Penny Dreadful, Showtime’s new series, has all the ingredients to become a cult sensation – a very weird cult sensation. I can just imagine the fan fiction this intriguing, but strange, horror show will produce. Set in Victorian England the series features Vanessa Ives (Eva Green), who is a spiritualist/medium of great power. Ethan Chandler (Josh Hartnett) is the American Wild West sharp shooter hired to help her and Sir Malcolm Murray (Timothy Dalton) who is combing the underworld of London to find his missing daughter, Mina. This world is filled with supernatural creatures, swathed in violence and psycho erotic moments, where psychic powers are real and everyone has a secret, or two.

John Logan (Skyfall, Hugo), who created Penny Dreadful and wrote all eight of the first season episodes, surrounds his characters with other literary legends: Victor Frankenstein (Harry Treadaway) and his monster/companion, along with dilatant Dorian Gray (Reeve Carney) all wander this macabre world. And in the second episode (Séance) we meet the wild, Irish prostitute Brona Croft (Billie Piper) who is entangled in both worlds.

The possible connections to other literary, historical characters and events are endless. This has made some critics suggest it’s too close to the premise of The League of Extraordinary Gentleman (the wonderful comic book series/graphic novels by Alan Moore/Kevin O’Neil, not the dreadful movie version.) This literary device has been used many times, but to me Penny Dreadful has more of a flavor of Kim Newman’s Anno Dracula.

Today, Warner Bros dropped the first trailer for the sequel to 300 called 300: Rise of an Empire. Because this is so new, we won’t waste a lot of time on analysis and just say this looks pretty cool to us. Plus, Eva Green. Just sayin’.

It also has that guy from the Cinemax show Strike Back, which we like and think is one of the best action shows on TV. Other than that, hope you enjoy it too.

Look for the movie in theaters in March, 2014.

It has been confirmed that Rodrigo Santoro will reprise his role as Xerxes in 300: Battle of Artemisia. Santoro will join Eva Green (Casino Royale) as Artemisia, Sullivan Stapleton (Darkness Falls) as Themistocles, and Jamie Blackley (Snow White and The Huntsman) as Calisto.

The story is rumored to be a sort-of-sequel which will follow Xerxes (Santoro) is pushed into the bloody battle with the Greeks by the gold-covered maven goddess Artemisia (Green). Artemisia utilizes her knowledge of how much Xerxes’ father King Darius’s death has affected him, persuades Xerxes to go into battle against those responsible. Artemisia also searches for  group of men to join Xerxes in the battle against the Greeks.

She manages to use her feminine wiles to convince Themistocles (Sullivan Stapleton) to side with her and Xerxes, even though the Persians took her family and he was firmly on the side of the Greeks. Ultimately, she convinces him that his life will be better off if he swaps sides. Themistocles’ skills as a fighter are only rivaled by his ability for deception and lies.

Even though there’s a lot of movies being made from TV shows these days, that doesn’t mean we don’t have room for one more. That’s especially true when you combine the talents of Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Eve Green, Chloe Moretz and Tim Burton.

In fact, that’s just what Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow have done with the upcoming film Dark Shadows. Based on the popular 70s TV series of the same name, the film features Depp as vampire Barnabas Collins and his re-emergence in 1972.

We’ve got the first full trailer from the film to share with you today. Watching the trailer it seems Burton has decided this is more of a comedy than the original series, which may or may not please fans. However, whatever Burton and company end up doing, you can be sure there’s going to be a lot of black, a lot of pasty people and probably some snow.

Check out the trailer after the break. Look for Dark Shadows to hit theaters on May 11.

You might have been able to tell that we’re big fans of the Starz series Spartacus: Blood and Sand here at The Flickcast. So, obviously we’re going to be very interested in whatever new series the network decides to come up with. Case in point is the new Camelot series just announced which includes, among other things, a pretty awesome cast and a new take on the Arthur legend.

The series, which will star Joseph Fiennes as Merlin, Eva Green as Morgana, Jamie Campbell Bower as Arthur and Tamsin Egerton as Guinevere, will cover Arthur’s rise to power and eventual problems dealing with being king, the round table and the quest for the Holy Grail. To be honest, the inclusion of Fiennes doesn’t thrill me quite as much as knowing Eva Green will be in this. Her work in Casino Royale was a bright spot in the film and she certainly has the looks to play the temptress Morgana.

Also, it would be awesome to see the Arthur story taken in a similar creative direction to Spartacus. Camelot: Blood and Sand? Heck yeah, count me in.

Production begins in June on the 10 episode series. It is set to make its U.S. debut in Early 2011 on Starz.