Debuting as the most-watched new show (or any show) on the CW Network in three years, the superhero series Arrow appears to be right on target.  The cast and crew of the show were on hand at New York Comic-Con to reveal a sneak peek at Arrow’s first nine episodes.  Centering on the return of Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell), a young Starling City billionaire feared lost at sea, Arrow follows his exploits as the masked vigilante, Green Arrow. While common criminals are learning to fear his name, the upcoming episodes feature a host of named villains, such as Deadshot, Deathstroke, The Huntress and China White.  Hit the jump to see them in the NYCC exclusive footage.

As a preamble to this week’s Top 5, I’d like to take a few lines to recognize my own personal “Top 2″ from the past 7 days: the St. Louis Cardinals and Warner Premiere’s animated adaptation of Frank Miller‘s classic tale The Dark Knight Returns, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 1. Beginning with the former, my beloved Cardinals completed yet another historic comeback last night against the Washington Nationals. Win or lose, I think it’s necessary to get in writing here that I won’t have a single negative thing to say about this team the rest of the way. As for the latter, I had a chance to sit down with director Jay Oliva‘s animated adaptation the other day and I found it to be a worthy retelling of Miller’s classic Bat-story. If you have any interest in animated comic adaptations and have yet to check it out, I recommend doing so.

But enough of my own personal favorites, included in this week’s trip around the bases (yep, that’s another baseball reference) is our coverage of New York Comic-Con 2012, the first trailer for director Sacha Gervasi‘s Hitchcock, Seven Psychopaths interviews with Sam Rockwell, Christopher Walken and more, a new trailer for Quentin Tarantino‘s Django Unchained, and a slew of interviews for The CW’s new superhero series, Arrow. A brief recap and link to each awaits.

The CW’s highly anticipated new drama series Arrow tells the story of billionaire playboy Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell), who has returned home to Starling City after being missing and presumed dead for five years, following a violent shipwreck. His devoted mother Moira (Susanna Thompson), much-beloved sister Thea (Willa Holland) and best friend Tommy Merlyn (Colin Donnell) welcome him home, while his former girlfriend, Laurel Lance (Katie Cassidy), is not so happy. Now, along with reconnecting to those closest to him, Oliver has secretly created the persona of the vigilante Arrow, to right wrongs and restore the city to its former glory.

During this recent interview held at the DC Comics office in Burbank, producers Andrew Kreisberg and Marc Guggenheim, along with DC’s Geoff Johns, talked about bringing Oliver Queen/Arrow to life in this format, adding characters from the DC universe throughout the season (including The Huntress, Deadshot and The Royal Flush Gang), how often viewers will get flashbacks to what occurred on the island, the darker elements of the series, how someone will discover Oliver Queen’s secret early on, the more long-term plan for the show, adding John Barrowman (Torchwood) to the cast, and big bad villains.  Check out what they had to say after the jump.

The CW’s highly anticipated new drama series Arrow tells the story of billionaire playboy Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell), who has returned home to Starling City after being missing and presumed dead for five years, following a violent shipwreck.  His devoted mother Moira (Susanna Thompson), much-beloved sister Thea (Willa Holland) and best friend Tommy (Colin Donnell) welcome him home, while his former girlfriend, Laurel Lance (Katie Cassidy), is not so happy.  Now, along with reconnecting to those closest to him, Oliver has secretly created the persona of the vigilante Arrow, to right wrongs and restore the city to its former glory.

During this recent exclusive interview with Collider, actress Katie Cassidy talked about what she’s most excited about with the show, how she had pictured Stephen Amell as Arrow before he was cast (even though she had never seen him), her hopes that her character will take the Black Canary path, how she sees the relationship between Laurel Lance and Oliver Queen, and whether or not she thinks her character can ever forgive him.  Check out what she had to say after the jump.

Arrow is one of the most highly anticipated comic adaptations to hit the small screen in quite some time. Fans of Smallville expecting Justin Hartley to walk easily onto the new series were surprised to find a stranger in their midst. From co-starring roles as a prostitute on Hung to a firefighter on Private Practice, Stephen Amell takes on the role of the Green Arrow, Oliver Queen, and Katie Cassidy comes off a long line of less than savory characters to play the sweet girl that got away, Dinah “Laurel” Lance. Find out what they had to say about the show and their characters after the jump.

I don’t know anything about the Green Arrow comics.  Literally, nothing.  All I had was an educated guess that he wears green and wields a bow.  This worked well for my first viewing of the Arrow pilot, because I was fascinated by the backstory.  The opening scene throws you in the middle of the action as a disheveled man in green is climbing about a rock island.  Even with the expository narration, it’s a thrilling way to launch a new series.

They pull back to reveal that the man in green is Oliver Queen (played by Stephen Amell), a billionaire playboy who shipwrecked five years ago and was presumed dead.  Oliver’s awkward attempts to reintegrate with his former life are intercut with flashbacks to the night of the shipwreck.  Unfortunately, as Arrow drifts away from the island and spends more time in the city, the show loses its luster.  Hit the jump for the rest of the brief review and a recap of the Q&A with stars Stephen Amell and Katie Cassidy as well as producers Marc Guggenheim, Andrew Kreisberg, and David Nutter.

On June 7^th, Collider was invited to the set of the new thriller The Scribbler, based on the graphic novel by Dan Schaffer and directed by John Suits.  In the film, Suki (Katie Cassidy) is a young woman confronting her destructive mental illness by using “The Siamese Burn”, an experimental machine designed to eliminate multiple personalities, of which she has a few.  The film also stars Garret Dillahunt, Gina Gershon, Michelle Trachtenberg, Billy Campbell, Eliza Dushku, Michael Imperioli, Sasha Grey and Ashlynn Yennie.

While we’ll post what Katie Cassidy had to say about making the film closer to its release, which is expected to be sometime in 2013, we did want to share what she had to say about playing Dinah “Laurel” Lance on the highly anticipated upcoming CW drama series Arrow, for which she will resume shooting in July, and how awesome it will be to debut the show at Comic-Con in San Diego.  Check out what she had to say after the jump.

Principal photography has started today on a couple of interesting productions.  Here they are at a glance:

• Therese, formerly known as Therese Raquin, is an erotic thriller starring Elizabeth Olsen (Martha Marcy May Marlene), Oscar Isaac (Drive), Tom Felton (Rise of the Planet of the Apes) and Jessica Lange (American Horror Story).
• Graphic novel adaptation, The Scribbler, also started production with Katie Cassidy (Taken) set to star.

Hit the jump for much more on both projects.

We’ve got a number of casting additions for the small screen today. First up, Malin Akerman (Watchmen) will be joining Portia de Rossi (Arrested Development) in the ABC comedy, The Smart One. Written by Don Todd (Ugly Betty), The Smart One follows a brilliant and successful woman (de Rossi) who goes to work for her popular, but less intelligent sister (Akerman).

Eamonn Walker (Oz) is the first actor to be cast in NBC’s Dick Wolf (Law & Order) drama pilot, Chicago Fire, which follows the heroic men and women of the Chicago Fire Department. Finally, from the CW comes Arrow, the television series following the exploits of DC Comics’ Green Arrow. Katie Cassidy (Monte Carlo) has been cast as the female lead opposite Stephen Amell (Private Practice). Hit the jump for more on each project.

We’ve got a couple of casting stories for you this afternoon. First up, Ray Winstone has been cast as the seventh and final dwarf in Snow White and the Huntsman. Heat Vision reports that Winstone joins previously announces dwarfs Ian McShane, Eddie Izzard, Bob Hoskins, Toby Jones, Eddie Marsan and Steven Graham. Winstone will play Trajan. Directed by Rupert Sanders, the film centers on princess Snow White (Kristen Stewart) attempting to escape the grasp of her evil stepmother (Charlize Theron) with the help of a huntsman (Chris Hemsworth) who trains her to survive. Snow White and the Huntsman hits theaters June 1^st, 2012.

Additionally, Joel David Moore has joined the burgeoning cast of Oliver Stone’s Savages. Based on the book by Don Winslow, the film stars Benicio Del Toro, Salma Hayek, Blake Lively, Taylor Kitsch, Aaron Johnson, Emile Hirsch, John Travolta and Uma Thurman. The story centers on two Laguna Beach marijuana kingpins (Kitsch and Johnson) who encounter a world of trouble when their shared girlfriend (Lively) is kidnapped by a Mexican drug cartel. Risky Business reports that Moore will play a computer geek who moves from a think tank in Washington to the marijuana business. Savages hits theaters on September 28^th, 2012. Hit the jump for the casting news of Katie Cassidy in Freaky Deaky.

20th Century Fox has released seven clips for its upcoming tween “comedy” Monte Carlo. Co-written/directed by Thomas Bezucha (The Family Stone), the film stars that one girl from Disney (Selena Gomez) with the chick from that “horror” film The Roommate and CW’s Gossip Girl (Leighton Meester), and that guy who was on The Partridge Family‘s daughter (Katie Cassidy). While I can’t say that I’m in any way excited about checking out Monte Carlo, I will admit those three make for an attractive trio.  Andie MacDowell, Cory Monteith, and Brett Cullen also star in the pic which centers on one of the aforementioned trio members getting mistaken for a British heiress and the inevitable romantic hilarity that ensues.

Hit the jump to check out the clips. Monte Carlo hits theaters on July 1st.

The first trailer for the romantic comedy Monte Carlo has hit the web. The film stars Leighton Meester, Selena Gomez, Katie Cassidy, Cory Monteith, Andie MacDowell and Brett Cullen. Co-written and directed by Tom Bezucha (The Family Stone), the flick tells the story of three young American girls who take a trip to Paris and, after the trip turning into a disaster, one of the girls gets mistaken for a British heiress and the three are wrapped up in a “hilarious” whirlwind of celebrity. The trailer looks like the film was tailor-made for the tween crowd, who I’m sure will love the flick. The similarities to a Disney Channel Original Movie are striking, and I had to double check to make sure the film was actually coming out in theaters and I wasn’t just watching a preview for a TV movie.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer. Monte Carlo hits theaters July 1^st.

As a child of the 1980’s, it’s been funny to watch the majority of the entertainment of that era either sequelized or remade. Whether it’s trying to emulate John Hughes’s tone in a teen driven romantic comedy, or the Indiana Jones sequel, or the birth of comic book movies, it all feels very connected to that decade. For horror fans, it seems every major and minor title is getting the remake treatment, with Wes Craven’s classic films of the period at the top of the list. Craven’s classics Last House on the Left and The Hills Have Eyes were already done (and reasonably well), so it was only a matter of time before someone finally got to Freddy Kruger. Platinum Dunes, the remakers behind The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Amityville Horror and Friday the 13^th put Samuel Bayer behind the camera, and made the smart choice in giving the iconic hat, sweater and finger-knives glove to Jackie Earle Haley. Random teens (headed up by Rooney Mara) are terrorized by Kruger in their dreams for an unknown reason, which become evident in the 2010 remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street, and my review of the blu-ray follows after the jump.

As most of you know, opening this Friday is New Line/Platinum Dunes remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street.  Over the past few months we’ve been covering the movie extensively with a set report, on set interviews with Jackie Earle Haley and producers Andrew Form and Brad Fuller, and a few weeks ago I spoke to Katie Cassidy / Thomas Dekker and Rooney Mara / Kyle Gallner at WonderCon.

Anyway, yesterday was the Los Angeles press day for the film and I got to speak with director Samuel Bayer, producers Andrew Form and Brad Fuller, and I also got to speak with Thomas Dekker, Rooney Mara & Kyle Gallner in a junket setting.  Since I spoke to them a few weeks ago, I used the time to try and ask new questions.  Also, I’ve now seen the film, so I could ask more specific things.  Hit the jump to check it out.  I’ve time indexed the interview so you can watch what interests you:

Samuel Bayer has a long history directing music videos and commercials.  While his resume is way too long to list in this intro, some of his famous videos are Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit, Blind Melon’s No Rain, almost all of Green Day’s American Idiot videos, and tons of others since 1991.  It’s really an impressive list.

Anyway, he finally made his first feature and it’s New Line’s/Platinum Dunes remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street. The movie stars Jackie Earle Haley as Freddy Krueger, Rooney Mara, Kyle Gallner, Katie Cassidy, Thomas Dekker and Kellan Lutz.

To help promote the film, I sat down with Bayer earlier today to talk about his experiences directing the movie, what will be on the Blu-ray/DVD, how does he feel about directors cuts, what will he do next, and a lot more.  As always, I’ve time indexed the interview so you can watch the parts you want.  Hit the jump to check it out: