The Flickcast’s ‘On The Radar’

There’s a lot of interesting stuff on the radar this week. An Avatar alumni could face off against Conan, Modern Warfare developers bring a fight to Activision, and director Guy Ritchie may be breathing new life into the heroes of Camelot.

Fox finds its shadow for $1 million and David Slade may be the man

Fans of the comic book series The Shadow rejoice as it seems the reboot continues to move forward.  While it was thought Sony and director Sam Raimi (Spider-Man, Army of Darkness) would bring a new version of the character to the big screen things have changed somewhat.

After Raimi began shopping the property around Fox decided to purchase the rights. Sadly, it sounds like Raimi may no longer direct, possibly replaced by David Slade.  Slade directed the vampire film Thirty Days of Night which, unfortunately, felt just that long in the theater. Here’s hoping he can put a little more adrenaline into The Shadow.

How I Met your…Smurf?

Neil Patrick Harris will be venturing to the land of blue, three apples tall creatures in Smurfs: The Movie.  The How I Met Your Mother star won’t be playing a Smurf though.  As this film will be a mix of live action and animation, Harris will be playing the lead live action character.  Too bad, I would have liked to know just which Smurf he’d play.  “Awesome” Smurf maybe?  Let us know your picks in the comments.

‘Wolverine 2’ starts shooting next January

X-Men Origins: Wolverine was pretty good, but it was missing one thing: ninjas!  Hopefully that will be rectified in the sequel which is set to begin shooting next January.  Delving into Wolvie’s Japanese mythos the script follows stories penned by two pretty big names:

“Based on a story cycle by Frank Miller and Chris Claremont, Wolverine’s adventures in martial arts will be a love story featuring a Japanese actress, I am told. ‘It’s a beautiful story,’ says a source, ‘and will be very different than the first film.'”

Okay, I’m not really sold on the “love story” angle but considering the number of women that went to see Wolverine (pretty much for mutant hunk, Hugh Jackman) at least this will be one you can take your girlfriends to.

‘The Avengers’ script assembled!

We’re still a long way off from the release of the highly anticipated The Avengers movie, but here’s good news.  The script, by Zak Penn, is finished.  Marvel’s own Joe Quesada tweeted his excitement saying:

@JoeQuesada: “Definition of “goose bumps.” Pressing enter and watching a screenplay entitled “AVENGERS” come out of my printer.”

I think goose bumps is an understatement, but we’re definitely excited to hear about what is on deck for Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.

Benicio Del Toro to go undercover

After battling the curse of Lycanthropy in The Wolfman, Benicio Del Toro is set to take on the mob next. Del Toro will be playing FBI agent Jack Garcia in Making Jack Falcone.  Much like his Wolfman alter ego, it sounds like Del Toro will be doing a lot of shape-shifting in this role as well:

“…Garcia’s biggest dilemma was keeping his cover straight. He would go from the New York case to Miami, where he posed as a New York capo in a sting against crooked cops, to Atlantic City, where he pretended to be a drug dealer in another case.”

‘Conan’ may have his villain

I wasn’t the biggest fan of Avatar.  However, it did have one stellar performance in it by Stephen Lang.  It seems the villainous Colonel Quaritch has attracted the attention of the producers behind the upcoming Conan movie and they may have offered him the role of Khalar Singh.  According to a leaked casting breakdown, Singh is:

“…in his 40s to 50s, Asian or Middle Eastern, Central Asian, Mongol, Turkish, or Persian, open to all ethnicities; commanding in size and manner, a warlord and formidable warrior, brilliant, cruel, weathered and tanned by the many campaigns he has waged and won.”

Yup, sounds like Quaritch to me. Here’s hoping this catapults Lang into playing a role I think he was born for after seeing Avatar, Duke Nukem!  Just imagine him with some shades on and you’ll understand what I’m saying.

‘Modern Warfare 2’ developers take Activision to the judicial battlefield

There’s no denying Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 was a huge hit, both critically and financially.  Now, two developers behind the Modern Warfare 2 want their take of that success.  In an effort to receive royalties owed to them Jason West and Vince Zampella have sued Activision for $36 million in damages.  West and Zampella claim they were let go to avoid paying them out.

Guy Ritchie heading to Camelot?

We all saw what director Guy Ritchie did for Sherlock Holmes.  In short, made an age old character…well, awesome!  Now Ritchie may be considering putting a new spin on a historic figure, King Arthur.  Warner Brothers is working on a new Excalibur movie based on a Warren Ellis script.  Coincidentally, and maybe this is a sign of stars aligning for this film, Ellis wrote on the comic series Excalibur years ago.

Warner Brothers banking on more 3D films

Avatar certainly made 3D a mainstream commodity and Warner Brothers is looking to cash in.  The studio has already confirmed 3D versions of Harry Potter and Clash of the Titans.  Now they will be adding 3D to Green Lantern and Zack Snyder’s (300, Watchmen) Sucker Punch.  It took awhile to get to this point, but I think it’s safe to say 3D is here to stay.

‘Smallville’ back for season ten

While the Superman movie may struggling to get into production, Smallville has been giving us our fix of The Man of Steel.  While the TV show was once thought to be on the bubble something happened and the series surged in popularity again.  As such, it comes as no surprise that CW has picked up Smallville for a tenth season.