The Flickcast – Page 713 of 1030 – Stuff Nerds Love

Next Season of ‘Smallville’ To Be The Last

From the not really surprising department comes the “official” word that the next season of Smallville will be the last. The network made the announcement during its upfront presentation this morning saying that it will end the show after the tenth season.

Again, not so surprising considering the show seemed to always be “on the bubble” and never was a ratings winner. However, this season the show performed far better than expected, which reportedly earned it a renewal for a tenth and final season.

As a fan of the show, I’m happy to see it coming back for at least one more season. And truth be told, the show was very good this year so I’m not surprised it did better in the ratings. People really seemed to respond to the most recent storyline and the relationship between Clark, Lois and The Blur was well done.

With next season being the last now we just need to do a storyline that will take it from the small screen to the big one. Tom Welling has spent years perfecting Clark Kent and Superman, I think it’s time he got the chance to play them in a feature film. Who’s with me?

‘Heavy Rain’ PS3 Game Being Adapted Into Feature

We all know that art mimics life, and most video games mimic film, but does it become redundant when film mimics games mimicking film? Earlier this year, the highly anticipated cinematic PlayStation 3 game Heavy Rain was released, which follows several people in a rainy metropolitan area whose lives are affected by a serial killer.

The game’s main attraction is its rich storyline and deep (and sometimes boring) cutscenes that move it along. It looks like a few studio heads have decided to swap the computer-generated characters with real actors, as former New Line execs Bob Shaye and Michael Lynn, now of Unique Pictures, have recently picked up the rights to adapt the game into a full-length feature. From Deadline Hollywood:

Using their own money, Shaye and Lynne posted top bid in an auction held by CAA on behalf of game developers Quantic Dream.

Heavy Rain has sold 1 million units since its release in February.  Players hunt the “Origami Killer,” a serial murderer who drowns his victims four days after they are abducted, leaving only a small origami figure and an orchid on the corpse. The game becomes a procedural in which four characters try to solve the crime after another potential victim is kidnapped.

Unique has a first look deal with Warner Bros, but Shaye liked it enough to use his own money and not wait for approval to buy it. A deal should be sealed shortly.

Those who have played the game realize that this isn’t all that necessary, seeing as how the game plays out like a complete movie on it’s own. But with its one-dimensional voice work and the possibility of a cool Saw-like franchise, it only makes sense that a studio would be willing to scoop it up.

Huge Announcements from Google’s I/O Conference Day 2

Day two of Google’s annual developer’s conference proved to be quite a bit more exciting in terms of new announcements. As I said earlier, day one was all about HTML5, Wave and open-source video codec, VP8.

Today, Google announced the newest version of the Android OS v2.2, dubbed ‘FroYo.’ For some reason, I now have a craving for frozen yogurt, but I digress. Other big announcements included flash support for Android as well as Google TV, their open-source venture to bring the web to your TV and revolutionize your couch-surfing forever.

Android OS 2.2 or ‘FroYo’ offers increased speed and includes 20 new features designed to help the enterprise user, including support for Microsoft Exchange. A demo showed the new OS running faster than previous OS version “Eclair” as well as the iPad. Additional features include tethering built-in at the platform level, better data backup, a new cloud-to-mobile messaging API that allow desktop users to look up directions on their desktop and then send them to their Android device.

Pretty slick, but perhaps the biggest Android-related announcement? Support for flash via Adobe’s Flash Player 10.1 public beta. (Take that, Steve Jobs!) The newest version of flash is mobile-optimized and addresses the two top complaints with Adobe’s flash product: resource-hogging behavior and battery-destroying power requirements. Wired.com tested the latest version of flash on Android 2.2 and found no significant problems on either front.

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The Skrulls Could Be the ‘Big Bad’ in Joss Whedon’s ‘The Avengers’

While this is definitely a cool idea, it should be noted that this piece of news is most definitely a rumor as of now and should be treated as such.

With all eyes still on Jon Favreau’s Iron Man 2 as it continues to make money at the worldwide box office, most Marvel fans are already ready for more from the cinematic universe. We’ve got Thor on the way next and then Joe Johnston’s Captain America. But after that, everything leads to Joss Whedon’s The Avengers in 2012.

We’ve heard we’ll see just about every Marvel character in The Avengers the company currently has the film rights to including The Hulk, Thor, Cap, Iron Man, Ant Man, and Hawkeye. Now we’re getting word that the main villains of the film could be the alien race The Skrulls.

The highlight of this insider scoop (DISCLAIMER: which has not been confirmed by the studio itself) is that the shape-changing alien race the Skrulls are being used as the main antagonists for The Avengers. Not only that, but the Skrulls will ‘brainwash’ and use the Hulk in a similar fashion Loki did in the comics.

Don’t expect a full on alien invasion, though; that will have to wait for a sequel. The Skrulls’ role will be largely clandestine, similar to the way S.H.I.E.L.D. operates.

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Megan Fox Not Returning For ‘Transformers 3’

Apparently, the reports of friction between director Michael Bay and hot actress Megan Fox are true as, according to various reports, the actress will not be returning to star in Transformers 3. The studio supposedly did not pick up her option for the third film, which starts shooting this week in Los Angeles. Although, if you believe Fox, the decision to not to appear in the film was actually her’s.

If the studio really did make the decision and Fox is just covering, then I agree it still seems like an unusual move for the studio and director Bay to make, especially as the film has just begun production. To eliminate an actress from a franchise where she plays a pretty large part and is also the love interest is somewhat risky. In addition, previous reports had indicated that writer Ehren Kruger and Bay were planning on creating a ‘female nemesis’ for Fox’s character.

I guess you can forget about that as Bay and company now plan to take the story “in another direction,” and will cast a new love interest. Perhaps said love interest will be a female bad guy? Could be interesting.

But really, the stars of any Transformers film are the robots so what actors star in the film, even though the list has impressively grown for this film with the additions of John Malkovich, Frances McDormand and Patrick Dempsey, are not as important. To be honest, you could probably replace the entire cast with new people and as long as the robots were cool, which let’s face it they are, the movie would still make a ton of money.

Transformers 3 is filming now and will hit theaters, sans Megan Fox, on July 1st 2011.

The CW Announces New Fall Schedule

Another network has joined in and has announced their schedule for the Fall. Like NBC, ABC, CBS and Fox, The CW has stepped up to let us all know what they have in store for next season.

In addition to returning shows such as Smallville, One Tree Hill, Gossip Girl and Supernatural, The CW is debuting two new shows in the Fall, Nikita and Hellcats. To help them find success, these new shows will be given coveted timeslots following the networks biggest hits.

Nikita, which features Maggie Q in an update to Luc Bessons action film La Femme Nikita, will air on Thursdays following The Vampire Diaries and Hellcats, which is produced by Smallville’s Tom Welling and follows a pre-law student turned cheerleader, will be on Wednesdays following America’s Next Top Model.

Smallville and Supernatural are also back together but now will air on Friday nights. The network labels its new Monday lineup as “the Left Coast/Right Coast pairing of 90210 and Gossip Girl.” The network also announced it will launch a new reality series called Plain Jane this summer.

Check out the full schedule after the jump.

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Check Out Four New Clips from Tonight’s ‘Community’ Season Finale

It’s no secret we love NBC’s freshman comedy Community around here. Since the day it premiered (and really, before) we’ve been entertained by the comedic adventures of Greendale Community College’s Spanish study group led by the always awesome Joel McHale.

With the show about to air its season finale tonight, we’re going to be sad to see it go. Fortunately, the show was so successful it will be back next year in the same time slot and will no doubt feature even more great episodes next season.

Before that, and to commemorate tonight’s season finale, we’ve got a whole bunch of clips to share with you today. These four clips are taken directly from the episode and show exactly what makes this show so great.

Check out all the clips after the jump and be sure to catch the season finale of Comunity tonight at 8/7C on NBC.

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Google’s I/O Developer’s Conference Kicks Off With HTML5 and Web Video Announcements

In San Francisco yesterday morning, Google’s big developer conference I/O made a series of somewhat predictable announcements to the some 5,000 developers in attendance. Given the internet giant’s preference for cloud-based computing and open standards, it came as no surprise that Google is throwing its weight behind HTML5 and the first truly open and royalty-free video codec, VP8.

Born from the WebM Project, created to develop a high-quality, open video format for the web that is freely available to everyone, Google joins Mozilla, Opera and at least 40 other publishers, software and hardware vendors in bringing true open-source video to the web. Having acquired the video technology earlier in the year, developers have been anxious for Google to release it into the open source community. Finally, they have their wish.

On the HTML5 front, keynote speakers reiterated Google’s support for HTML5 and the resulting cloud-based browser computing that the company is known for. HTML5 pushes forward a browser-based experience that not reduces the need for plug-ins and eliminates the need to download and install specific programs.

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