the successes of Nolan’s Batman trilogy and his involvement in the upcoming Man of Steel, it seemed like Nolan was going to be getting the Joss Whedon treatment with the DC movies moving forward. Though no director or producers have been formerly assigned to the Justice League movie, it was assumed that Nolan would have some level of involvement in it. But it seems that Warner Bros. faith in their own franchise isn’t as strong as the fans would hope to believe.

Variety has stated that “Warner’s top brass has indicated that they are awaiting results of Man of Steel, which opens June 14, before moving further ahead.” Now while this doesn’t specify the exact results they are looking for, it is a very worrisome statement to hear Warner already discussing Man of Steel in this way as well as the future of the Justice League movie with it.

Jonathan Blunk. Alexander J. Boik. Jesse Childress. Gordon Cowden. Jessica Ghawi. John Larimer. Matt McQuinn. Micayla Medek. Veronica Moser-Sullivan. Alex Sullivan. Alexander C. Teves. Rebecca Wingo.

Twelve lives ended alongside 58 injured and countless others forever changed.

Just after midnight on Friday morning, James Eagan Holmes walked into a crowded movie theater in Aurora, CO showing The Dark Knight Rises. He carried with him a Smith & Wesson M&P .223 semi-automatic rifle, a 12-gauge shotgun and a Glock .40-caliber handgun while wearing a gas mask, ballistic helmet and various other pieces of protective armor. There was an additional Glock found in his car by police. Holmes would open fire at the unsuspecting patrons of the theater.

As the title of this post clearly implies, there’s another trailer for The Dark Knight Rises now out in the wild. In it we see even more reasons why this movie is going to kick all sorts of ass.

We’re excited to see how Nolan and company wrap up the amazing Batman trilogy of films and to see if this movie sets up any other Warner Bros. superhero films like Superman or, dare we say it, a Justice League movie? Hey, it could happen. Not likely, but it could happen.

Anyway, check out the brand new trailer after the break. Come on July 20th, get here.

The Dark Knight Rises is going to be a big film, and now we know that has more than one meaning. The blockbuster is going to be setting a new standard for how much IMAX native footage is released for a Hollywood feature film.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Christopher Nolan’s Bat-Finale will include the most actual IMAX footage of any studio film before it:

When Mr. Nolan’s “The Dark Knight Rises” opens July 20, it will contain the most IMAX footage ever for a Hollywood feature, more than one hour’s worth. There were 40 minutes of such footage in 2008’s “The Dark Knight”—which set box-office records in its opening weekend.

IMAX’s summer slate also includes potential blockbusters “The Avengers,” “The Amazing Spider-Man,” “Men in Black 3,” Tim Burton’s gothic comedy “Dark Shadows,” and Ridley Scott’s 3-D “Prometheus.” Mr. Nolan’s film was the only one shot using IMAX cameras; the others were converted using IMAX’s technology.

Sounds exciting. These Nolan Bat-Films are paving the way for the first truly IMAX movie. Sure the cameras and tech have been around for ages, but up till know it was used for nature docs and educational programming. We want to see what true film-making legends can do with the tech. IMAX is always going to be more immersive than traditional movies, so this can only be a big win movie goers.

The Dark Knight Rises is one of the most anticipated movies of the year for many reasons, one such reason is the new score by Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard. The previous movie had one of the more subtle, complex and ultimately effective scores for any Super Hero movie ever, so of course anticipation is high for this installment’s music.

While we wait on the upcoming score to be released it can be fun to reflect back on what has come before. A recent YouTube video has popped up with some very interesting revelations about the inspiration for one of the more memorable musical moments from the last film. It appears as if the track ‘Why So Serious’ bears more than a passing resemblance to the score of an early 80’s French film.

Now most people will use this as yet another moment to stand on a pedestal and try to tear down Zimmer as a plagiarizer. Hans Zimmer has a reputation of taking music from his previous films and re-purposing them in future movies, just take a listen to some of the action music in Rango and you will hear more than a little Pirates of the Caribbean.

Lists are fun. Lists are, at least in some cases, easy to create. In this case, the list in question for today is The Five Best Movies Adapted From Comics.

I know what you’re thinking. Why five? Well, it sorta works with the word “Flickcast” and we’re fans of alliteration around here, so that’s one reason. Of course, it also means I only need to come up with five items to fill the list, so that might have something to do with it too. I’ll never tell.

I’m also in the process of preparing a list of the worst movies adapted from comics as well because what’s a “best” list without a “worst” list, right? Right.

However, in this case, we’re talking best. And do we have a lot of great “best” ones to choose from. That’s not a question, we do.

The ones I’ve chosen are not only great examples of comic book adaptations done right, they’re also great movies too. From a clever screenplay to expert direction, exciting visuals, to compelling characters and performances, these five films deliver on many levels and also manage to demonstrate a real love for their source material.

Okay, enough setup. On with the listing of the things.

Presented without much in the way of comment (well, just a little) is the first trailer for Christopher Nolan’s third, and presumably final, installment in the Batman franchise. This time around the new film is called The Dark Knight Rises and based on this new trailer it looks, in a word, awesome.

We know people use that word often and sometimes it tends to lose its meaning. However, in this case, it fits completely.

The movie looks awesome and like any good trailer you get a lot of info about the movie but don’t really know what’s going to happen in it. If only other trailers could do this, and be as good as this, and not give everything away.

Of course, you can be sure the folks responsible for this film know what they’ve got and know, with absolute certainty, the movie will do huge box office and people will flock to see it over and over again. So, they don’t really have to do that much to promote it. The movie pretty much sells itself.

July 20, 2012 can’t get here fast enough. Check out the trailer after the break.

Perhaps you didn’t realize it but there’s a fine tradition in Hollywood of having actors say the title of the film they are in during the film itself. Sometimes, like in Hot Tub Time Machine, it’s done with a nod to the audience.

Other times, as in Terminator, it’s done in a more off=hand manner and makes sense given the situation in the story. Whetever the reasons or circumstances, this has been happening for along time and will probably go on for a long time to come.

Of course, someone has taken the time to put all these instances together in one video (two, actually). That person is YouTube’s own Honsco and we’ve got the new video, and his first one, to share with you today.

They contain a lot of our favorite movies and after seeing this repeated over 150 times it never really gets old. Check out both videos after the jump.