I’m just going to go ahead and say it. I’m on the fence about NBC’s upcoming series about a young Will Graham and Hannibal Lecter called, appropriately enough, Hannibal. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a fan of the guy playing Hannibal in the show, the awesome and under-appreciated Mads Mikkelsen.

My problem is with the premise and, from what I’ve seen so far, the execution. Also, I just don’t buy the guy playing Graham, even though I’ve enjoyed Hugh Dancy in other roles. He seems out of place here

Plus, I’m not sure the world really needs a series covering this subject matter from a “regular” network that probably can’t do it justice. This really seems more like a show that belongs on FX or even HBO. But hey, who knows, I could be wrong.

You can have more to go on and judge for yourself by watching the new trailer NBC posted from the show. Be sure and check it out after the break.

Look for Hannibal to premiere on April 4th.

It seems the filming of the Hannibal pilot has devoured the time of at least two of the principle people involved. We already told you that David Slade is dropping out of the Daredevil reboot, in part to direct the pilot.

Now it seems that one of the new series’ stars is having to back out of yet another Marvel movie project. Mads Mikkelsen, who plays the titular cannibal in the new series, was all set to take on a villain role in Thor 2, but now has to back out due to conflicting schedules.

This is a real shame, because Mikkelsen has the right qualities for a foe of the God of Thunder. It was rumored that he was actually going to play The Executioner, who is basically a minion for the Enchantress, which means we might not get some one as good as Mads to fill his shoes.

The Hannibal series must really be exciting if it is winning out over Marvel projects these days, especially for a character actor like Mikkelsen who could have potentially been apart the Avengers movie-verse.

Then again it is not altogether surprising, Marvel is developing a reputation of low-balling a lot of the actors in these films. And while the exposure and potential future opportunities a movie like Thor 2 would provide, the guaranteed money and work of a TV series is tough to turn down.

A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

It seems as if every super hero project at Fox has to go through at least one director kerfuffle during it’s pre-production. So it is hardly a surprise to hear that Daredevil just lost its director.

David Slade has officially dropped out of the project that can ill afford any delays. If Fox can’t get this movie into production soon they run the risk of losing the rights back to Marvel. A pleasant prospect to anyone who doesn’t work for Fox.

Which is exactly why this is bitter-sweet news, because the fans ultimately win if Fox totally screws the pooch on this film and loses the rights.

That isn’t the only pertinent Fox based director news to hit today either. Josh Trank, who made the stellar super hero found footage movie Chronicle, has finally signed on the dotted line to take over Fantastic Four. Trank has been rumored for the job since the 8:00pm screenings let out on Chronicle‘s opening day, but it is nice to see the deal get inked.

While it would be nice to see FF get mired in the same sort of limbo that might bring Daredevil back to the Marvel Studios fold, I think Fox is capable of letting Trank make a Fantastic movie. Fox has done a lot to mend the fences with genre fans in the last couple of years with the resurgence of their X-Men and Apes franchises.

Just when you thought Hell’s Kitchen was safe from the grasp of Hollywood after 2003’s embarrassment to the genre which was Mark Steven Johnson’s Daredevil, it looks like the property may still be lucrative enough to garner a reboot.

Fox is so keen on the idea of rebooting the Man Without Fear, they’ve even signed Twilight: Eclipse director David Slade to take on the film.

From Variety: Slade has been considering several comicbook properties, including Fox’s “Wolverine,” but that gig wound up going to Darren Aronofsky (“Black Swan”). Though the film wound up spinning off “Elektra” with Jennifer Garner, studio had hoped “Daredevil” would earn more than its $103 million domestic take and launch a series of sequels.

Fox has been looking to redevelop the character since, but people close to the project say it’s not a reboot per se — more a continuation of the “Daredevil” saga. Studio has yet to hire a scribe, but writer would work closely with Slade.

Sadly, because Fox has been keeping the film in “pre-production” for years, they managed to retain the rights to Daredevil when Marvel was purchased by Disney. The same thing goes for The Fantastic Four, which the studio is also hoping to reboot.

One can only hope that Slade and the writer yet-to-be-decided will do a better job than the Affleck/Garner vehicle from 2003, but the most we can hope for is that we won’t get an ancillary Kevin Smith cameo. Fingers crossed.

This week on The Flickcast Chris and Matt take on a slew of new and recurring topics. Some of these include the recent Emmy Awards, Fantastic Four casting rumors, X-Men: First Class, Jimmy Fallon’s career and the Clash of the Titans Sequel.

They also discuss potential directors for X-Men Origins: Wolverine 2, True Blood, Mad Men, the Community Emmy commercials, the awesomeness of AMC network’s TV shows, the greatness of Joss Whedon’s Firefly and casting for The Expendables 2.

Plus, the guys made some picks this week including Matt’s pick of the innovative sci-fi show Lexx and Chris’ pick of the classic series Firefly starring Nathan Fillion and Summer Glau.

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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