The Flickcast

‘Star Trek 2’ To Get Pushed to Holiday 2012

Posted on May 25, 2011

Bad news for the new batch of Trekkies today, as Paramount and J.J. Abrams are close to announcing that the sequel to 2009’s blockbuster Star Trek will be pushed back another 6 months from June 29th, 2012 to a Holiday 2012 release. Deadline has the details.

This comes after Paramount pushed back the other franchise film in its arsenal that has Chris Pine as its star. Pine’s also playing Jack Ryan in the reboot of the Tom Clancy-created series. Pine was expected to shoot that film first, but the script wasn’t ready. Paramount hired David Koepp to rewrite Adam Cozad’s script. Koepp just began writing this week after completing his film Premium Rush.

Why is Star Trek in such precarious shape, just 13 months before its release date? The film has three top-flight writers in Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman and Damon Lindelof. Like Abrams, all of them have been busy on other films. Kurtzman directed Welcome to People. Orci has been busy on Cowboys & Aliens and in prepping the Gavin Hood-directed sci-fi epic Ender’s Game.

Lindelof has been busy working on Prometheus, the Ridley Scott film for Fox that was conceived as a 3D prequel until Lindelof came on to do a rewrite and changed the concept so much that they consider it an original. The result? It doesn’t sound like they are close to having a script that will live up to the high quality of the first film that revived a dead franchise. On the Trekkie fan site Trekmovie.com, Orci confessed this week that they have a 70-page outline, and are waiting for Abrams to commit so that they can really get going. Well, that is hardly an enviable position to be in, exactly 13 months before the release of the film.

So it looks like while Abrams, Orci, and Kurtzman are off making tons of over multi-million dollar sci-fi blockbusters, our favorite crew trekking across the stars will have to wait. We’ll be sure to be on this as close as we can while a confirmation comes through.

FDX Reader for iPad Released

Posted on May 25, 2011

When the iPad was first released many users regarded it as an ideal device to read books, comic books, magazines and screenplays. For that last one, your choices were pretty much limited to a PDF format of a script.

If you’re merely reading a script written by someone else, a PDF may work fine for you. But what if you’re a writer and want to read the current script you are writing using the de facto standard screenwriting app Final Draft?

That’s where something like FDX Reader comes in handy. The new app works a lot like iBooks or the kindle app for iPad and allows you to read Final Draft screenplays in their native file format and, more importantly, keep the formatting and page numbering of the script as well as adjust the size of the font — something you have a hard time doing with a traditional PDF file.

It also allows you to flip through pages with a tap or a swipe and jump to a page with a tap on the page number. The app is now available in the iTunes Store for $7.99 and works with the original iPad and iPad 2. Sorry, not the iPhone.

That may seem like a lot ffor what the app does but if you’re a screenwriter this app goes a long way to what we are all looking forward to: a native Final Draft app for the iPad. Until that arrives, being able to read screenplays on the iPad in their native format is pretty much good enough.

Get Your First Look at Marvel’s ‘X-Men: Schism’ #1

Posted on May 25, 2011

The X-Men are some of the most enduring and, let’s face it, cool characters in the entire Marvel Universe. With their diverse powers and great characters they are also some of the most popular creations in the Marvel Universe as well.

With yet another X-Men movie set to hit theaters soon, Marvel is also hard at work on more comic book incarnations and stories featuring these favored mutants. Case in point this time around is the upcoming comic X-Men: Schism from writer Jason Aaron and artists Carlos Pacheco and Frank Cho.

In this one, according to Marvel: For years Wolverine and Cyclops fought side by side, protecting the ideals of peaceful co-existence between human and mutantkind. But when a mutant-triggered international incident goes mainstream, their differences on the battlefield will prove to be too much and fans will bear witness to the fight they’ve all been waiting for – CYCLOPS VS. WOLVERINE!

X-Men: Schism will send shockwaves throughout and the entire Marvel Universe when a decision made by the X-Men leader jeopardizes the survival of all mutantkind. What lengths will some X-Men go to preserve the preservation of their species?

The new comic hits store shelves on July 13th. Until then, check out some preview pages for it after the jump.

Apple Acknowledges ‘ Mac Defender’ Problem, Releases Removal Instructions

Posted on May 25, 2011

In a not surprising move Apple has finally relented and admitted that there is actually a potential problem with the so called “Mac Defender” malware and has offered a fix on its support website. In case you haven’t been keeping up, Mac users have recently been targeted by a phishing scam that falsely claimed their computers were infected with a virus.

When redirected to an illegitimate website to deal with the “virus”, users were instructed to install “Mac Defender,” which was malware disguised as an antivirus application. Until recently, Apple had reportedly told its AppleCare support team to deny the problem exists and “not remove or uninstall any malware” found on any computer.

But now the company has apparently changed its mind and decided to not ignore the problem and hope it goes away. Reportedly, between 60,000 and 125,000 customers had contacted Apple for solutions to this issue.

Maybe that’s why Apple decided it was time to acknowledge the problem publicly. We’ll probably never really know the whole story.

As with a lot of malware, this particular one relies on the user in order to be installed on a computer. Let this be yet another lesson, don’t believe everything you see on your computer and don’t just install something because something says you need it. Think about it first.

Click through for the removal steps as posted by Apple plus a video showing you what the malware looks like. Any Mac users out there have this problem? Let us know in the comments.

First Trailer for ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ Season 8 Arrives

Posted on May 25, 2011

If you’re a fan of improv comedy you are probably a regular watcher of Larry David and the gang on Curb Your Enthusiasm. The show, which shows the life of Seinfeld co-creator and exec. producer David and cadre of friends and relatives, has developed a large and loyal following and fans are anxiously awating the start of the new season.

Well, that waiting is soon to come to an end with the eighth season set to debut in July. The new season brings David and friends to New York and this is sure to create all new situations where David will do something awkward and get into trouble.

After all, that’s what he seems to excel at. Of course that’s also one of the things people love about the show: David is the guy you love to hate.

Check out the trailer after the jump. Season 8 of Curb Your Enthusiasm debuts on July 10th at 10/9C.

New ‘True Blood’ Season Four Teaser Poster Arrives

Posted on May 25, 2011

Fans of HBO’s gothic horror romance series True Blood have been patient. It’s been many months since they had a new episode of their favorite series. And sadly, even a cool comic book series can’t really fill the void between season completely. However, it looks like that patience is going to be rewarded soon.

That’s right, the world of vampires, werewolves, demons, magic and more is about to return to the airwaves with a brand new season. To start things off we’ve got a new teaser poster for season four to share with you today.

As with most posters of the taser variety, this one doesn’t tell us much about the new season. It does, however, at least mark the fact that a new season is coming and fans won’t have long to wait. That’s something, right?

Check out a larger version of the poster after the jump. True Blood returns Sunday, June 26th on HBO.

Relativity Media Announces New Slate, Release Dates for ‘Snow White’, ‘Hunter Killer’ and More

Posted on May 24, 2011

In the war between Universal and Relativity Media for Snow White dominance, it looks like Relativity has made the latest advance. The company has pushed up its untitled Snow White project to March 16, 2012, from June 29. This comes days after Universal moved Snow White and the Huntsman up six months to June 1.

Relativity’s version has Julia Roberts, Lily Collins and Armie Hammer and is directed by Tarsem Singh. Universal’s has Rupert Sanders directing Charlize Theron, Kristen Stewart and Chris Hemsworth. With all the shuffling around you have to wonder if both of these movies will make it to the big screen. With all the jockying for position it would appear boith companies are serious about their projects. So, expect to see both of these see the light of day — ready or not.

This is just one of three pictures that Relativity has dated in moves that seem to be geared directly toward this competition against Universal. The company also announced it has moved its adaptation of the Nicholas Sparks romance novel Safe Haven to be released on June 1, 2012 and selected a Dec. 21, 2012 release date for the Phillip Noyce thriller Hunter Killer.

Check out the full release from Relativity after the jump. This reminds me of the time there were competing movies that featured a comet and or/asteroid about to destroy the earth.

You remember how that turned out? No, neither do we. But it probably wasn’t all that great — especially when movies are rushed into production just to meet a release data. That always works out well.

Windows Phone ‘Mango’ Update to Hit This Fall

Posted on May 24, 2011

With all the news and hype surrounding Apple’s iPhone and Google Android-powered smartphones we sometimes forget the Microsoft has smartphones powered by its Windows Phone OS too. In fact, Microsoft just had a big even yesterday to talk all about the coming update to their phone OS.

The next generation, dubbed Windows Phone 7.1 “Mango” has a host of new features and enhancements that I hate to say look pretty darn good. Mango goes a long way to bring the platform up to date, and Microsoft has named HTC, LG, Samsung, Dell, Acer, Fujitsu Limited, ZTE Corporation and of course Nokia as partners moving forward.

Mango will add more robust multitasking support, messaging threads, deeper social integration, a unified email inbox, voice-to-text and text-to-voice support, and about 500 other enhancements to the Windows Phone platform when it launches this fall.

Click through for the full press release from Microsoft as well as a video of some of the new features of Mango.

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