The final season of Spartacus: War of the Damned begins January 25^th on Starz.  That’s tonight! We left off last season with Spartacus and his merry band of rebels facing the full might of the Roman legion, which are not against pulling shenanigans.

I was more than happy to sit down with Manu Bennett, who plays the undefeated Gaul and Spartacus BFF, Crixus.  Manu was passionate, assured, and especially candid as he spoke about his former co-star Andy Whitfield and what awaits Crixus in the new season. Generous to a fault, he also shared some spoils of war. (Note: This interview contains spoilers.)

The Flickcast: “Be Here Now” is emblazoned on your shirt.  Can you talk about why the phrase “Be Here Now” is important to you?

Manu Bennett: “Be Here Now” was a tattoo Andy [Whitfield] had on his forearm when he was going through his cancer treatment.  There’s a documentary that’s going to be coming out soon.

Rather than not being in the know about what happened to Andy, this documentary is for people who are really interested in the show and really fell in love with Andy and I know there’s so many people out there who did. I’m sure Andy would have liked everyone to go and watch this documentary to see what cancer can destroy in this life.

$500,000,000 in 24 hours. That is just a sickeningly absurd number. That means that on launch day, Call of Duty: Black Ops II not only shattered sales records but it was making more than $5,000 PER SECOND in its first twenty four hours on sale. To say people still want more Call of Duty in their lives would be an understatement. So, Activision has decided to give them more with the Behind the Scenes trailer for Call of Duty: Black Ops II’s “Surprise” trailer.

The internet celebrity filled trailer (which also included geek hero, Iron Man himself Robert Downey Jr.) was directed by Guy Ritchie. In the trailer below, Guy talks about how he only directs one commercial a year. He chose to do Call of Duty: Black Ops II’s commercial because of its technical challenges along with the fact that his son thinks it’s cool. He actually goes as far as saying he’d probably do this job for nothing because it is actually that interesting to do.

One aspect of LEGO games that has always stood out was the central hub location where players would go in and out of missions. Originally, this was a small location of only a few rooms that chapters could be explored by entering. This was the primary setup for LEGO Star Wars and LEGO Indiana Jones. More recently, LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes changed this format with an open world Gotham for players to traverse and go into story missions when they saw fit. Now, Traveler’s Tales needs to switch up for the format again for LEGO The Lord of the Rings.

While it made sense in LEGO Batman’s world for the caped crusader to be able to travel around Gotham at his whim, that just isn’t the case with the tighter narrative that needs to be told during The Lord of the Rings. Even in LEGO format, The Lord of the Rings needs to have a clear beginning and ending location that players can’t just skip to. As anyone who has watched, or especially read The Lord of the Rings, it isn’t the destination that mattered to the story as much as it was the journey that got the heroes there.

It has been a long, and let’s face it, bloody road for Spartacus but the end is near. The final installment of the Starz original series about the gladiator turned freedom fighter and his band of bulky buddies will premiere this January. By the looks of the behind-the-scenes trailer, things will end pretty much the way they started: with blood, guts, and shirtless men.

Returning to the series once again are Liam McIntyre (Spartacus), Manu Bennett (Crixus), Dustin Clare (Gannicus), Dan Feuerriegel (Agron), Cynthia Addai-Robinson (Naevia) and Ellen Hollman (Saxa). There are some new faces too with Todd Lasance as Gaius Julius Caesar,  Simon Merrells as (Marcus Crassus and Anna Hutchison as Laeta.

Spartacus: War of the Damned picks up after the defeat of the Roman commander Gaius Caludius Glaber. With several major victories against Rome under his belt, Spartacus is gaining more support for the rebels but more attention from the Romans. Will they find a way to crush the rising hero? Tune in to Starz in January 2013 to find out.

Horses. Zombies. Drones. Walking tanks. What’s left really to say about Call of Duty: Black Ops II at this point? Microsoft knows how valuable a franchise it is. That’s why they dedicated the final section of their E3 Press Conference to an extended gameplay demo. But is it too much of a good thing? Obviously Activision and the gaming masses don’t think so.

As you will see in the Behind the Scenes preview below which was created for E3, Call of Duty: Black Ops II doesn’t want to just look and feel like any other sequel in the Call of Duty franchise. Players will be given new weapons and techniques in order to be given new experiences, instead of just shooting their way through levels in the same way they have for the better part of the past decade.

Treyarch knows the pressure they are under to deliver something new and is intent on doing so both in terms of gameplay and graphics. They give special emphasis on lighting as the final layer of graphical polish to make the game look as good as possible.

In the trailer, there is no mention of new details in the game’s multiplayer and only a very brief detail about the size of the Zombie mode which is intended to give players more options than ever before in it.

Take a peek at the full behind the scenes look at Call of Duty: Black Ops II which is coming out for every major platform and has the potential to again be the highest selling game of the year.

The concept of ancillary books to large comic events is becoming common place. No longer does an event take place in the confines of it’s own limited series or the pages of the characters involved, now it is everywhere. Marvel’s newest event, Avengers VS. X-Men, is no exception to that new rule, although Marvel might just be changing the game a little bit.

Marvel has teamed up with MTV to bring you Avengers VS. X-Men: War Journals, a web series that gives you a behind the scenes look at the event from the perspective of the people actually creating it:

Join Axel Alonso (Marvel Editor in Chief), Tom Brevoort (Marvel SVP/Executive Editor) and Nick Lowe (Senior Editor) as they discuss putting their own personal allegiances aside to craft the biggest story in Marvel history and meet fans at Midtown Comics in NYC for the largest Avengers VS. X-Men launch party in the world! As fans argue about who will win—Avengers or X-Men—some of the hottest celebrities—DJ Pauly D, Big Time Rush and the Wanted—let you know just which team they’ve chosen! Plus, discover more bonus clips featuring the biggest names in comics exclusively at MTV Geek.

Whenever some one tells you some idea is unfilmable, some concept too complex to work properly on the big screen. You really ought to show them these behind the scenes pictures from The Avengers. Proof positive that large and unfilmable ideas can see the light of day.

To help get the world jazzed up for the upcoming release, Marvel has released several really amazing behind the scenes pictures that are just reeking of cool. Not only do you have geek god Joss Whedon appearing in most of these shots, but you also get to see him directing the icons of the movie.

It really feels like Joss is helping Bruce Banner find his motivation, or that he is sharing a new perspective on a scene with Thor. These actors fit the roles so well that they are transcending their own persona’s and have become the heroes themselves.

Sure that may be a bit of little hyperbole, but these awesome production shots are among the coolest officially released pieces yet and do more to jazz us for the film than 1,000 badly photoshopped one-sheets.

You can enjoy the whole set of six shots after the jump, The Avengers hits theaters May 4th.

This summer at San Diego Comic Con, we got a first look at Prototype 2. Then at New York Comic Con, we got hands on with it. But now that we have gotten to check out the basics of the game in action, the developers are letting us take a look at some of the new features of the game including hunting, infiltration and mutations.

Instead of just being given a big bright arrow to follow, players must use a radar system new to the Prototype series for James Heller to track down targets. Once they have found their target, they can either be eliminated or absorbed. If absorbed, the player can then use that person’s security clearance to unlock new missions with mutation rewards for completing them.

These mutations are part of the appeal of the sandbox super powered game. Players don’t swap powers. Instead they get to add more and more powers on top of each other, giving the powers in Prototype 2 an almost Venom-like feel to be able to use tendrils to tear opponents apart or create additional defenses.

Check out the developer diary below and let us know what you think of the new Prototype 2 powers.

The Hunger Games is shaping up to be one of next year’s most interesting films. Based on it’s source material and fan base it would have been easy for the filmmakers to pump out a cheap looking Twilight cash in, but a funny thing happened along the way. The movie actually looks visually intriguing and competently constructed.

One of the more exciting aspects about the behind the scenes of this movie was the inclusion of Danny Elfman as it’s composer. Elfman is always capable of crafting a memorable theme and in recent years he has shown the ability to stretch his musical muscles. Alas, the new Tim Burton movie, Dark Shadows, and Men in Black III are keeping Elfman too busy next year and he has to bow out as the composer. Enter James Newton Howard.

Newton Howard is one of the most consistent film composers working today, he is capable of making a phenominal score for any movie, no matter it’s quality. Heck, the man’s score for Lady in the Water is one of the best things no one has heard in the last decade. He is much like Jerry Goldsmith in that regard.

The movie might have lost one high profile composer, but it gained another master. One who is more likely to give us something great, no matter the final quality of the film itself.

With Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 , hitting this week the anticipation is almost palpabile. People across the internet are clamoring for just about any information available to the game. We know we at The Flickcast are anxiously looking forward to tonight at midnight to get our hands on it. But, until then, we are going to share this behind the scenes video from our friends at Activision that explains both the Facebook and Elite integration in to the game.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 will tie directly in to player’s Facebook friends list. This is the first triple A title to allow for this level of social networking communication that will allow players to look directly at their friends list from the game browser and hop in to games using their Facebook friends. This is going to be a great resource as not a lot of people post their gamer tag to Facebook but almost certainly everyone on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 multiplayer is going to link their game to their Facebook so they can partied up that much easier with all their friends.

We also get to take a look further into the three pillars of Elite with Connect, Compete and Improve. One of the most drastic improvements looks to be the 100 person clan structure which has been added to the game. Clans can take on Clan Operations and level up the entire clan as a whole. Competition looks to heat up as well with the inclusion of both real and digital prizes in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.

Keep your eyes peeled for any last minute news before Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3’s midnight release tonight and check out the full behind the scenes video below.

Last time we got behind the scenes with Val Kilmer and Laura Vandervoort about their roles as Spider-Man: Edge of Time’s top baddy and Mary Jane, respectively. Now, Beenox has released a special interview with the voice of Peter Parker a.k.a. The Amazing Spider-Man, Josh Keaton. Fans of Spider-Man will recognize Josh as the voice of Ultimate Spider-Man in Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions as well as Spider-Man in both Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and the Spectacular Spider-Man animated series. Also in this series of interviews is Katee Sackhoff who voices the Black Cat.

Along with its latest set of screen shots from PAX, Josh talks briefly about the encounters of Spider-Man: Edge of Time and how it will effect gameplay. As has been emphasized, actions taking place in the modern day will affect the world of 2099. He also talks about how the game is a race against time and if players don’t succeed, Spider-Man will die.

One piece of information that is news to everyone from Katee Sackhoff’s interview is that the Black Cat appearing in the game isn’t everyone’s modern day Felicia Hardy, but instead is a future version of the Black Cat that has been cloned over and over. Visually, she doesn’t seem to have as drastic a visual change as the Spider-Men of each time period does. The cloning process has shattered some of her personality which keeps some aspects like the sexual tension between the two present but on top of a splintered psyche.