Hey there, it’s time for a brand new episode of the occasional series The Flickcast. That’s right, we’re excited too.

On this week’s episode Chris and Joe discuss a bunch of stuff including the Star Wars: The Last Jedi teaser/trailer, the season finale of The Expanse, a new season of the X-Files, Kylo Ren’s face, the potential WGA strike and much more. Plus, the usual even more. 

No beer selections again this week (the boys are on the wagon at the moment) except to remind you to buy local, if you can. Picks this week include Chris’ pick of the movie I Don’t Feel at Home In This World Anymore and Joe’s pick of the soundtrack to Guardians of the Galaxy 2.

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, Google+ or shoot us an email.

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Even though this website could technically be called a “Blog” and those of us who contribute to it are known as “Bloggers,” we like to think of ourselves as writers. So, when other writers get recognized, as they have by the Writer’s Guild of America’s nominations for it’s awards today, we take notice.

We also take notice when movies that seem an odd choice for awards get nominated anyway. We will leave it to you, good readers, to decide which of the following nominees for Writers Guild awards seems a bit out of place.

Winners will be announced at the 2012 Writers Guild Awards on Sunday, February 19, 2012, during simultaneous ceremonies in Hollywood and New York. Check out all the nominees (and more) from the official press release:

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

50/50, Written by Will Reiser; Summit Entertainment

Bridesmaids, Written by Annie Mumolo & Kristen Wiig; Universal Studios

Midnight in Paris, Written by Woody Allen; Sony Pictures Classics

Win Win, Screenplay by Tom McCarthy; Story by Tom McCarthy & Joe Tiboni; Fox Searchlight

Young Adult, Written by Diablo Cody; Paramount Pictures

Even though this is technically a blog, we like to think of ourselves primarily as writers here at The Flickcast. Many of us have even been paid to write over the years and you can bet that pretty much everyone here has one or two screenplays, comic books or other literary works they are currently working on. It’s just the nature of things.

So, when the Writer’s Guild of America announces the nominations for outstanding writing for Television, we take notice and bring you all the details. That’s especially true when the top nominees are shows we really like.

One such show is Showtime’s freshman drama Homeland, which received 3 nominations including best drama series, best new series and best episodic drama. Homeland tied with perennial favorites Modern Family, Breaking Bad and Boardwalk Empire for the most nominations.

In addition to Homeland, Game Of Thrones, The Killing, New Girl and the Matt LeBlanc comedy Episodes all received nominations with Showtime getting a first time record of six for its shows. You may be wondering where Mad Men is in all of this?

Sadly, as the fifth season of the show was delayed, it didn’t make the cut for eligibility for this year’s awards. That’s probably okay as it gives a few other shows, like Homeland and Game of Thrones, a chance to shine. Can’t have Mad Men taking up all the awards, now can we?

The winners will be announced at the 2012 Writers Guild Awards on Feb. 19, 2012, at simultaneous ceremonies in Los Angeles and New York. Click through for the full list of nominee.

In a somewhat surprising move, it seems AMC’s breakout hit series The Walking Dead has decided to let go of its writing staff. In addition, it is still debatable if the series will hire a new staff for the second season. Instead, series Exec. Producer Frank Darabont may decide to proceed without a writing staff and work with freelancers and/or write the second season’s thirteen episodes himself.

While this may seem like an odd decision given the fact that the show has been so successful, it’s not that hard to believe. After all Darabont wrote two of the first six episodes himself and comic book creator Robert Kirkman wrote one as well. The others were written by freelancers and then reportedly rewritten by Darabont. So it would seem the writing staff wasn’t doing that much work anyway.

No final decision on this has reportedly been made but it would appear Darabont and AMC have some time to figure it out given that the network may wait to bring the show back until next year during Halloween. So that means we may end up having to wait almost a year for the show to return. Plenty of time for Darabont, Kirkman and some freelance writers to crank out thirteen episodes.

I don’t know what bothers me more that the show let go of its writing staff or that it won’t be back, potentially, until next October. Both seem like questionable decisions with the waiting almost a year seemingly the worse one. Still, this may open up opportunities for writers to get their stuff read so I’m all for that. Guess I’ll polish up that Walking Dead spec script and send it on over.

Do these sound like bad ideas to anyone else? Sound off in the comments.

As hard as it may be to believe sometimes, someone (or someones) actually sits down and writes a movie or TV show before you end up seeing it at your local multiplex or on your favorite TV network. The people who do the sitting and the writing are, surprisingly, called writers and, like the Directors, the Golden Globes and the Oscars, they have their own awards show.

This week, the Writers Guild of America, which is the trade group and advocate for writers, announced its nominations for outstanding achievement in feature film and television, radio, news, promotional writing, and graphic animation during the 2009 season to be honored at the upcoming 2010 Writers Guild Awards on February 20, 2010, in Los Angeles and New York.

We realize that these nominations may not be as glamorous as the Golden Globes or the Oscars, but we kinda like writers around here and think they do a pretty important job. So, with that in mind, here’s a complete list of nominees.

Check out these names, these people are pretty important. Without them you wouldn’t get to enjoy your favorite TV show, movie or pretty much any other form of entertainment. The 2010 Writers Guild Awards will be held on Saturday, February 20, 2010, simultaneously at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles and the Hudson Theatre at the Millennium Broadway Hotel in New York City.

FILM NOMINEES

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

(500) Days of Summer, Written by Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber

Avatar, Written by James Cameron

The Hangover, Written by Jon Lucas & Scott Moore

The Hurt Locker, Written by Mark Boal

A Serious Man, Written by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Crazy Heart, Screenplay by Scott Cooper

Based on the novel by Thomas Cobb

Julie & Julia, Screenplay by Nora Ephron Based on the books Julie & Julia by Julie Powell and My Life in France by Julia Child with Alex Prud’homme

Precious: Based on the novel Push by Sapphire, Screenplay by Geoffrey Fletcher Based on the novel Push by Sapphire

Star Trek, Written by Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman Based upon Star Trek, Created by Gene Roddenberry

Up in the Air, Screenplay by Jason Reitman and Sheldon TurnerBased upon the novel by Walter Kirn