It seems like Marvel can do no wrong with casting and news for their upcoming Avengers flick. First, fanboy superstar Joss Whedon is announced as the director, and now it seems fan favorite Jeremy Renner will be taking on the role of Clint Barton a.k.a. Hawkeye.

Speculation started a few months ago that the Hurt Locker actor would join the upcoming Joss Whedon-helmed Marvel pic, The Avengers, but not much evidence came through to make us believe it was going to happen. It seems that it was true all along, as Jeremy Renner is currently finalizing the deal with Marvel Studios to carry the bow-and-arrow. From THR:

Renner’s involvement was initially rumored last fall, although the actor, who was in the middle of the awards derby with his war thriller “The Hurt Locker,” was at the time more taken with Paul Thomas Anderson’s untitled drama and was being heavily courted by Universal for “Battleship.”

Renner never joined “Battleship,” and while he still has definite interest in Anderson’s film, that project is still cobbling financing and has seen its start pushed back several times.

Renner saw a chance to take on work in a role that, while key, is not starring in nature and will allow him to slide into Anderson’s film if it should come together.

The actor will be joining an already full cast of Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Sam Jackson, Don Cheadle, Chris Hemsworth, and Scarlett Johansson. If you are one to believe IMDb’s rumored casting, that group also includes Malin Akerman as The Wasp and Nathan Fillion as Ant Man.

Joss Whedon’s The Avengers is currently set for release on May 4, 2012.

It was an interesting show for the Oscars this year.  From the “Kanye” moment to Sean Penn somewhat proudly proclaiming he’s not part of the Academy.  Sandra Bullock won an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role (The Blind Side) the very same year she accepted a Razzie for Worst Actress (All About Steve).  And, of course, the gross upset of Avatar at the hands of The Hurt Locker.  With 41 million viewers, this year’s Oscars had something for everyone but, perhaps more interestingly, it best reflected the two sides of Hollywood which exist today.

How fitting to have two hosts on the one Oscar night that would truly exemplify both faces of Hollywood.  For so long many have seen Hollywood as one massive, filmmaking entity but that really isn’t the case.  Now more than ever there’s a division between what I’m calling (for the purposes of this article) “mainstream” Hollywood and “performance” Hollywood.  The names pretty much say it all.

Films in the mainstream category are all the summer blockbusters, tent pole movies studios rely on to turn a healthy profit year over year (e.g. Iron Man, The Dark Knight, Avatar).  In contrast you have the performance pictures, lesser known films with limited release and all too often far less money behind them (e.g. Slumdog Millionaire, No Country for Old Men, The Hurt Locker).  These are two very different types of films, each vying for the attention of movie goers.

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The Winners

Just call her the giant slayer. Kathryn Bigelow and her modest little Iraq War drama The Hurt Locker beat out the behemoth box office champ Avatar for best picture, best director, best original screenplay, best editing, best sound editing, and best sound mixing. Bigelow made history, becoming the first female ever to win the award for directing.

James Cameron and company (Avatar) left with a total of three trophies: best visual effects, best art direction and best cinematography. The cinematography award seemed a little odd. After all, most of this film was computer generated, wasn’t it?

There were no real surprises in the acting categories. Best supporting actress went to Mo’nique for Precious, best supporting actor Christoph Waltz for Inglourious Basterds, best actress was Sandra Bullock for The Blind Side, and Jeff Bridges finally won for Crazy Heart.

Up won best animated feature and best original score, while El Secreto do Sus Ojos (Argentina) won best foreign picture. The Cove won best documentary. For an expanded list of major category winners, scroll to the bottom of the article.

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This week on The Flickcast, Chris and Matt are once again joined by Elisabeth Rappe to discuss all things Oscar. With the Academy Awards airing this Sunday, the team discusses the nominees, argues about who might take home a statue, makes their predictions and generally has a great time.

So, fire up your iPod or browser, get your list of nominees ready, listen to the show and follow along and see if your picks match those of our team. Of course, be sure to catch the Oscars live on Sunday, March 7th at 8/5 Pacific on ABC.

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.

It should come as no surprise that actor Bill Paxton knows James Cameron and Kathryn Bigelow pretty well. After all, he’s been featured in most of Cameron’s films including Aliens, The Terminator, True Lies and Titanic and starred in Bigelow’s vampire film Near Dark. He even worked with both Cameron and Bigelow on a music video for his band Martini Ranch oh so many years ago.

So it’s been kinda odd that nobody has talked to Paxton about both Cameron and Bigelow, especially as the two directors used to be married and are both nominated for Best Director Academy Awards this year. Fortunately, the folks at The Jimmy Fallon Show have seen fit to remedy this situation with an interview of Paxton, which we’ve got the video of to share with you today.

As Paxton is a friend of both directors and owes much of his career to Cameron in particular, he doesn’t really spill the dirt and give us anything particularly revolutionary. Still, it’s interesting to hear him speak about a subject, and two people, he knows so well.

Check out the video after the break.

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The 82nd annual Academy Award nominations were announced this morning. This is the first year that the Best Picture category has been expanded to ten films. Here is a list of the major category nominees.

For a complete list of all nominees, visit the official site of the Oscars. The Awards take place on Sunday, March 7 at 8/5P on ABC.

Best Supporting Actress
Penelope Cruz, Nine
Vera Farmiga, Up in the Air
Maggie Gyllenhal, Crazy Heart
Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air
Mo’nique, Precious

Best Supporting Actor
Matt Damon, Invictus
Woody Harrelson, The Messenger
Christopher Plummer, The Last Station
Stanley Tucci, The Lovely Bones
Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds

Best Actress
Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side
Helen Mirren, The Last Station
Carey Mulligan, An Education
Gabourey Sidibie, Precious
Meryl Streep, Julie and Julia

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The Director’s Guild of America Awards were held over the weekend, and Kathryn Bigelow became the first woman ever to win for feature film direction in the guild’s 62 year history. She won for directing The Hurt Locker, and beat out some stiff competition, including Quentin Tarantino, James Cameron, Jason Reitman, and Lee Daniels.

This could be a momentum changer going into the Academy Award nominations tomorrow morning. There have only been six times in its history that the DGAs have not correctly predicted the eventual Oscar winner. Incidentally, a woman has never won an Academy Award for best director, either.

Other highlighted winners from Saturday night included:

Movies for Television/Mini-Series Ross Katz, Taking Chance

Documentary Louie Psihoyos The Cove

Dramatic Series  Leslie Linka Glatter Mad Men “Guy Walks Into An Advertising Agency”

Comedy Series Jason Winer Modern Family “Pilot”

For a complete list of all the winners, visit the DGA site.

Photo courtesy of the DGA.

Casting for the upcoming Green Lantern movie has become a little more interesting over the last few days. It was long rumored that the role of Sinestro, Green Lantern’s nemesis, would be played by Jackie Early Haley (Watchmen, A Nightmare on Elm Street).  It even went so far as to being kind of confirmed.  It turns out that Haley’s involvement may have been rumor all along.

According to director Martin Campbell (Casino Royale), Mark Strong (Sherlock Holmes) is in talks to play Sinestro and discussed the Haley rumor with MTV:

“No, that’s completely wrong,” said Campbell of the persistent rumor, which popped up again recently despite Haley denying any involvement with the “Green Lantern” movie. “In fact, we’re in negotiations with Mark Strong to play Sinestro.”

I have no doubt this will bring another layer to the debate on who would be the best actor to play Sinestro. Even here at The Flickcast, it was discussed thoroughly. While I originally was in favor of Haley, I conceded to Chris’ choices of either Guy Pearce (The Hurt Locker) or Jason Isaacs (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix).  I wonder how Mark Strong will stack up against them?

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New to DVD and Blu-Ray, The Hurt Locker is a look into the world of an elite U.S. Army E.O.D. unit (Explosive Ordinance Disposal) in their last forty days of a one year tour of duty in Baghdad during the second year of the U.S. led coalition occupation. The three man unit consists of Staff Sergeant William James (Jeremy Renner), Sgt. JT Sanborn (Anthony Mackie), and Specialist Owen Eldridge (Brian Geraghty).

Renner’s character is an adrenaline junky who only feels alive when he is in the heat of battle, or when there is the threat of a suicide bomber or roadside bomb detonating. The three men form a strong bond with one another and try to survive their last forty days so they can rotate back home to their wives or loved ones.

Director Kathryn Bigelow who has directed such action films as Point Break and Strange Days gives the film a unique look as if you are a forth member of the unit and are alongside them in the urban combat zones of Baghdad. Cinematographer Barry Ackroyd positions the cameras perfectly, and sets the look of the shots which makes the film a gritty documentary account of the E.O.D. unit and the everyday dangers they encounter.

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This week on The Flickcast, Chris and Matt are again joined by Elisabeth Rappe and, as usual, launch into discussions of various topics including Twilight’s vampire baby, that Breaking Dawn may be unfilmable, Conan O’Brian, Jay Leno and NBC and the Spider-Man reboot. They also discuss Stuart Townsend leaving Thor, the casting of Blake Lively in Green Lantern, who should play Sinestro in Green Lantern and a whole lot more.

The trio also made some new picks this week including Matt’s pick of Aziz Ansari’s standup video Intimate Moments for a Sensual Evening, Elisabeth’s pick of Lesbian Vampire Killers and Chris’ pick of Katherine Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker, which is new on Blu-ray this week and also one of Chris’ top ten films of 2009.

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.

As hard as it may be to believe sometimes, someone (or someones) actually sits down and writes a movie or TV show before you end up seeing it at your local multiplex or on your favorite TV network. The people who do the sitting and the writing are, surprisingly, called writers and, like the Directors, the Golden Globes and the Oscars, they have their own awards show.

This week, the Writers Guild of America, which is the trade group and advocate for writers, announced its nominations for outstanding achievement in feature film and television, radio, news, promotional writing, and graphic animation during the 2009 season to be honored at the upcoming 2010 Writers Guild Awards on February 20, 2010, in Los Angeles and New York.

We realize that these nominations may not be as glamorous as the Golden Globes or the Oscars, but we kinda like writers around here and think they do a pretty important job. So, with that in mind, here’s a complete list of nominees.

Check out these names, these people are pretty important. Without them you wouldn’t get to enjoy your favorite TV show, movie or pretty much any other form of entertainment. The 2010 Writers Guild Awards will be held on Saturday, February 20, 2010, simultaneously at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles and the Hudson Theatre at the Millennium Broadway Hotel in New York City.

FILM NOMINEES

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

(500) Days of Summer, Written by Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber

Avatar, Written by James Cameron

The Hangover, Written by Jon Lucas & Scott Moore

The Hurt Locker, Written by Mark Boal

A Serious Man, Written by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Crazy Heart, Screenplay by Scott Cooper

Based on the novel by Thomas Cobb

Julie & Julia, Screenplay by Nora Ephron Based on the books Julie & Julia by Julie Powell and My Life in France by Julia Child with Alex Prud’homme

Precious: Based on the novel Push by Sapphire, Screenplay by Geoffrey Fletcher Based on the novel Push by Sapphire

Star Trek, Written by Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman Based upon Star Trek, Created by Gene Roddenberry

Up in the Air, Screenplay by Jason Reitman and Sheldon TurnerBased upon the novel by Walter Kirn

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2010 is in full swing and some really great movies are hitting store shelves this week for the first time and for the first time on Blu-ray. This week’s releases include Moon, Halloween II, Cliffhanger, Kathy Griffin: She’ll Cut a Bitch, I Can Do Bad All By Myself and the Blu-ray release of The Hurt Locker (pictured above).

Check out this week’s releases:

Movies

Amreeka ~ Yussuf Abu-Warda, Hiam Abbass, Alia Shawkat (DVD)

Big Fan ~ Patton Oswalt, Michael Rapaport, Matt Servitto (DVD and Blu-ray)

Cliffhanger ~ Sylvester Stallone (Blu-ray)

Departures ~ Masahiro Motoki, Ryoko Hirosue (DVD)

8 1/2 (The Criterion Collection) ~ Marcello Mastroianni, Anouk Aimée, Claudia Cardinale  (Blu-ray)

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