The Flickcast – Page 248 of 1030 – Stuff Nerds Love

‘Family Guy’ and ‘American Dad’ Get Another Season, ‘Cleveland Show’ Still Waiting

Even though Fox may have axed shows like Alcatraz and The Finder, they are at least going to be in the Seth MacFarlane business for a while longer. That’s right, the network has renewed Family Guy and American Dad for another season. Both will be getting 22 episode orders.

As for MacFarlane’s other show on Fox, The Cleveland Show, no word yet on if it will be getting another season, which would be its fifth. This is reportedly not because of the network’s lack of confidence in the show but rather because it already has quite a few episodes of it ready and the show is still in production.

The network is apparently waiting to see how next year’s schedule comes together before making a decision. Of course, that could just be a nice way of saying the show is going to be canceled but they just don’t want to tell anyone yet.

In other Fox animated news, The Simpsons already has a two-year renewal, Bob’s Burgers‘ third season pickup was announced in January, Allen Gregory has been canceled, and Napoleon Dynamite is still,as they say, “on the bubble.”

That’s okay, we’re just glad Family Guy is coming back. It’s a funny show that just seems to get better and better.

New Trailer for ‘Transformers Prime’ Reveals Gameplay Footage

About a month and a half ago, we covered the announcement of the Transformers Prime series getting its own game coming to all the Nintendo platforms. Today, we have the latest trailer for Transformers Prime featuring all gameplay footage. Though the release date hasn’t been revealed yet, Transformers Prime is slated for later this year, likely after Transformers: Fall of Cybertron.

It’s interesting to see two Transformers games coming out in the same year, though it makes sense as the two have widely different audiences of fans of the same core franchise. Transformers: Fall of Cybertron is built around the classic fan who is now in their later twenties or older. The story is more mature, has a darker art design and features classic versions of characters.

Transformers Prime on the other hand is the Transformers for the current youth generation. The character designs are simpler and brighter and the series has the three young human sidekicks for kids to relate to. Transformers Prime also is coming out for the Wii, DS and 3DS, systems which are skewed towards a younger fanbase.

Check out the trailer below and stick to the Flickcast for more on Transformers Prime coming later in 2012 for the Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS and Nintendo 3DS.

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‘Harry Potter’ Book Series Coming to Amazon Kindle

With seven novels and eight movies, the Harry Potter franchise is one of the most successful of all time. In fact, the Harry Potter books are the most successful series in the history of publishing.

With that in mind, it has always seemed strange that the books were not available at the most popular online bookstore of all time: Amazon. Well, that’s about to change.

That’s right, starting June 19, all seven Harry Potter books will be available to Kindle owners via Amazon’s Kindle Lending Library. According to Amazon, the company “has purchased an exclusive licence from J.K. Rowling’s Pottermore to make the addition of the addition of these titles possible.” Wonder how much that cost?

“We’re absolutely delighted to have reached this agreement with Pottermore. This is the kind of significant investment in the Kindle ecosystem that we’ll continue to make on behalf of Kindle owners,” said Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com. Well, Kindle owners who also happen to be Prime members anyway.

Sadly, you can’t actually purchase the books and own them via Amazon’s store. You can only borrow them. Which, to be honest, is kinda annoying.

Still, if you’re a Harry Potter diehard fan who’s always wanted to read the books on your Kindle (that is, via legal methods) then this deal might just be the right one for you.

Click through for the full press release from Amazon.

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Google+ App for iOS Updated, Android Version Update Coming Soon

Google+ hasn’t quite caught on with people as much as something like Twitter or Facebook, at least not yet. However, that hasn’t stopped Google from trying make it the best social networking experience possible.

Going a long way towards that goal is the update to its Google+ app or iOS users, which the company rolled out late yesterday. With the new update, users will see a completely redone user experience and Google’s goal is to basically simplify and beautify Google+. They released a statement on this new philosophy:

To be clear, we’re not interested in a mobile or social experience that’s just smaller. We’re embracing the sensor-rich smartphone (with its touchable screen and high-density display), and transforming Google+ into something more intimate, and more expressive.

Sounds good. And if you check out the app, you can see they’ve done pretty much what they set out to do. The new version of the app is extremely well done and, dare we say it, quite beautiful.

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FOX Axes ‘The Finder’ and ‘Alcatraz’ But Gives ‘Touch’ a Second Season

To be honest, we kinda lost interest in both of these shows almost as soon as they started. So, it isn’t really much of a surprise that Fox has given the axe to both The Finder and Alcatraz.

Both series had dropped considerably in the rating since their debut and were, if we’re being brutally honest, not all that engaging or entertaining. Even though it was nice to see Michael Clarke Duncan getting more work.

Fox does like being in the Kiefer Sutherland business and consequently has given his series Touch, Exec. Produced by Heroes alumni Tim Kring, a second season. I’m sure that decision may have something to do with Sutherland’s participation in some 24 movies, regardless of Touch’s relative quality. Still, good for Kring and company.

In addition, Fox has also given series orders to Mindy Kaling’s It’s Messy and other shows like Goodwin Games and Ben & Kate. Other series commitments are expected to be announced soon.

Fortunately, all is not lost for J.J. Abrams current TV career as Fox did have the smarts to give Abram’s other show, the awesome Fringe, a final 13 episode season. That was a good move on Fox’s part and we could not be happier about it.

‘BioShock: Infinite’ Gets Hit With a Delay, It’s Now One of the Most Anticipated Games of 2013

There are times in life where you want to do your best Darth Vader from Revenge of the Sith impression and just yell ‘NO!’ as goofily and as loudly into the air as you can. Right now is one such time, as one of the most highly anticipated games of the year has been pushed to next year.

Irrational Games has posted a statement on their website from BioShock: Infinite director, Ken Levine:

When we announced the release date of BioShock Infinite in March, we felt pretty good about the timing.

Since then, we’ve come to realize that some specific tweaks and improvements will make Infinite into something even more extraordinary. Therefore, to give our talented team the time they need, we’ve decided to move the game’s release to February 26, 2013. We wanted to let our loyal (and very patient!) fans know this as soon as possible.

This is equally horrible and great news. On one hand we have to wait four more months for a game we have already been waiting so long for. On the other hand what is four more months if we end up with a much better game. That conflicted feeling is no doubt running through many video gamer’s minds right about now.

The statement also mentioned BioShock: Infinite will not have a presence at the big summer gaming shows, so the next time we see the game it will be pretty close to done. Let the slightly longer wait commence.

Universal on the Verge of Making ‘Kick-Ass 2’

One of the surprise films of 2010 was Matthew Vaughn’s Kick-Ass. Based on the Mark Millar and John Romita Jr. graphic novel, the movie told the tale of a high school nerd who decides to be a super hero, despite his lack of any super powers.

The movie was a loud, vulgar, and gory explosion of awesome and it left many wanting more. Unfortunately the movie landed director Vaughn a chance at the “big leagues” and he went on to make the best X-Men movie to-date. With the head honcho otherwise occupied, it looked as if Kick-Ass 2 might not see the light of day.

Well that turns out not to be the case. Deadline is reporting that Universal is in talks to make the sequel as early as this year”

Universal Pictures is in talks to make Kick-Ass 2, with Jeff Wadlow directing his script. I’m told the intention is to get the film in production by August. Discussions are just getting underway with such original cast members as Aaron Johnson, Chloe Moretz and Christopher Mintz-Plasse, and they will have to be signed to new deals to reprise their roles.

The Wadlow script was actually written at the request of Vaughn who wanted work on the sequel to happen while he was occupied in the X-Universe. At first the concept of losing Vaughn might seem harsh to the fans of the first film, but knowing that he was involved at some point early on, and gives his blessing now is an encouraging sign.

As If There Were a Doubt, ‘Avengers’ Sequel Is On The Way

Skimming close to a billion dollars worldwide after a mere 14 days, Marvel, Disney and Paramount are proving that you can indeed make a movie mashup with other characters and pull it off. With that in mind, and that massive payroll coming into the Marvel Studios bank account, you had better believe there are already plans for a sequel to The Avengers.

Deadline has the official quote:

Disney CEO Bob Iger just announced that the company is developing a sequel. The film’s success “is a great illustration of why we like Marvel so much.” Demand for Avengers merchandise has been strong, he added.

While there is no official word, you can expect that Disney is courting Joss Whedon to return to the pen and/or direct for the second film, but we all know it’s going to be a bit far out. The next batch of sequels you can expect to take off will be Shane Black’s Iron Man 3, Thor 2, and the sequel to Captain America: The First Avenger.