The Flickcast

ABC Renews ‘Cougar Town’, ‘Modern Family’, & ‘The Middle’

Posted on January 13, 2010

116098_0423 Comedy is king, at least at ABC, as the network has renewed three of its freshmen comedies, giving them the much-coveted second season pickup. The announcement came Tuesday and was given by ABC’s Steve McPherson who said he had given early second-season orders to Wednesday night comedies Modern Family, Cougar Town and The Middle. The network also gave the green light to another comedy pilot called Mr. Sunshine, starring Friends alum Matthew Perry.

ABC also announced the pickup of Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution, which follows the celeb U.K. chef as he travels to Huntington, W.Va., in order to launch a new healthy cooking initiative. The show, from Ryan Seacrest Prods. and Fresh One Prods., will air Fridays at 9 p.m. starting March 26.

And McPherson confirmed the network is at work on a spinoff for The Bachelor. The new show, Bachelor Pad, will run in late summer as a bridge between The Bachelorette and the fall schedule. The show, hosted by Chris Harrison, features former Bachelor contestants keeping it sexy in a house. ABC’s other big reality franchise, Dancing With the Stars, is back Monday, March 22. McPherson said the show would include fewer contestants this season.

The Flickcast – Episode 39: First Flight

Posted on January 13, 2010

spider-man-side-small This week on The Flickcast, Chris and Matt are again joined by Elisabeth Rappe and, as usual, launch into discussions of various topics including Twilight’s vampire baby, that Breaking Dawn may be unfilmable, Conan O’Brian, Jay Leno and NBC and the Spider-Man reboot. They also discuss Stuart Townsend leaving Thor, the casting of Blake Lively in Green Lantern, who should play Sinestro in Green Lantern and a whole lot more.

The trio also made some new picks this week including Matt’s pick of Aziz Ansari’s standup video Intimate Moments for a Sensual Evening, Elisabeth’s pick of Lesbian Vampire Killers and Chris’ pick of Katherine Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker, which is new on Blu-ray this week and also one of Chris’ top ten films of 2009.

As always, if you have comments, questions, critiques or offers of sponsorship, feel free to hit us up in the comments, on Twitter and at Facebook, MySpace or via email.

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Netflix Streaming Coming to Wii This Spring

Posted on January 13, 2010

wii-netflix

Today, Netflix announced it will be adding another gaming console to its list of streaming video partners: the Nintendo Wii. The companies are teaming up to bring Netflix’s streaming media service to the console this spring. Of course, in order to take advantage of this service, Wii owners will need to have a broadband internet-connected Wii (who doesn’t?) and a subscription to a minimum $8.99 Netflix plan.

Now the bad news. Similar to the service on the PS3, the Wii will not have an embedded application like it is on the XBox 360 and instead will require a Netflix application disc which must be inserted in the Wii while accessing content. Given that, still ready to jump on board? If so, you can sign up now to receive additional information and reserve an application disc at Netflix’s website.

Even with having to use the disk this is still great news for those of you who use a Wii and don’t have an XBox 360 or PS3. We realize that not everyone can have more than one console and many people prefer the Wii over the other two. So, even though it took some time, we’re glad this service will finally be available for you — silly inserted disk requirement not withstanding.

Comic Preview: ‘Aliens vs Predator: Three World War’ #1

Posted on January 13, 2010

aliens-vs-predator-three-world-war-1-cover Aliens vs Predator: Three World War #1 [of 6]
Dark Horse Comics – $3.50 US
Writer: Randy Stradley
Artist: Rick Leonardi
Score: 8/10

Machiko Noguchi has had her fill of aliens and predators, being the only person to spend any quality time with both species and live to tell about it. But when a rogue predator clan known as the “killers” slaughters a mining colony on Caparis VII and the Colonial Marines show her the startling footage, Noguchi realizes an unavoidable reunion is on the horizon.

While it’s been 15 years since writer Randy Stradley penned the Aliens vs Predator: War mini-series, to central character Noguchi it’s been 10 years since she stood side-by-side with a predator nick-named Broken Tusk against a horde of aliens and survived. In her time with the “hunters,” she came to understand their culture, including knowledge of a clan of predators that forego their sense of honor for the hunt and kill indiscriminately instead.

Believed to have been wiped out, the “killers” are in fact alive, and worse yet, they’ve found a way to not only control the “bugs,” but to use them as weapons as well. Stradley hits the ground running in this opening issue of this mini-series. Reading the aforementioned 1995 mini-series isn’t necessary – although I would recommend checking out the trade paperback as the story’s pretty good – thanks to the pace he sets in.

What You Missed: ‘Chuck’ and ‘Heroes’

Posted on January 13, 2010

sylar-jail It should come as no surprise that we love Chuck here at The Flickcast. We cover it quite extensively and bring you as much info about the show as we can. We are also still hanging in there for Heroes, even though the show sorta seems to be heading down the wrong path. Although, Greg Grunberg assures us that the show is not being canceled, so its got that going for it.

This week Chuck settled into its Monday slot and Heroes was all new as well. If you missed the episodes, we’ve got some video for you to help you keep up with what’s going on with your favorite reluctant spy and your used to be favorite people with special abilities.

If you saw the episodes already, well, just watch these recaps and previews for next week anyway. We would appreciate it and I’m sure NBC would as well — especially if it gets you excited to watch Chuck and Heroes next week. Check out all the video goodness after the jump. You can also watch full episodes at NBC’s website.

Damon Lindelof Says You Will Hate How ‘Lost’ Ends

Posted on January 13, 2010

With the final season of LOST beginning to air in just over two weeks, fans are already salivating over more unanswered questions, mysteries, and unexpected deaths. This season is expected to ramp up those same themes with much more before the island – and it’s inhabitants – disappear forever.

Exec. Producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse were recently bombarded with questions from the press about what will happen in the coming season. They were tight-lipped, as usual, but they did spill the beans on some facts, such as the fact that Libby (Cynthia Watros) and Michael (Harold Perrineau) will be back. Lindelof also said that this season may be the most frustrating. From the Hollywood Reporter:

“Get ready to scratch your heads, America!” Lindelof said about the premiere. The sentiment was echoed by several cast members. “I think I had to read it three times before it made sense,” Emilie de Ravin said. As for the May finale, “there is certainly a hope that everybody universally loves the ending, but I don’t think it would be ‘Lost’ if there wasn’t an ongoing and active debate,” Lindelof said.

“If I could put on my predicting hat, there’s going to be some that think it’s the worst ending in the history of TV, and on the other end, to balance that out, would be my mom.”

Given that most fans of TV are used to cop-out or confusing endings over the past few years (I’m looking at you Sopranos and Battlestar Galactica), but if one of the executive producers of the show is claiming that we’ll more than likely hate the ending, then we should be prepared for the mother of all unanswered questions come May.

Lost returns to ABC on Tuesday, February 2nd.

Writers Guild Nominations Announced

Posted on January 13, 2010

As hard as it may be to believe sometimes, someone (or someones) actually sits down and writes a movie or TV show before you end up seeing it at your local multiplex or on your favorite TV network. The people who do the sitting and the writing are, surprisingly, called writers and, like the Directors, the Golden Globes and the Oscars, they have their own awards show.

This week, the Writers Guild of America, which is the trade group and advocate for writers, announced its nominations for outstanding achievement in feature film and television, radio, news, promotional writing, and graphic animation during the 2009 season to be honored at the upcoming 2010 Writers Guild Awards on February 20, 2010, in Los Angeles and New York.

We realize that these nominations may not be as glamorous as the Golden Globes or the Oscars, but we kinda like writers around here and think they do a pretty important job. So, with that in mind, here’s a complete list of nominees.

Check out these names, these people are pretty important. Without them you wouldn’t get to enjoy your favorite TV show, movie or pretty much any other form of entertainment. The 2010 Writers Guild Awards will be held on Saturday, February 20, 2010, simultaneously at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles and the Hudson Theatre at the Millennium Broadway Hotel in New York City.

FILM NOMINEES

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

(500) Days of Summer, Written by Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber

Avatar, Written by James Cameron

The Hangover, Written by Jon Lucas & Scott Moore

The Hurt Locker, Written by Mark Boal

A Serious Man, Written by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Crazy Heart, Screenplay by Scott Cooper

Based on the novel by Thomas Cobb

Julie & Julia, Screenplay by Nora Ephron Based on the books Julie & Julia by Julie Powell and My Life in France by Julia Child with Alex Prud’homme

Precious: Based on the novel Push by Sapphire, Screenplay by Geoffrey Fletcher Based on the novel Push by Sapphire

Star Trek, Written by Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman Based upon Star Trek, Created by Gene Roddenberry

Up in the Air, Screenplay by Jason Reitman and Sheldon TurnerBased upon the novel by Walter Kirn

TV Review: ‘Southland’

Posted on January 12, 2010

Southland

Created by Ann Biderman, who won an Emmy for NYPD Blue, and produced by ER’s John Wells, Southland has all the earmarks of a potentially great drama with engaging characters, intense and dramatic situations and storylines and enough police action and procedure to satisfy even the most devout cop show fan. Originally produced and broadcast in a limited run on NBC, the show was scheduled to return late last year. Inexplicably, NBC canceled the show and TNT decided to pick it up. I, for one, am glad they did.

In the deal, TNT will rebroadcast all the original 7 episodes that aired on NBC and then the remaining completed ones that NBC never showed. TNT will see how the rating do for the show to determine if they will order any more episodes. In the meantime, the original pilot airs tonight.

In the pilot, new police trainee Ben Sherman (Ben McKenzie) is having a pretty bad day. His training officer (Michael McGrady) is on him and trying to get him to quit, he’s being harassed by other cops and to top it off, he’s had to **SPOILER** shoot his first suspect. All in all, a pretty intense way to spend your first day as a cop.

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