We don’t know about you, but we’ve always thought J.R.R. Tolkien’s novel The Hobbit was missing something. Sure, it’s a hugely successful, classic book with amazing characters and visuals. But we still feel like something is missing. What is that something you ask? A love story.

Apparently, Peter Jackson thinks so too, at least according to the newly released trailer for part two of his The Hobbit big screen trilogy. Thank goodness as it gives Orlando Bloom and Lost alumni Evangiine Lilly something to do besides shooting orcs with arrows.

But wait, there’s more. We also get a glimpse of what we think is probably the more important character in this tale: Smaug himself.

Yep, there be dragons (well, one anyway) and he looks pretty cool. Still not convinced this had to be three movies but we are convinced that nobody does Middle Earth like Peter Jackson. So, benefit of the doubt extended.

Check out the trailer after the break. (and yes, we’re joking about the love story).

No two ways about it, this movie looks pretty cool. And speaking of the number two, we’ve got two, count ’em, two trailers from it to share with you today so you know just how cool it is.

Set in Viking Britain in 871 AD, Hammer of the Gods is “a visceral, intense tale set in a world whose only language is violence. A young Viking warrior, Steinar (Charlie Bewley), is sent by his father the king on a quest to find his estranged brother, who was banished from the kingdom many years before.

Steinar’s epic journey across terrifyingly hostile territory gradually sees him emerge as the man his father wants him to be – the ruthless and unforgiving successor to his throne.” See what we mean?

Magnet Releasing will release Hammer of the Gods on VOD/iTunes May 30 and in theaters July 5. Check out both trailer after the break. Which one do you like better?

It’s been nearly ten years since Middle Earth unfurled across the screen, and in that time, the Lord of the Rings films have cemented their place in cinematic history. The actors have aged, technology has evolved, and the influence of Peter Jackson’s trilogy is evidenced in all the three-plus-hour epics we’ve seen over the past decade.

Jackson slips back into this world seamlessly, elevating the grandeur but also reigning it in; instead of army battles and global chaos pitting kings against wizards and demons, this is a merrier tale of Bilbo Baggins, Gandalf, and a band of dwarves hunting a lost treasure guarded by the fierce dragon Smaug.

Smaug, we’re told (and cleverly not shown until the very end) attacked the thriving dwarf city of Erebor years ago, evicting dwarven kind from their homeland (writing that I’m starting to wonder if there’s a parable here, big noses and all…) and forcing them to have it out with every other race in Middle Earth, from the orcs at Moria (the chief of whom kills the leader dwarf, Thorin’s, grandfather and becomes the main antagonist) to the elves at, uh, Elvania (the elves chose not to help the dwarves in the battle against Smaug).

This is going to be one of those films that either finds it’s very specific audience, or will go down as the less remembered  cinematic soul mate of The Brothers Grimm, either way this film has an up hill battle to wage this January.

A new international trailer as hit, and unfortunately it still looks like a head scratching decision for just about everyone involved. For those who have remained blissfully unaware of this impending film, here is its unflinchingly lengthy synopsis:

Catching up with Hansel (Renner) and Gretel (Arterton) 15 years after the traumatic incident involving a gingerbread house, the siblings have evolved into vengeful bounty hunters dedicated to exterminating witches. Over the years, the siblings became expert hunters, famous for their proficiency at tracking and taking down their prey. Although still recovering from their ordeal, their work is relatively easy as for an unknown reason harmful spells and curses do not work well against them.

The Mayor of Augsburg recruits them to rid the town and nearby forests of an evil sorceress (Janssen) who is planning to sacrifice many local children at the witches’ gathering during the upcoming ‘Blood Moon’ night in two days time. To make things worse, the duo also has to deal with the brutal Sheriff Berringer (Stormare) who has taken power in Augsburg and conducts a very indiscriminate witch-hunt of his own.

You can see the new trailer after the jump.

The Hobbit is now a trilogy, we all know that now and most of us have made our peace with that very surprising news. Where there were two films now there are three, and one of the more important and simple things a film needs when it is announced is a title and a release date. Few films are brazen enough to release with out a title and a release date, and it seems the third Hobbit will not be as well.

The third film will now be known as The Hobbit: There and Back Again, sharp readers will no doubt recognize that title as the one for the second Hobbit film. Seeing as how that title has some sense of finality to it, they shipped it over to the third film which means the second film will now need a new moniker, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smuag.

This new title was expected, but it does seem to confirm how Peter Jackson and company are splitting the known portion of the narrative. The second film will likely climax with the confrontation with the dragon Smaug and the third film will be the epic Battle of the Five Armies. It was always considered tricky how they would do both justice in one film, so there is a small since relief knowing that both rather large events will have time to breathe on-screen.

As for the release date, the third and final(?) Hobbit film will buck all trends and reason and release July 18th 2014. This allows a Peter Jackson middle earth film to test the Summer blockbuster waters for the first time ever.

Stay tuned to The Flickcast for any more Hobbit based news bits as the first film gets closer and closer.

There are few actors as ‘hot’ as Ryan Gosling right now, the man has the work load of Ryan Reynolds with the industry cred Micheal Fassbender. Now he is looking to capitalize on that sizzle by making his directorial debut with How to Catch a Monster.

The film is neither a gritty noir about catching a serial killer, or a light-hearted sequel to How to Train Your Dragon, it is actually a dark fairy tale. Variety has the story, along with a former Gosling co-star who has been tapped for the lead:

Ryan Gosling will make his directorial debut with the dark fairy tale he wrote “How to Catch a Monster,” with Christina Hendricks set to star… [The] Story is set against the surreal dreamscape of a vanishing city and centered on a single mother of two being swept into a macabre and dark fantasy underworld while her teenage son discovers a secret road leading to an underwater town.

Wow, not at all what you might expect from the normally very serious actor. Conceptually it sounds a bit hectic, but if Gosling is half as good of a writer as he is an actor than there is a fair shot he can pull it off. A film like this will hinge on tone, so we will know very quick what kind of directing chops Gosling has. Also any film that casts the lovely Christina Hendricks as the lead already gets a +1.

This project is one we will be keeping a close watch on as it develops, so keep tuned to The Flickcast for any new updates.

Rome was an incredible show on HBO. It was big, it was bloody and it was epic. In a lot of ways it was a spiritual forebearer of Game of Thrones, which is currently the best thing ever. So there is a nice symmetry in the most recent casting addition to Thrones season 3.

Entertainment Weekly was able to score the exclusive news that veteran character actor Ciarán Hinds has signed on to one of the big new roles for the upcoming season:

The Rome actor has been cast as Wildling leader Mance Rayder, the King Beyond the Wall. Rayder has united the disparate clans of the Far North behind a single mission: To attack The Wall. He’s been frequently referenced (though unseen) in the HBO hit fantasy drama’s first two seasons.

Ciarán Hinds has some serious gravitas, so the show might regain some of the heft that has been missing since the dear departing of the one and only Sean Bean.

Not content to just bring in Caesar to the world of Westeros, Brutus from Rome has previously been cast in a prominent role in the next season as well.  Et tu Brute indeed!

Keep your eyes peeled to The Flickcast for any more updates that spill from the upcoming filming of the new season of Game of Thrones. 

Wow, leading up to comic-con this concept was inconceivable. Take the already stretched tale of The Hobbit and transform it into a trilogy, to paraphrase Bilbo, it seemed like an idea that make the story feel like butter spread over too much bread.

Then the avalanche started to roll when Jackson himself alluded to the potential of a third film. We talked about the potential expanding of the story in the wake of the first rumors. Now, thanks to a posting on Jackson’s Facebook fan page, we have confirmation:

So, without further ado and on behalf of New Line Cinema, Warner Bros. Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Wingnut Films, and the entire cast and crew of “The Hobbit” films, I’d like to announce that two films will become three.  It has been an unexpected journey indeed, and in the words of Professor Tolkien himself, “a tale that grew in the telling.”

Go visit Jackson’s page for the whole note to the fans, it goes a little deeper into the why of this decision.

So there you have it, The Hobbit is officially a trilogy. This is an interesting turn of events for one of the most anticipated films of this and next year.

We need some processing time to decide of this is wonderful or treacherous news. Stay glued to The Flickcast for a more in-depth reaction and any new news regarding the new, third, Hobbit film.

The Lord of the Rings trilogy is one of the greater trilogies in film history. Famously there is a story about Jackson originally pitching the adaptation as two movies. The eventual producer of the films heard the pitch and asked if there were three books why not make three films.

Well that was one of the first sparks that lead to Middle Earth arriving on cinema screens in epic and beautiful detail. Now it seems like that original logic is being turned on its head as The Hollywood Reporter thinks rumor of a third Hobbit film is quite firm:

Warner Bros., Jackson, producer Fran Walsh and writer-producer Philippa Boyens began exploring the logistics of what it would take to make another movie. Those talks are said to have accelerated in recent days, with the studio on board if the right financial arrangements can be achieved. That includes securing new actor deals for the expansive cast as well as shoring up certain rights associated with the property.

Of course certain novels benefit from being told over nine hours instead of three or even six, but not necessarily The Hobbit. Tolkien’s first middle earth book is smaller and simpler in size and scope from each part of the Lord of the Rings series, so some serious padding needs to take place.

Stay glued to The Flickcast, as any ultimate decision that comes down about this will have to happen pretty soon.

Sure The Avengers was great and The Dark Knight Rises has a couple of people interested in checking it out, but the real big boy of the 2012 movie year is The Hobbit. Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings films have managed to become the most successful franchise ever in terms of Box Office, Critical Reception and Award Recognition.

So when the first of two prequel movies hits theaters this winter it will be a very big deal. Especially when you consider Peter Jackson using the exposure of the Hobbit films to push a new revolution in picture clarity, shooting both films in a staggering 48 frames per second.

So with that in mind take a gander at these beautiful stills from the upcoming first part of The Hobbit. These debuted over at Entertainment Weekly for their upcoming Comic-Con heavy issue. You can’t deny that Peter Jackson has the look of Tolkien’s world down.

These images should fill any Lord of the Rings fan with excitement, everything about these movies look like a return to form for Jackson and his New Zealand based crew. Expect The Hobbit to have a big presence at Comic-Con this year, so like always keep your eyes peeled to The Flickcast for any thing juicy out of San Diego.

After the jump you can take a look at all the new pictures.

Game of Thrones is one of those shows that uses the concept of a severed head very liberally. You see them often, so when a scene calls for multiple heads on spikes it might be difficult for the production crew to whip out a new head. So sometimes they redress one that they have lying around the offices.

Normally that just becomes a fun little anecdote that gets shared on a DVD commentary, but in this case it becomes an overblown semi-crisis when one of those heads happens to strongly resemble that of a recent US President.

Deadline has been following this bizarre story, which now includes an official HBO apology:

We were deeply dismayed to see this and find it unacceptable, disrespectful and in very bad taste. We made this clear to the executive producers of the series who apologized immediately for this inadvertent careless mistake.  We are sorry this happened and will have it removed from any future DVD production.

David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, creators of the hit series, say the head was not meant as a political statement, but rather the product of a production crew scrapping the bottom of the severed head barrel towards the end of production. Considering this story only found the light of day due to their own words in the DVD commentary of the episode, it’s probably a true origin.

So there you have it, better go out and pick up the first printing of those Game of Thrones season one DVDs and Blu-Rays before they re-release the sets sans Dubbya’s severed noggin. The long, slow wait for season three continues.

With seven novels and eight movies, the Harry Potter franchise is one of the most successful of all time. In fact, the Harry Potter books are the most successful series in the history of publishing.

With that in mind, it has always seemed strange that the books were not available at the most popular online bookstore of all time: Amazon. Well, that’s about to change.

That’s right, starting June 19, all seven Harry Potter books will be available to Kindle owners via Amazon’s Kindle Lending Library. According to Amazon, the company “has purchased an exclusive licence from J.K. Rowling’s Pottermore to make the addition of the addition of these titles possible.” Wonder how much that cost?

“We’re absolutely delighted to have reached this agreement with Pottermore. This is the kind of significant investment in the Kindle ecosystem that we’ll continue to make on behalf of Kindle owners,” said Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com. Well, Kindle owners who also happen to be Prime members anyway.

Sadly, you can’t actually purchase the books and own them via Amazon’s store. You can only borrow them. Which, to be honest, is kinda annoying.

Still, if you’re a Harry Potter diehard fan who’s always wanted to read the books on your Kindle (that is, via legal methods) then this deal might just be the right one for you.

Click through for the full press release from Amazon.