Joss Whedon talks about casting James Spader as Ultron

James Spader whom you may know from leading the Roland Emmerich 1994 classic Stargate, had been cast as Ultron in The Avengers sequel and that news has been one of the most welcomed casting announcements of late for fans. In fact, over 65% of voters selected "I love James Spader" or "I trust Marvel" as their opinions on the casting in the SHH poll. Unlike the reactions to Ben Affleck as Batman, which were utterly negative to the point where Zack Snyder should of just chosen someone else. On the bright side the positivity regarding Spader isn't the only difference in the upcoming Avengers and Man of Steel sequels.

In the below video released by Marvel, writer/director Joss Whedon is quoted about casting Spader in Avengers: Age of Ultron, who he says was his only choice.

"Spader was my first and only choice. He's got that hypnotic voice that can be eerily calm and compelling, but he's also very human and humorous. Ultron is not Hal (from 2001: A Space Odyssey). Spader can play all of the levels. He's the guy to break The Avengers into pieces."

We here at Flick rants want to know what the fans think, so be sure to comment below and tell us how you feel about this casting.

Featuring favorites from the first "Avengers" film and new Marvel characters never before seen on the big screen, Avengers: Age of Ultron will open in theaters on May 1, 2015.

Marvel's Ant-Man green lit and heading to screens 4 months early!

A NEW AVENGER IS HERE TO ASSEMBLE!

Ground breaking news for Marvel fans today as Walt Disney Pictures has moved the release of Edgar Wright's Ant-Man from November 6, 2015 to July 31, 2015, a full four-months earlier than originally planned. Now fans wont have to wait to see this Marvel hero finally brought to life after years of spit-balling to get this film into production. 

The film, which is supposed to launch "Phase Three" of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, will follow Avengers: Age of Ultron's May 1, 2015 release. A film which, we here at Flick Rants are all dying to finally see.

Production is gearing up for Ant-Man with Wright directing from a script that he has co-written a script with Joe Cornish (Attack the Block).

The new date has the film opening opposite 20th Century Fox's family fantasy Peregrine's Home for Peculiars and just two weeks after Warner Bros. releases Zack Snyder's still-untitled Batman/Superman film.

First official trailer for the 2014 remake of Robocop officially has landed!

This will be the 2014 remake of the original 1987 film of the same name. The new Robocop is directed by brazilian director Jose Padilha (known for the Elite Squad films) and starring Joel Kinnaman as Alex J. Murphy/Robocop,  Michael Keaton, Samuel L. Jackson, Gary Oldman, Jay Baruchel, and Aimee Garcia.

Plot: In 2028 the multinational conglomerate Omni Consumer Products (OCP) is the world leader in robotics. Officer Alex J. Murphy is a loving devoted husband and father who gets mortally wounded after an attack. OCP's CEO (Keaton) looking to bring robotics security to Detroit by ways of putting a man in a machine has Murphy's life saved by transforming him into the law enforcement combat unit known as Robocop.

In this trailer you can see most of the redesigns to Robocops suit, and reimagined story line, all which differs greatly from the original film while trying to stay true to the original films premise.

Check it out and let us know what you think! Personally, here at Flick rants we think this looks like iRobot, if will smith was a white guy robot! but still with this all star cast, maybe we are on the verge of seeing something incredible next february..... hopefully! 

Robocop reboot flop waiting to happen?

Anyone born in the 80's or even early 90's should know who Robocop is. Personally he was my childhood hero and my official favorite on screen badass. Originally debuting in 1987 with the original Robocop on the big screen, people world wide were introduced to a whole new hero. After the film and followed by two sequels Robocop 2 released 1990 and Robocop 3 released in 1993, Hollywood is taking another stab at bringing Robocop back into the spotlight and to a new generation of fans, but will this reboot even live up to the hype?

The reboot which is being directed by Jose Padilha who is a relatively unknown director to american audiences, is being claimed as staying true to the original but bringing a whole new vision to Robocop as to kind of focus on what it would be like for a man to lose his humanity and become a machine. Which is a bit redundant since the original film was exactly all about that.The original film, directed by Paul Verhoeven, centers on officer Alex J. Murphy (Peter Weller) who is brutally murdered and then revived by OCP Omni Consumer Products corp. Into a superhuman cyborg law enforcer known as "Robocop."

Original 1987 film poster

So far the reboot which is slated for a February 2014 release, has only been viral marketed as well as a footage showing at this years San Diego Comic-con. If anyone has been paying attention to hollywood as much as I have, you would see that most films that lack any time of mass marketing tends to end up sucking horribly. Not to say that marketing a lot means the film will be awesome, but lack of marketing also shows the studio not having much faith in their films. 

A few negative issues have came to find from the beginning of production with this reboot, the biggest one in my opinion being Robocops new Design which went from a silver/metallic color and intimidating line backer size to a now sleek all black which to most viewers looks like a robotic version of Snake Eyes from the G.I. Joe films

The old vs. the new.. seriously hollywood??

The original Robocop design vs. the newer version definitely appeals more to most people. What made the original Robocop such a badass was his intimidating size, presence, The famous stomp sound effects, his voice which would make bad guys shit their pants, and lets not forget his awesome modified Auto 9 baretta which would deploy from his leg holster. The newer version slims him down a bit, covers him in a black almost matte looking design, leaves him with one human hand, and NO DEPLOYING GUN FROM HIS LEG! So pretty much they are taking most of the cool things away from what made Robocop so awesome, but I guess hollywood is thinking new age, new technology, so gotta give him a new design.

Besides having an all-star cast line up for this film which includes the likes of, Gary Oldman, Samuel L. Jackson, and Michael Keaton, I'm pretty sure the film has a strong script which can make or break any film, but the problem still lies in the fact that marketing has been minimal, and theres no guarantee this film will live up to its predecessor nor make a huge mark as a comeback for Robo.

I guess we all have to hold on and wait to see a trailer to kind of get a feel to see if this remake is gonna bring Robocop back into a new age of franchise but hopefully this wont all explode in our faces and make us hate studios for ruining our childhoods. For example Dragonball Evolution, The last Airbender, The Hulk, and let us not forget this massive blunder Superman Returns. All films with huge character followings, beloved by millions, and studios just ruined what could of been pretty epic films. I am praying on my knees they dont ruin Robocop. I love this character and the first 2 films til this day are my two top favorite movies to pop in the blu-ray player.

If you love Robocop please leave a comment and tell me your thoughts/opinions on this reboot!

Ben Affleck as the new Batman? The good and the bad with this Decision

Ok ladies and gentleman, lets face the honest truth. The internet has been buzzed like crazy over the passed week with the recent news that Ben Affleck had been cast as the next Batman in the Man of Steel Sequel. I myself like millions of other Batman fans simply said, WTF? I opened up Superherohype.com and saw this posting Ben Affleck cast as Batman and my mind was literally blown to bits. Not that I hate Ben or have anything against him, but the fact that made this piece of news explosive was the fact that most people would of never thought to even think of Ben Affleck playing any super hero let alone Batman after his years of box office flops and the god awful Daredevil film back in 2003.

Now Ben has gone on to write/direct some incredible films in the passed couple of years, but his track record is one that is so full of crappy films that it makes everyone wonder how Ben even got cast. Well folks according to a couple of sources, mainly this one How Ben Affleck was cast It appears he had gotten into talks with Zack Snyder, whom he had established a couple of good ideas of how to bring Batman to life within the Man of Steel universe and there goes the foundation for his casting.

Hilariously enough there's millions of fans who are completely against this casting and are literally wishing Ben loses the part. Although quite a good amount of people are being open minded and thinking to themselves, "Ben could actually be good, so let's see how this goes." Now while I don't agree with those people myself, and I am also not 100% against Ben being cast as the Dark Knight, I do have my opinion as to why I am against Ben being cast as Batman in the Man of Steel sequel.

THE BAD!

1. Daredevil was a disaster and seeing Ben already try and portray a dark toned hero has already proven that its not within his skill set (although maybe he got better since then). I will defend Ben here though cause it wasn't all his fault the films writing, story, and additional cast was just all done horrible wrong to begin with.

2. Most of his films are usually flops because they lack good writing, they lack appeal with wide audiences, and they are just painful to sit through and watch due to either bad acting or just lengthy unoriginal story lines, ex: Gigli, Jersey girl, ect...

3. The list of possible actors had actually consisted of the likes of Karl Urban, and even Josh Brolin whom many fans on other blogs/forums are deeming way better choices to have been casted and I agree cause both actors have proven they can dish out the badass roles.

THE GOOD!

1. Ben has (recently) shown he's a diverse actor with an ability to portray a serious toned, driven character.

2. His recent successes with the likes of Argo and with his hits such as The Town, most fans may be under estimating Ben when it comes to being able to bring a new imagining of Batman to life.

3. The team behind Man of Steel, Zack Snyder-Warner bros.. were going for a more seasoned Batman, someone who's already been a hero for quite sometime and was a bit older than Superman for the sequel, So maybe fans are still getting off the Christian Bale style of Batman and are not thinking outside the box that this may be a version of Batman that Affleck can pull off

Like any film fan though, I'm open to ideas and surprised, Who knows? Maybe Ben will do a great job, or maybe this idea will just ruin the next Man of Steel. I had my doubts in some castings, such as Heath Ledger as the Joker in the Dark Knight. I also had some issues with Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner in the Avengers. In the end I was surprised at how well they did and completely withdrew my negative opinions.

So this could go good or it could possibly go extremely bad. I guess we are just gonna have to wait til 2015 to see.