The current trend in sequel box office returns is tied to perception. Gone are the days of diminishing returns as a rule, these are the golden times for franchises. How the general public feels about the franchise is now king, and the thing about feelings are, they can be changed.

Case in point, GI: Joe: Retaliation.

The franchise had a below average first film that left a sour taste in the mouths of cinema-goers. It did have a strong opening weekend and final total gross so a sequel was inevitable, but something had to be done to ensure the public perception didn’t bury the new film before it had a shot.

Warming the hearts of movie executives everywhere, GI: Joe Retaliation proved that franchise perception can be fixed and sequels to poorly received films have a shot to come out as strong as its predecessor without waiting on word of mouth or reviews to set in.

Hey all! As I am sure some of the regular readers of The Flickcast have noticed, my favorite part of the Con season is taking pics at them. Unfortunately, due to some professional responsibilities, I was only able to get down to one day of WonderCon this year.

But because my time was limited, I didn’t waste it on panels and the like. Instead I hit the floor with camera in hand and got as many pics of the Wondercon sights as I could.

While WonderCon doesn’t have the size of San Diego or New York Comic Con, the fans there weren’t any less fervent with their cosplay love. This year I saw a lot of new and original costumes I had not seen before. While a pimped out Boba Fett was present, I also saw for the first time Paper Mario as well as a group of female X-Man villains. Alongside the working R2 units, there was a life sized Wall-E that sadly the picture doesn’t do justice as it captured all of the personality of the movie and brought it to life in front of us all.

Yes, the first G.I. Joe was pretty to look at, but dumb. Much like its star. Of course, even if it was not everything it could have been, the gang at Paramount must be an optimistic bunch and so, there’s a sequel on the way.

This time the movie is called G.I. Joe: Retaliation and it stars Dwayne Johnson, Channing Tatum, Bruce Willis and Jonathan Pryce in a story featuring COBRA’s infiltration of the U.S. Government and the Joes saving the day.

It’s directed by John M. Chu and written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick. Those are some pretty accomplished people, maybe this won’t be as bad as we think? Maybe.

At any rate, there’s a new trailer for the movie for you to check out. Look for the movie itself to arrive on March 29, 2013.

Check out the trailer after the break.

Fan films or, in this case, fan series, are often hit or miss. Sometimes, they can be something really special and show the fans love and support for the material. Other times, they can just be embarrassing to all concerned.

Fortunately, this new one we’ve recently found, G.I. Joe: Initiate, falls into the former category. In other words, it’s not an embarrassment.

On the contrary, it’s a well put together piece full of fun action and obvious love for the characters and history associated with the franchise. In truth, this comes across a lot better than recent big budget GI Joe movies have.

Check it out after the break. If you like it, head on over to the filmmakers website and give their sponsors some love. They’ll appreciate it.

When we heard that GI Joe Retaliation was pushed back to May 2013 we were bummed. The trailers did a great job of getting everyone excited about a new GI Joe film, which is a minor miracle in and of itself. The original word was to do a ‘proper’ 3D post convert, which kinda sounded like BS, and it turns out it was.

Deadline is reporting that mediocre to poor test screening results and cold feet from killing off the first film’s star Channing Tatum in the first act are the principal reasons for the delay. Which is funny, because one of the aspects that fans were rallying behind with the new film was the balls to kill of the characters that didn’t work in the first film.

Now we are in an odd place. On the surface, this can be seen as a good move, allowing the filmmakers time to make better a film that many of us were looking forward to. On the other hand, if this is all the work of the studio who wants nothing more than to shoe horn a rising star into a franchise that he already proved ill-equipped to lead, we may have lost something fun.

No one will know for sure until next May, but at the very least this film will go down as an interesting what if moment in film.

That’s right, this film should be known as being from the mind of Chris Miller and Phil Lord. The team that brought us Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and MTV’s short-lived animated series Clone High.

One could say that the film’s focus points are Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill, but if you look at their track record lately, I’d be much more open to see a movie by Lord & Miller than the guys that starred in G.I. Joe and Get Him to the Greek.

The film is obviously a reboot of the classic 80s cop drama starring Johnny Depp and Richard Grieco, about two beat cops that have to go undercover in a local high school to take down the drug lords poisoning our youth.

The red band trailer is here now with tons of swearing and teen endangerment, so fun for the whole family! Check it out after the jump, and catch 21 Jump Street in theaters March 16th.

Since her Wonder Woman TV series didn’t get picked up by NBC, it would appear the lovely Adrianne Palicki is available. No, not that kind of avilable. Sorry nerds. As if you’d have a chance anyway.

Instead, she’s available for more work and has reportendly signed on as the female lead in the upcoming G.I. Joe: Cobra Strikes. Palicki will take on the role of Lady Jane in the film, which already features Channing Tatum and Dwayne Johnson, who’s set to play Roadblock.

In other casting news for the sequel, Ray Park is expected back as Snake Eyes and Byung Hun-lee is expected back as Storm Shadow. The RZA has also recently joined the film in an as yet unknown role. The other major role still to be cast is that of Joe Colton, the original G.I. Joe.

Rumor has it that the studios is looking at Bruce Willis for that part, which is an obvious choice. He’ll do fine but perhaps there’s other actors that would work just as well? We’ll see and we’ll let you know as soon as we know.

Many people believe Channing Tatum is a one-trick pony. To the contrary, the man has plenty of range. We’ve seen him as a soldier leading the fight against villainous terrorists, a soldier who carries his love through letters with Amanda Seyfried and a relieved soldier who is sent back into duty. Now, we’re getting something totally different as Tatum stars as a soldier on a mission to fight his father….in Ancient Rome.

A story like this is pretty epic, so we won’t take anything away from the official synopsis.

In 140 AD, two men – master and slave – venture beyond the edge of the known world on a dangerous and obsessive quest that will push them beyond the boundaries of loyalty and betrayal, friendship and hatred, deceit and heroism…The Roman epic adventure THE EAGLE stars Channing Tatum and Jamie Bell and is directed by Academy Award winner Kevin Macdonald. 20 years earlier, Rome’s 5,000-strong Ninth Legion, under the command of Flavius Aquila, marched north carrying their treasured golden Eagle emblem.

They never returned; Legion and Eagle simply vanished into the mists. Hearing a rumor that the Eagle has been seen in a tribal temple in the far north, Flavius’ son Marcus (Tatum), determined to restore the tarnished reputation of his father, is galvanized into action. Accompanied only by his slave Esca (Bell), Marcus sets out into the vast and dangerous highlands of Scotland – to confront its savage tribes, make peace with his father’s memory, and retrieve the hallowed Eagle.

Along the way Marcus realizes that the mystery of his father’s disappearance may well be linked to the secret of his own slave’s identity and loyalty – a secret all the more pressing when the two come face-to-face with the warriors of the fearsome Seal Prince (Tahar Rahim).

Plus side? Donald Sutherland. Check out the full trailer for the film after the jump and catch The Eagle in theaters on February 5.

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.

This week on The Flickcast, your tireless threesome dive into some great new topics including the film Kick-Ass being picked up by Lionsgate, the box office and merits of District 9 versus G.I. Joe, Frank Darabont taking on The Walking Dead for AMC, Christopher McQuarrie writing a sequel to X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Bryan Singer’s Battlestar Galactica movie and a whole lot more.

The team also made some new picks this week including Christina’s pick of the documentary Boy Interrupted, Matt’s pick of Boston Legal, featuring James Spader and William Shatner, and Chris’ pick of Robert Kirkman’s excellent comic The Walking Dead.

As always, if you have comments, questions, critiques or offers of sponsorship, feel free to hit us up in the comments, on Twitter and at Facebook, MySpace or via email.

Thanks for listening.

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Though we try to keep things fresh here at the site, especially with our features like Fan Film Friday, sometimes it’s hard to skip over things that are quite well done, even when they aren’t really topical anymore. Though G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra is already week-old news, we felt that this week’s fan film needed to be a little musical number from our friends at Funny or Die called The Ballad of G.I. Joe.

Continuing the trend of filling their skits with a who’s who of Hollywood, the Ballad includes names that will pretty much blow your socks off. Names like Alexis Bledel as Lady Jaye, Billy Crudup as Zartan, Zach Galifiankais as Snow Job, Tony Hale as Dr. Mindbender, Vinnie Jones as Destro, Chuck Liddell as Gung Ho, Julianne Moore as Scarlett, Henry Rollins as Duke, Alan Tudyk as Shipwreck, Olivia Wilde as The Baroness, and even a little Sgt. Slaughter thrown in as well.

There are a few other names thrown in, so be sure to keep an eye out. Check out the Ballad of G.I. Joe after the jump.

Pull of the Week:

Blackest Night #2 – DC – $3.99

Score: 8.0

As mentioned yesterday in Dave Press’ Weekly Comic Book Recommendations,  this was a big week for DC’s Blackest Night event between Blackest Night #2, Blackest Night: Batman #1 and Green Lantern Corps #39. A previous Pull of the Week with issue #1, Blackest Night #2 continues the eerie first chapter of this horror tale.

After Hawkman and Hawkgirl have been attacked and killed by the Black Lanterns Elongated Man and Sue Dibny, the Atom desperately begs for Hawkman to pick up the phone unaware of his fate. Over in Gotham, Commissioner Gordon stands atop the police headquarters next to the Bat-Symbol with his daughter Barbara awaiting sunrise before Hal Jordan lands on it as a result of his fight with Martian Manhunter.

In Amnesty Bay, Mera and Tempest, the wife and son of Aquaman look to move their king’s remains to the sea only to find the grave desecrated. Thinking they are witnessing a graverobbing, the duo along with guards from Atlantis are attacked by the resurrected Black Lantern Aquaman who has retained his control over the creatures of the sea as seen in a bloody attack on the guards.

Blackest Night #2 feels a lot like it is the part of a movie where the team is being formed. The foundation has been laid out in issue one and now the Black Lantern corps is being built. While the biggest reveals happened in the first issue, these other players are obviously going to be key components to the story moving forward, especially since writer Geoff Johns took the time to give so much attention to their Black Lantern reveals. A perfect example of this is Deadman who already appears in Blackest Night: Batman (which will be reviewed on tomorrow’s edition of the Pull List). Along with that, the two major fight scenes are great glimpses of just how powerful the Black Lanterns can be.