FlashRC is an alternative to the Macromedia Flash Remoting MX product. It is currently available for Microsoft's .NET Framework only, but they expect to have a Java version available soon.
FlashRC takes a different approach at the remoting problem by allowing a server side application to control a Flash movie remotely, with little or no ActionScript coding.
http://www.simeda.com/flashrc/
I just found this and will play with it over the weekend and see what it does.....