The Flickcast

‘Zombieland’ Writers Sign On for ‘GI Joe’ Sequel

Posted on January 8, 2010

Only a day after being announced as writers for the upcoming Deadpool movie, Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese have gotten yet another gig as the writers for the sequel to another summer movie franchise: G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. Taking over from the guys who had written the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, and giving it to the team that brought us Zombieland, is I think a step in the right direction.

All of the main cast from the first film are contracted to return for sequels, with director Steven Sommers being the possible hold out. But, with the promise of this new writing team, hopefully the next GI Joe film can add more story to go with the anticipated amount of destruction.

The Rise of Cobra, now available on DVD, cost a reported $170 million and has so far brought in just over $300 million worldwide. But with a Rotten Tomatoes score of about 36%, it’s really got no place to go but up.

New Clips From The ’24’ Season Eight Premiere

Posted on January 7, 2010

We’re all pretty excited about the upcoming 8th season of Fox’s 24 next Sunday. We broke the very first trailer back in October, took you behind the scenes earlier this week, and now we’ve got some more goodies to get you excited for Jack Bauer and his upcoming adventures.

A few new clips have recently become available, showing off mostly Keifer Sutherland as Bauer, transporting an informant that may have details on an upcoming assassination attempt. Fans of FX’s The Shield may recognize Jack’s informant, as well.

There aren’t many details about how this season’s “day” will unfold, but we do know that Jack has retired; Kim has a daughter;They both live in New York City, and CTU has been completely revamped, with the addition of Freddie Prinze Jr. and Katee Sackhoff to the team.

Check out the clips after the jump, and catch the action as the eighth season of 24 kicks off on January 17, only on FOX.

First Trailer For ‘She’s Out Of My League’

Posted on January 7, 2010

Jay Baruchel has got quite a lot going for him lately. He gets to run along a crazed Nic Cage while he does in The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, and now he gets to play the not-so-good-looking guy in a romantic comedy called She’s Out of My League.

Leaning towards more “comedy” than “romantic,” the story takes the convention of “Average boy meets hot girl” and throws it on it’s head. Baruchel (Tropic Thunder) plays Kirk, an average Joe who happens across Molly, played by Alice Eve (Big Nothing, Starter for 10). They end up dating, and Kirk has no idea what to do with himself.

The plot doesn’t sound all that inspired (Hello, Knocked Up), but the trailer does it a bit more justice, showing off some of today’s up-and-coming character actors in the comedy world. Nate Torrence (Get Smart’s Bruce And Lloyd Out of Control), T.J. Miller (Cloverfield) and a few others join Baruchel and Eve.

Check out the trailer for She’s Out of My League after the jump, which hits theaters on March 12th.

Review: ‘The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus’

Posted on January 7, 2010

the-imaginarium-of-doctor-parnassus-lily-cole

In the 1990’s, a pair of French directors brought us two fantastical movies unlike anything I had ever seen before. Delicatessen (1991) and La cité des enfants perdus (The City of Lost Children, 1995) were wildly imaginative, twisted, and haunting, but they were also quite beautiful. Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet packed their movies with so many visual delights that repeated viewings were necessary to absorb even a fraction of them. I forgot how much I loved those films. . . until now.

Watching Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, I experienced the same awe and wonderment that those French films evoked in me. Imaginarium is like a grown up version of The Wizard of Oz, painted liberally by the storytelling brush of the Grimm brothers. It’s dark and twisty, colorful and lovely all at the same time.

Mainstream audiences might recognize some of Gilliam’s work (Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Twelve Monkeys, Brazil, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas), but this film will probably not garner him any new fans, it is just too bizarre. The Gilliam loyalist, however, will be richly rewarded by this visual masterpiece. Before I continue, just a warning that this review contains mild spoilers.

DGA Award Nominations Announced

Posted on January 7, 2010

The Directors Guild of America announced the nominations for its 62nd annual awards today with Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker, James Cameron for Avatar, Lee Daniels for Precious, Jason Reitman for Up in the Air and Quentin Tarantino for Inglourious Basterds all as nominees for its top feature directing award.

The DGA will reveal the winner Jan. 30 at an awards gala at the Century Plaza Hotel based on voting by its 14,000 members. Cameron won the DGA trophy in 1997 for Titanic and Tarantino was nominated in 1994 for Pulp Fiction. Bigelow, Daniels and Reitman are first-time nominees.

The DGA’s Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film has matched the Best Director Academy Award in all but six years since 1948 including last year when Danny Boyle won both trophies for Slumdog Millionaire.

The Pull List Comic Reviews: ‘Blackest Night’, ‘Siege’, ‘Suicide Squad’ and More!

Posted on January 7, 2010

Welcome to the first edition of The Pull List Comic Reviews for 2010! This week both Blackest Night and Siege took center stage with numerous titles, but don’t worry as the Caped Crusader and the Wall Crawler make appearances, too. As always, WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD.

PULL OF THE WEEK:

blackest-night-6-cover Blackest Night #6 [of 8]
DC Comics – $3.99 US
Writer: Geoff Johns
Artist: Ivan Reis
Score: 9/10

When we last saw our heroes, well… let’s just say that some of them were no longer heroes. As black rings zoomed towards the Flash and Green Lantern, their friends and allies who had suddenly switched sides surrounded them. Superman. Wonder Woman. Green Arrow. And so on. With the universe slipping precariously into a never-ending pool of black, a new group of Lanterns have risen to the cause, and you won’t believe your eyes when you see who they are.

I’m starting to think that Geoff Johns should have been a major league pitcher as opposed to a writer, just with the sheer number of curve balls he’s thrown at readers throughout this series so far. Clearly outdoing himself, Johns put together a new group of Lanterns consisting of some of the most inspiring choices to date. The story beats keep pumping along, making the rapidly approaching ending all the more bittersweet.

Artist Ivan Reis continues to weave his magic in this series. Classic speedster moments? Check. Glorious double-page spreads? You bet. Jaw-dropping panels for significant moments? Of course! All this, and a slew of costume re-designs for the new Lanterns, just in case you didn’t know that Reis is drawing at a level that’s almost peerless. The art in this issue, and the series overall, can be summed up in one word: unparalleled.

The fifth installment of this mini-series received a Pull of the Week and a spot on the Best of 2009 list, so I wasn’t expecting an encore performance with this latest chapter. Shame on me. Both Johns and Reis raise the bar once again, and let the record show that, if this upward trend continues, I might not survive the series in its entirety. For sheer comic brilliance – and Lex Luthor! – this was easily the Pull of the Week.

Marvel’s ‘Thor’ Gets New Release Date Opposite ‘Spider-Man 4’

Posted on January 7, 2010

thor1 In the never ending quest for the perfect release schedule for big movies, studios often shift dates around in an effort to one-up the competition or, in some cases, counter-program so their movie is the only one of its genre coming out on a particular weekend. Other times, studios make changes that seem deliberately to undermine other movies. Case in point is today’s switch of Marvel Studios’ Thor movie from the original date of May 20, 2011 to May 6, 2011.

You may wonder why this is significant? Well, this is the same weekend that Spider-Man 4 is supposedly going to be released by Sony. Although, with the troubles the film is supposedly going through, it may end up getting the date pushed. Still, its a pretty interesting move on Paramount’s part.

Although this move does appear, at least on the surface, as an act of internal rivalry, the report states that Paramount simply did not want to wait on an “official” release date change for Spider-Man 4 in case other studios tried to get there first. This way, a Marvel movie still has a slot on the opening weekend of Summer. Makes sense I guess.

‘Paranormal Activity’ Tops Blockbuster’s List

Posted on January 7, 2010

paranormal-activity

Even though some people may think the video rental giant is on it last legs due to competition from companies like Netflix, they still rent a heck of a lot of movies. So many, in fact, they make a list of the top rentals and we’ve got that list from last week to share with you today, direct from the official press release. Check it out.

Topping the Hit List of “Top 10 Rented DVD Titles” for the week ending Jan. 3 is Paranormal Activity. This release media includes an alternative ending not seen in theatrical version.

BLOCKBUSTER Hit List

Top 10 Renting DVD Titles at U.S. BLOCKBUSTER stores for the week ending Jan. 3, 2009:
1. Paranormal Activity
2. The Hangover
3. District 9
4. Inglorious Basterds
5. All About Steve
6. A Perfect Getaway
7. Jennifer’s Body
8. Public Enemies
9. Beyond a Reasonable Doubt
10. 500 Days of Summer

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