In just over a year’s time, you can expect Orson Scott Card’s name to join the likes of Suzanne Collins and George R.R. Martin as some of the best modern authors who have successfully crossed the threshold into the Film and TV medium. Card’s entry, of course, is the Ender’s Game series.

We got word a while back that Ben Kingsley is set to join the cast, which is a big name within itself, but now that’s getting completely squashed with the news that Harrison Ford and Little Miss Sunshine’s Abigail Breslin are joining the cast. From Variety.

Ford will play Colonel Hyram Graff, who’s in charge of training the young male recruits at an elite military academy. Breslin will play Valentine Wiggin, Ender’s older sister, while Steinfeld will play Petra Arkanian, Ender’s ally and trusted right hand.

Gavin Hood (“X-Men Origins: Wolverine”) is directing from his own script, which is adapted from Orson Scott Card’s award-winning novel. Summit Entertainment is co-financing and will release the film in the U.S. on March 15, 2013.

Set in Earth’s utopian future, “Ender’s Game” stars Asa Butterfield (“Hugo”) as the title character, a genius strategist who’s recruited by the government to help destroy an insect-like alien race.

Let’s hope this film doesn’t follow the critical responses that Ford’s last two sci-fi films, Indiana Jones & The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and Cowboys & Aliens, because those were definitely not the quality Ender fans will be looking for come March.

Last weekend, the world was taken by surprise as Marvel’s Captain America: The First Avenger blew past the final Harry Potter film and made it to the #1 spot in its very first weekend. Since then, the film has grossed over $115 million here in the US and upwards of $170 million worldwide. Not bad for the best superhero film of the year (according to Rotten Tomatoes).

This weekend, Cap may have gotten knocked off the top spot and only made roughly $24 million, but the more interesting part is the battle between Universal’s Cowboys & Aliens and Sony’s The Smurfs. Both films opened with an estimated $36.2 million in the domestic, and while Smurfs may be the winner overseas, with a total of $40 million worldwide, that’s simply because it’s the only film to have a foreign opening.

Not a very strong opening for either film (unless you consider Smurfs to be a small film), but the true champion will be determined tomorrow afternoon when the official numbers arrive for the domestic box office.

It has cowboys. It has aliens. It has cowboys and aliens. It’s not a bad film. It’s not a good film. It is a movie. That’s a pretty lackluster opener, but, walking out of the screening, I felt almost completely neutral about Cowboys and Aliens–it was like the things I liked and the things I disliked were in perfect balance.

The film doesn’t fail to deliver on anything the title promises, and you can lose count of the standard tropes from either genre that it hits, but it’s tough to maintain the toothy grin I expected all throughout. Though I’m getting ahead of myself.

Daniel Craig plays Jake Lonergan (one of many last names I suspect are puns but am not entirely sure), a notorious outlaw who awakes one morning with a heavy case of amnesia and one hell of a bracelet on his left arm. He makes his way to the nearest town, controlled by the gruff cattle rancher Colonel Woodrow Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford) and his uppity son Percy (Paul Dano), whose favorite pastime is terrifying the community at large and in particular the local bartender (Sam Rockwell) and his wife (Ana de la Reguera).

It’s not long before Jake endears himself to the locals, among them the soused preacher (Clancy Brown), the woman with a secret (Olivia Wilde), and, naturally, the sheriff (Keith Carradine) by punching out Percy, and not long after that that his identity is revealed, and he’s locked up. Still less longer, the aliens arrive, capture a handful of significant townsfolk, and everyone’s differences are set aside as they form a posse to recover the abductees. ‘round about this time, Jake discovers that his bracelet is able to sense the aliens and, better yet, can blow ‘em up real good.

Even though this episode is a wee bit late that doesn’t mean it isn’t chock full of awesome. Okay, how about it has an abundance of mediocrity? Better?

Anyway, This week on The Flickcast brings more insight, innovation and innuendo from your favorite co-hosts. That’s right, Chris and Matt are back and discussing all sorts of new and returning topics.

Some of those topics include the Superbowl and its ever-present advertising, new trailers for Captain America, Super 8, Cowboys & Aliens, the future of the world and all-things Verizon iPhone.

Chris and Matt also made new picks this week including Matt’s pick of the TV series Saved by the Bell and Chris’ pick of the new Shawn Ryan TV series The Chicago Code.

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.

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As if yesterday wasn’t a big enough day for trailers, between Green Lantern, Your Highness, and Red Riding Hood, but it looks like the best was yet to come, as the first trailer for Jon Favreau’s Cowboys & Aliens, starring both Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford, hits the web.

Based on the 2006 graphic novel by Scott Mitchell Rosenberg, the story is both classic and awesome. Here’s the official synopsis.

1873. Arizona Territory. A stranger (Craig) with no memory of his past stumbles into the hard desert town of Absolution. The only hint to his history is a mysterious shackle that encircles one wrist. What he discovers is that the people of Absolution don’t welcome strangers, and nobody makes a move on its streets unless ordered to do so by the iron-fisted Colonel Dolarhyde (Ford).

It’s a town that lives in fear. But Absolution is about to experience fear it can scarcely comprehend as the desolate city is attacked by marauders from the sky. Screaming down with breathtaking velocity and blinding lights to abduct the helpless one by one, these monsters challenge everything the residents have ever known. Now, the stranger they rejected is their only hope for salvation.

As this gunslinger slowly starts to remember who he is and where he’s been, he realizes he holds a secret that could give the town a fighting chance against the alien force. With the help of the elusive traveler Ella (Olivia Wilde), he pulls together a posse comprised of former opponents–townsfolk, Dolarhyde and his boys, outlaws and Apache warriors–all in danger of annihilation. United against a common enemy, they will prepare for an epic showdown for survival.

Check out the full trailer after the jump and check out Cowboys & Aliens in theaters on July 29th.

Whatever your feelings about director Jon Favreau’s work on the recent Iron Man 2 (for the record both Matt and I enjoyed it but didn’t love it) he’s moving forward with his next project. Not surprisingly, it will also be an adaptation of a comic book. In this case, that would be the comic Cowboys & Aliens written by Fred Van Lente and Andrew Foley.

We’ve brought you info on this film previously, including some casting and script news, and now thanks to DreamWorks Pictures, we can bring you the official synopsis for the film, which is being adapted by scribes Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci and Damon Lindelof and stars Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, Olivia Wilde, Sam Rockwell and Noah Ringer:

1873. Arizona Territory. A stranger (Craig) with no memory of his past stumbles into the hard desert town of Absolution. The only hint to his history is a mysterious shackle that encircles one wrist. What he discovers is that the people of Absolution don’t welcome strangers, and nobody makes a move on its streets unless ordered to do so by the iron-fisted Colonel Dolarhyde (Ford). It’s a town that lives in fear.

But Absolution is about to experience fear it can scarcely comprehend as the desolate city is attacked by marauders from the sky. Screaming down with breathtaking velocity and blinding lights to abduct the helpless one by one, these monsters challenge everything the residents have ever known.

While Harrison Ford is still sitting back in his chair, maniacally laughing at what he did to millions of Indiana Jones fans with the last film (I’m only assuming it was done with nefarious intentions), he has been pretty laid back on the “getting a job” front.

After a few bombs like Extraordinary Measures, Firewall, and Hollywood Homicide, one would think that the actor would make Oscar-worthy career moves like his peers Bill Murray or Jack Nicholson. Instead, it seems he’s possibly taking the more popular route, and signing to do a comic book film.

In a recent article from Latino Review, they threw out the statement that Ford is about to join a “huge comic book movie to be directed by a director coming off a soon to be released huge comic book movie.”

With hard-hitting journalism like this, we’re led to believe that Ford is either going to be cast in Christopher Nolan’s Superman, or Jon Favreau’s upcoming Cowboys and Aliens.

It was recently announced that “hot megastar” Robert Downey Jr. was turning down the role in Iron Man helmer Jon Favreau’s next feature, Cowboys and Aliens. Well, now comes word from Deadline Hollywood that James Bond himself may be stepping up to do battle against the beings from another world.

Daniel Craig is currently in talks to sign on for the lead role of Zeke Jackson in the movie based on the Fred Van Lente graphic novel. The original story is about “feuding frontier settlers and Native Americans in the Old West who team up to fight extraterrestrials.”

The Script comes from Star Trek and Transformers scribes Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, as well as a screenwriting credit to Lost’s Damon Lindelof, and the film has got Dreamworks and Imagine Entertainment powerhouses Steven Spielberg, Brian Grazer, and Ron Howard producing. This could very well turn out to be a mega hit like the small-scale District 9, or a bloated and missed opportunity like 1999’s Wild Wild West (or Transformers 2, whichever flop you want to go with).

No word on when the film is set to start shooting, but the studio is looking at a release date in mid 2011. What are your thoughts on Craig taking over for RDJ?

Screenwriting duo Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman (Star Trek) recently told Sci Fi Wire they turned in their draft of Cowboys & Aliens on Aug. 5 and are awaiting feedback on their adaptation of Fred Van Lente’s graphic novel.

“We’ll find out, literally,” Orci said. “We’re waiting to hear from the principals. We try not to turn it in until we think it’s ready. Obviously, there are always things you can improve.”

Van Lente’s graphic novel deals with feuding frontier settlers and Native Americans in the Old West who team up to fight extraterrestrials. Orci and Kurtzman have stated that they put their own spin on the adaptation, and now producers Brian Grazer, Ron Howard and Steven Spielberg and potential star Robert Downey Jr., will have the opportunity to voice their opinions.

“We’re just literally waiting to hear if they hate it or what,” Orci said.

Cowboys & Aliens is tentatively slated for a summer 2011 release.