The Flickcast

‘The Social Network’ Named Best Film By National Board of Review

Posted on December 2, 2010

It’s officially film awards season! Today the National Board of Review released their list of winners for the best in film for 2010. The Social Network was a big winner. The movie picked up Best Picture, Best Actor (Jesse Eisenberg), Best Adapted Screenplay (Aaron Sorkin), and Best Director (David Fincher).

The National Board of Review typically releases their list toward the beginning of the film season. Last year they picked Up in the Air as Best Picture. It did not go on to win an Oscar, though it was nominated.

Here are the major awards that were announced.

Best Film The Social Network
Best Director David Finch, The Social Network
Best Actor Jesse Eisenberg, The Social Network
Best Actress Lesley Manville, Another Year
Best Supporting Actor Christian Bale, The Fighter
Best Supporting Actress Jacki Weaver, Animal Kingdom
Best Foreign Film Of Gods and Men
Best Documentary Film Waiting for Superman
Best Ensemble Cast The Town
Breakthrough Performance Jennifer Lawrence, Winter’s Bone
Best Original Screenplay Chris Sparling, Buried

Netflix to Stream More First Run Movies Thanks to New Deals

Posted on December 2, 2010

Love Netflix but not always completely satisfied with the number of first run movies the service offers for streaming? Same here. Fortunately, it seems the company is taking steps to remedy the situation in the form of a new content partnership agreements.

Back in August, Netflix closed a deal with Epix, a a joint venture between Viacom, Paramount, MGM and Lionsgate. And now, as of yesterday, the company entered into another agreement with new partner with producer/distributor FilmDistrict. Under the terms of the deal Netflix will license movies from FilmDistrict during what’s knows as the “pay TV window,” or the period of time when the films would have normally appeared on premium cable TV channels such as HBO or Showtime.

The first two movies to come to Netflix as a result of this partnership will be Drive, starring Ryan Gosling and Carey Mulligan, and Lockout, starring Guy Pearce and Maggie Grace. Both films are set to be released early next year.

This is good news as other services like Google TV seem to be struggling a bit to make content deals. Netflix offers a good service for a decent price and I, for one, hope they can continue to do so. They do need more first run movies, however, and these deals do seems like steps in the right direction. Lets hope they can keep it going.

Click through for the full press release announcing this latest content deal.

First Trailer for ‘Megashark Vs. Crocosaurus’ Hits The Web

Posted on December 2, 2010

Just when you thought the mashups of fictional carnivores couldn’t get any more ridiculous, think again. The Asylum, a dvd studio company that prides itself of taking marketable ideas like Pirates of the Carribbean and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, only to churn out knock off films like Pirates of Treasure Island and Transmorphers: Fall of Man has now decided to set it’s sights a bit lower.

How low? How about last year’s cult SyFy TV movie, Mega Shark Vs. Giant Octopus.

In this film, you can expect to see tons of plot holes, poor CGI, and bad acting, but the best part? The cast is rounded out by Star Trek: Voyager’s Robert Picardo and Family Matters star Jaleel Whilte. That’s right: Urkel.

The plot is almost too laughable to mention, so we’ll just let you experience the trailer for yourself after the jump. Thankfully, Megashark Vs. Crocosaurus will be available on DVD and Instant Netflix just in time for Christmas on December 21st. Joy!

London Comic-Con Is Calling!

Posted on December 2, 2010

Has the thrill of San Diego Comic-Con waned (gasp!) in the last few years? Is the scheduling for the San Diego, Chicago or New York Cons not ideal for you? Or, would your love of comics, games and movies inspire you to travel internationally (this writer is definitely in that camp)? If you fit into any or all of these categories, then today’s your lucky day! Mark Millar is about to become your new hero (if he isn’t already)!

Millar (Kick-Ass, Wanted, Civil War) has announced that he is launching a Comic Con-themed event for the UK market next April. The Kapow Comic Con will take over London’s Business Design Centre on April 9 and 10, 2011 and be dedicated to the world of comics, movies, TV, games and more.

Stars from Hollywood and TV-land have yet to be announced, but Dave Gibbons, John Romita Jr, Frank Quitely, Bryan Hitch and Andy Diggle have all been confirmed for attendance.

Kapow will also introduce the Stan Lee Awards, which will pay tribute to the comic book legend by giving recipients gong statues for Best Comic, Best Superhero or Sci-Fi Movie and Best Comic Book Hero among others.

For more information, check out the official Kapow Comic Con site. See you in London!

Go Behind The Scenes Of The ‘Community’ Stop-Motion Christmas Special

Posted on December 2, 2010

Who doesn’t love a classic stop-motion Christmas special around the time of the holidays? Rankin/Bass productions like Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer have pulled families together for generations around this time of year, and now it’s time for NBC’s breakout comedy Community to do the same.

Next Thursday, the gang is going a little bit clay, as they get transformed into a world of claymation, thanks to the Dino Stamatolpoulus’ (Star-Burns) stop-motion studio. Here’s the episode’s official synopsis.

When Abed wakes up in stop-motion animation, he takes it as a sign that he and the group must re-discover the meaning of Christmas. Meanwhile, Jeff and Britta become growingly concerned about Abed’s mental health and enlist the help of Professor Duncan. The group undergoes hypnosis to explore Abed’s winter wonderland and soon unravel the truth behind Abed’s madness.

Series stars Danny Pudi and Allison Brie got to go behind the magic at the stop-motion studio and check out how things were going. Check out parts one and two of their all-access tour and be sure to catch “Abed’s Uncontrollable Christmas” Thursday, December 9th, on NBC.

Mobile Wars: Blackberry Overtakes Apple in Mobile ‘Net Usage

Posted on December 2, 2010

For the first time in history, the Blackberry Mobile OS has overtaken Apple’s iOS, at least in the domestic U.S. market mobile internet usage. According to the report from StatCounter, which illustrates November 2010 performance between the major mobile browsers, the BlackBerry OS rang in a 34.3% market share, overtaking’s Apple’s iOS which recorded a 33% share in November.

Another interesting trend is revealed: Google’s Android is rapidly gaining and has almost tripled internet market share from 8.2% last November to 23.8% this year. Over the same period, Apple’s iOS has fallen from 51.9% to 33%. Microsoft’s new Windows Phone 7 has not yet registered a statistically meaningful presence, however we’re only a month or two past the software giant’s big release, so it remains to be seen how it will perform.

This is a huge vindication for Blackberry’s parent company, Research in Motion (RIM), who has historically lagged behind the extremely popular iPhone in both features and popularity. For a considerable chunk of recent history, Blackberry mobile devices didn’t sport a true web browser, and only recently has the company begun offering a modern mobile browser with their smartphones. We recently covered the launch of RIM’s new Blackberry 6 OS which brought so-called ‘crackberry addicts’ up-to-speed in terms of mobile features.

Ricky Gervais and Emily Blunt to Appear in ‘Muppets’ Movie

Posted on December 2, 2010

Muppets are becoming more of the “hip” thing, as big stars keep finding themselves cast in the newest film. Ricky Gervais and Emily Blunt are the latest high-profile celebrities to join the growing list of cameos in Disney’s newest Muppets movie. The specifics behind their cameos have yet to be announced.

The Hollywood Reporter has announced that the duo are joining a packed lineup that includes Alan Arkin, Jack Black, Billy Crystal, Zach Galifianakis and Jean-Claude Van Damme, who have appearances in a story that reunites the Muppets in order to save their movie studio from a developer. I smell musical numbers!

The new Muppets flick, directed by James Bobin, is currently being filmed in various locations around Los Angeles. Jason Segel, who co-wrote the script with Nicholas Stoller, is the human lead (no surprise here after his vampire number in Forgetting Sarah Marshall) while Amy Adams, Chris Cooper and Rashida Jones round out the cast of human leads.

Stay tuned to The Flickcast for the latest developments on the new Muppets movie.

The Flickcast – Episode 79: The Not-So-Deathly Hallows

Posted on December 1, 2010

After some time off for the Thanksgiving holiday to consume copious amounts of food and drink, Chris and Matt are back with an all-new episode of The Flickcast. On this week’s show the boys discuss all sorts of new topics and touch on a few recurring ones as well.

Some of those topics include the new Harry Potter film, the tragic passing of both Leslie Nielsen and Irvin Kershner, James Franco and Anne Hathaway hosting the next Oscars, The Hobbit not in 3D, the future on the Internet and services like Netflix and a whole lot more. They also made some great picks this week including Matt’s pick of the animated series Young Justice and Chris’ pick of the Scott Pilgrim vs. The World Blu-ray.

Want more Chris and Matt? Be sure to check out this week’s episode of This Week in Walking Dead, which stars Matt, guest stars Chris, and series star Andy Rothenberg even stops by.

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.