The Moviefone Blog http://news.moviefone.com The Moviefone Blog is the place for movie lists, trailers, trivia, interviews and features on movies out in theaters and coming soon. http://news.moviefone.com/media/feedlogo.gif The Moviefone Blog http://news.moviefone.com en-us Copyright 2013 Blogsmith, LLC. The contents of this headlines and excerpts feed are available for limited commercial distribution. You may repost this feed to your site provided you link back to the original story, do not edit the material, and do not remove this copyright notice. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/ <![CDATA['Scott Pilgrim' Co-Star Kieran Culkin: "You Either Get It Or You Don't"]]> 19588659
Breakthroughs are tricky business for actors, because they can define an actor as easily as they can establish them. But Kieran Culkin has been around for years, doing terrific work in lots of different kinds of movies, so his latest breakthrough feels like more of a reminder than the arrival of some unknown quantity. That said, it may still feel like people are seeing him for the first time - as an adult, anyway - as he steals scenes from Michael Cera in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World as Wallace Wells, the roommate, critic and sometime conscience of the title character.

Cinematical sat down with Culkin at the Los Angeles press day for Scott Pilgrim just days after the film premiered at a secret screening in San Diego during the 2010 Comic-Con. In addition to talking about his character's camaraderie with Scott and the rest of the ensemble, Culkin examined his own approach to playing such varied roles throughout his career, and reflected on the prospect of putting himself into the public consciousness with his high-profile appearance in the film.

Cinematical: One of the key reasons that Wallace is such an interesting and effective character is because his sexuality is open but the movie doesn't feel a need to "deal with" him being gay. How did you make sure that part of his personality was presented in a way that showed that it was just one part of who he is?

Kieran Culkin: I think that was easy. When I read it, that was how I saw it; I read it in the script and the comics and was like, okay, that's Wallace. To me, and while I'm talking about it now I'm not trying to be p.c. or anything like that, but when I played him that has nothing to do with who he is. That's just his sexual preference - that's just his sexuality. And after that, people have said, why do you think or what was the point of his being gay, and the only thing I can think of having read the comics and a little bit in this movie, is to show how immature Scott is - just by saying, "hey, this is my gay roommate Wallace Wells." It was important to me because I think it was the way it always was; if that's the way it was in the comics, I feel like that was probably important to Bryan Lee O'Malley, and it had some appeal to me too. At last a character that doesn't have to be "the gay character."

Cinematical: The idea of normalizing that is really interesting.

Culkin: Also, what's great, too, and what's consistent with the comics as well as the movie, is that it isn't pointed out that it's normal. Or [no one says] "look, he's gay, but look at how he's acting." It's not pointed out in any sort of way, it comes out in sort of a smooth, natural way, I think.


Cinematical: The movie moves so quickly while you're watching it. But how do you feel like the production reflected that? Were you able to sort of live in these scenes, or were the logistics of the shoot demanding enough that the shooting speed was equally brisk?

Culkin: For my stuff, I thought it was relatively easy to consider all of this a reality. I mean, that was pretty much my job. Okay, and then the guy is going to explode through the ceiling and fly down and start fighting and singing in a pirate suit - and I'm like, alright. I didn't even really have to be told it because I read the books, and I understood, even though personally I'm not a huge fan of musicals, I've heard the comparison [to this] - they break into fights. But I understood it from the get-go, that's what this was, and I didn't feel like I had to make any conscious decision to say, "bring it down to reality. I know they're fighting and I know there's explosions happening, but bring it down to reality, even with exploding coins." I just sort of treated it like it was natural, and like I would any other serious part I would play.

Cinematical: Where did you get most of your information or inspiration for the character - the source material or the script? Or was it just about spending time with Michael and building a rapport?

Culkin: I think, yeah, it was just hanging out with Michael on set and shooting that stuff. Plus, it helps when everybody have love for it to begin with - love for the comics and these characters and what they want it to be. And then of course with good old Edgar, the talent on our side putting it together and making it all happen, our need to please him and wanting to create this Scott-Wallace dynamic, there was a lot of that there. And then [there was] just a lot of hanging out there in Wallace's apartment, which I will give some credit to the set designer for making it look and feel like a real apartment and also like in the comics. It felt like we were in this room, in this bubble of ours, and getting to do this stuff, and it felt pretty great.

Cinematical: In general do you think about the arc of your character - where they are in their story, or is it better just to be present in each scene?

Culkin: More what his overall contribution to the story is. Hmm, I don't know. I'm not really sure. I think I take it scene by scene; I'm not really sure.

Cinematical: Did you think specifically about the purpose he serves in the story?

Culkin: It's tough to put into words - and people have been asking me to explain it as well. Usually I can be a pretty articulate fellow, but there are certain times when I - like when I read this, I [went], I get this guy. I get it, I get why he's here, I get what I'm doing. I get what he is to Scott. And then when it comes to explaining it, I'm like, ugh, I'm a complete f*ck up for not being able to let you in on what I'm thinking.

Cinematical: In general do you intellectualize your preparation for a role?

Culkin: I try not to. What sort of drives me nuts the most is talking about it too much. Now, after the fact, is completely fine, but I don't like to talk about it a lot beforehand. Sometimes you work with actors, especially on stage, that like to talk about their characters with each other, and in groups - which I hate, even when you kind of have to, for rehearsals. Everybody sits in a room and they talk about it, and I find a way of zoning out because I should know where you're coming from; you can be coming from that place, and I should be able to pick up on that or not and we should work together, but otherwise in real life I wouldn't know where you're coming from so I shouldn't know that. Also, on the flip side, if I start talking about it, I feel like I've blown my load and I feel like I've told you everything I'm feeling and everywhere I'm going, but now when I do it just pretend that it's real. As far as talking about it out loud, I don't even do that in my head; if I seem to get it, I try not to overthink it.

Cinematical: Everyone has thus far really been knocked out by your performance in this film, partially because it's markedly different than other roles you've played. Do you think strategically about what roles you pick, either to make sure you continue to work, or just continue to do things that interest or challenge you?

Culkin: No. It could sound like a lame answer, but it's completely true, totally genuine - I never think in terms of my career and what I should do next to counterbalance this or because I haven't done this or that before. I never think in terms of that at all. I really go project to project and try to find something that I like and feel like I can actually do. Even with this, I usually have my mind set on one thing, and I'll read things and I just won't like them until I get this one done. It's not about working a lot, it's not about strategizing, and I think some people can do this, but I think forming a strategy as far as what your career is, I'm sure you'll be fine and successful at it, but I don't think it's really going to make you any better at your job. Well, to me.

Cinematical: What did you initially connect with in this story as a whole that made it that next thing you wanted to do?

Culkin: With this thing, you either get it or you don't. What's great, though, is that I think most people get it, and not even just the source material and all of that stuff, but that it was a story that may have been told before but was never told this way. That was great. Some people don't understand and think that it is just a video game-pop art-comic book that you're thrown into and there's no heart - I've heard a person say that - but, well, no, there's actually a lot of heart, and there's a lot of it in this movie. There's a whole idea that it's an excuse to have fighting sequences in the movie and bad ass music, but really it's a fantasy world of Scott's and what he's imagining in meeting this girl, and maybe not actually even meeting these ex-boyfriends, but certainly comparing himself to the guys that she used to date. People have gone through this before and maybe this story has been told, but you've never actually gone and fought them in a surreal world where they explode into coins.

Cinematical: If this is at all to be interpreted as Scott's dream, did you envision yourself as the little guy standing on his shoulder sort of reminding him of things he needed to know? Because Scott's decisions are not always sympathetic.

Culkin: As far as it being his fantasy world, I feel like almost all of his stuff with Wallace plays out the same in reality as in the story. Somebody said that to me, too, about how every time you see a scene with Wallace, it's like he's come home. Scott always has to go out on these [missions] and he always comes home, and if this were his fantasy, going back into reality, the apartment probably looks that way, and it probably plays out mostly like that - with exaggerated things like the text messaging and things like that.

Cinematical: What sort of stuff are you working on next?

Culkin: I have no particular project coming up, which I actually feel pretty good about. I think sometimes actors feel weird about saying "I've got nothing coming up," but I don't mind waiting a few years and telling people I don't mind waiting a few years, as long as I end up doing something that I'm happy doing.

Cinematical: Has it been hard to find those things that you can invest yourself in? Even if you don't strategize, does it take a lot of patience?

Culkin: Patience, but I don't have that bug in me that feels the need to work, work, work, so that helps. I don't mind if it takes a few years to find the thing that I want; by the time I find that thing and I pursue it, if I do get a chance to do it, I'm the happiest guy in the world that I get to work on it. I don't mind those years in between, and I actually quite enjoy not working as well.

Cinematical: It also seems like that would give you more time once you did start working on something - that your mind wasn't cluttered with a lot of different things to focus on.

Culkin: Definitely. If ever I've gone from one to another, even if I had a month or two in between, I've felt like, "I'm doing this too soon." Also, if you see a lot of people that just go from job to job, when do they find time to get personal experience to draw from or to actually learn about who the f*ck you actually are to use that in their work?

Cinematical: Are you at a place in your career where you feel more comfortable taking more risks because you know yourself better, since you've maybe done less work?

Culkin: Yeah, but risks, it's tough to put that in words. I mean, anything could be a risk if you look at it a certain way. I wouldn't say I don't take risks, but I feel like the things that I've chosen to do don't feel like risks. Like this could have potentially seemed like a risk, given that potentially you don't know how the hell this was going to turn out and what it was going to look like. But I didn't feel like it was.


Cinematical: Was there anything with this you weren't sure how it was going to turn out? Even as talented as Edgar obviously is, was there anything where you were like, "I have no idea how this thing is going to look when we're done with it?"

Culkin: Well, a lot of the stuff, he was showing us along the way, and some stuff he had shot with stunt people before we even got there. So there was a lot of having a general idea of what he was looking for, him showing us stuff along the way, him telling us how things were going to look, where for me it gave me a very good idea how it was going to turn out. But then, fight sequences that I wasn't there to watch - like everything with Clash at Demonhead, I wasn't there for, or all of Gideon Graves' stuff, everything with Jason [Schwartzman], I was not at all on set for his stuff. I would say I was very, very pleased, but not surprised with how it turned out.

Cinematical: Was there anything at all in the film that kind of caught you off guard?

Culkin: Something I didn't catch when I first watched it was Johnny Simmons' performance. The first time I watched it, I was like, "oh, Young Neil, ok, good - that's sort of what I saw in his personality." I watched it the second time with an audience and I started laughing my ass of and seeing things I didn't notice the first time. I started talking with the other actors and we started comparing each other's [observations] of the things that we caught him doing, and then I went and watched it a third time and I caught all of this other stuff, and I pretty much decided to focus on Johnny each time he's on screen. And he took a character that is very understated in the entire comic book series, and when you read the script he hardly has any lines and it seems like he was just kind of there, and he took that and made it such a bigger part than anyone could have made it out to be. He's actually a really talented guy, and he kind of blew me away, that guy.]]> 2010-08-15T18:02:00+00:00 http://news.moviefone.com/2010/08/15/scott-pilgrim-co-star-kieran-culkin-you-either-get-it-or-you/ <![CDATA[Interview: 'Tron' Creator Steven Lisberger]]> 19576925
I'd like to say that my obsession with Tron started with test footage for Tron: Legacy that debuted at Comic-Con three years ago. (For some reason, that seems vaguely reasonable for an otherwise well-adjusted film critic/ entertainment journalist.) But the truth is that I have been a fan of Tron since some time in the early 1980s, when its oversized white Disney clamshell box stared back at me from a video-store shelf, promising a weird, unforgettable journey behind (and beyond) the screen of my favorite video games. Perhaps needless to say, a chance encounter with Tron creator Steven Lisberger via a mutual friend - a year or so before the follow-up was announced - ranked high among my favorite moments of personal fandom, at least until I was able to go to the actual set of Legacy and interview him at length.

Cinematical was offered the chance to speak with Lisberger again at this year's Comic-Con, and I was only too happy to take that particular assignment. In addition to talking about his role as "the Obi Wan" of Tron: Legacy, the talented Tron creator reflected on the opportunities and repercussions of creating this digital world, and most excitingly, revealed one particular part of the original he is happy to see more fully realized in its forthcoming follow-up.

Cinematical: One of the things you said at the Comic-con panel was that when you made the original Tron, you were able to be a dreamer without having to worry about the ramifications of that dream. Tron: Legacy obviously deals with that to a certain extent, but when do you feel like a creator has to start considering the ramifications of what they create, if ever?

Steven Lisberger: There are many levels here that all speak to the same problem, which is that we're all users now, but the goal is to stay a user and not become a program. And now that we know who we are, we've taken control from the MCP and how does one make the most of being a user? I think the trick is you don't want to treat other people as just information; I think the system breaks down if users don't treat other users like users - if they [don't] make that transition to saying, you know, romance is really messy. Wouldn't it be more convenient if I could just point and click? That gets into this idea that if you're going to be developing a doppelganger to the real world in cyberspace, it can't be an end to itself. You can't just tunnel away from reality indefinitely.

The goal has to be kept in mind that if you're going to create a simulation of this world, at least make it something that is going to shed light on this world, so that what you learn there you can apply here to close the loop. If it all becomes an end to itself, then not only does one treat people like information, but then one treats the world like information, and the world isn't just information. Whether it's love or the Gulfstream, it's a mystery, and more and more I think we're getting this feeling like, wow, some of this stuff is going to stay a mystery, and we're not sure whether we like that. So we're like, let's go into cyberspace where everything is finite; it's maybe confusing at times but it is at the end finite. It's not infinite, and we have to avoid it being an end to itself. Technology has to come back and be something that we use for a more enlightened purpose than just making more technology.

Cinematical: Since this follow-up was itself going to push the envelop technologically, what sort of discussions were there to make sure that the technology and the conceptual complexity of Tron: Legacy did not overwhelm the characters, the story or the emotional content of the film?

Lisberger: Sean Bailey has been masterful about orchestrating this, and I'd like to say that Sean puts elements together better than The Last Airbender did. That's a joke (laughs). He's been very in touch with the human component of this and the cast is masterful at conveying these things, and Joe has been really in touch with all of that. We've been really aware from the beginning that the heart of this movie had to be in the right place, and I think that it is, and I think that story is such a good metaphor - what do you do when you find out your dad was Obi Wan, not Darth Vader? That has its own challenges. And the basic mechanism for these stories and the process is always the same - whoever gives the most wins.

And the villains in life and in Hollywood movies, they're trying to take, and the heroes are trying to give. And if the heroes can give one more time than the villain can take, he wins. When I worked on this film, you worry that you're not going to be able to give enough, that you're going to get exhausted in the giving category, and as long as you feel you can keep giving, you know you're in the win column. I think of this Obi Wan role that I'm doing, I think it's been really rewarding. I'm there for them to push off against, I'm there as a sounding board, I'm there for them to sort of break glass in case of emergency, and it's closer actually to the role I actually envisioned myself being in all of those years ago. I don't really relate to the hired-gun director who rides into town with a black hat on a black horse, directs and then leaves. I really like more of the studio environment, the more collaborative process, and I think it's better suited to me.

Cinematical: As they're wrapping me, were there any things that conceptually or technically from the original movie that you wanted to, if not correct, then take the opportunity to more fully realize in Tron: Legacy?

Lisberger: Yes, and I've never mentioned this to anyone. I just thought of it: hair. We could not put hair in the first movie because we couldn't technically matte it. People think, well, why does everyone have a helmet on all of the time? It was a technical problem; otherwise there would have been plenty of scenes where they had hair. But I am envious of their ability to matte characters in, I am envious of their precision in terms of - they have no idea how funky, I keep telling Joe [Kosinski] and Sean. It's a cliché, the old guy going, "you don't know back in the day how funky it was!" But it was seriously funky. It was so funky, I went up to Pixar and we showed both Trons up there, and when I would tell them stories about this, I might as well have been talking about the Wright Brothers.

]]> 2010-08-04T21:45:00+00:00 http://news.moviefone.com/2010/08/04/tron-creator-steven-lisberger-interview/ <![CDATA[Marvel's Comic-Con 'Avengers' Teaser Trailer Now Online]]> 19581467
It's clear that The Avengers dominated this year's San Diego Comic-Con. At this point we've heard about the confirmation of each cast member and we've even heard their uproarious reaction to the cast taking the stage together for the first time, but unless you were in Hall H for that geektastic moment, you haven't seen the short, very teasing trailer that Marvel used to drum up the audience's anticipation. But now non-attendees can see it for themselves without having to build a time machine or hack into Marvel Studio's office network.

Imaginary Forces directors Ahmet Ahmet and Peter Frankfurt have put the teaser trailer online for all to see. Don't know Imaginary Forces? They're the guys who created both of the motion logos that play before every new DC Comics and Marvel movie.

Click right here to get psyched. [via /Film via ComicBookMovie]
]]> 2010-08-04T17:47:00+00:00 http://news.moviefone.com/2010/08/04/marvels-comic-con-avengers-teaser-trailer-now-online/ <![CDATA[Cinematical at Comic-Con 2010, the Definitive Wrap-Up]]> 19575348
I didn't even go to Comic-Con, so I can only imagine the flood of information coming out of it is even more intense in person. But even from afar, the tidal wave of new content was overwhelming. It got to the point where I decided I was going to give the con a few days rest after it ended and then attempt to make sense of everything that came out of it. This is that attempt. I've wrangled together every post Cinematical got out of this year's convention and have grouped them together, in mostly chronological order, by project, for easy digestion.


Marvel

Paramount Unveils Captain America and Thor Concept Posters -- Just days before the con was set to kick off, Paramount and Marvel decided to tease fans by releasing two gorgeous bits of concept art for their two upcoming origin films.

SDCC Quick Bite: Joss Whedon Confirms He's Directing The Avengers -- Everyone knew it to be so, but until his joint panel with J.J. Abrams, Joss Whedon had not officially confirmed that he was indeed directing Marvel's omnibus superhero film.

So Mark Ruffalo is the New Hulk ... Thoughts? -- About a week before everyone started flocking toward San Diego, Mark Ruffalo's name had emerged as the leading contender to take over as Marvel's Bruce Banner. Turned out the rumors were true.

SDCC: Full Cast for The Avengers Announced!! -- All of the other Avengers-related rumors turned out to be true as well, with Marvel eventually revealing the entirety of their principal Avengers cast. Kind of neat to see them all picture together on stage for the first time.

Have We Met Before? -- The Avengers Reunions -- Not long after that official roster emerged, Weinberg led the way in cross-referencing all the various films that the cast had been in prior.

SDCC: Marvel and The Avengers FTW? -- Jen Yamato then re-capped all of the footage Marvel had unveiled and essentially came to the conclusion that they could have given a better presentation.

Watch Comic Con Geek Out on The Avengers Introductions -- And it would seem that Yamato wasn't alone in her love for their presentation.

SDCC: Marvel Regains Film Rights for The Punisher -- While The Avengers were busy stealing the show, Kevin Feige was sure to point out that Marvel Studios (their film division) had reabsored the rights to the character of Frank Castle and would hopefully be bringing "him into the fray shortly."



The Green Lantern

SDCC: Fans Love Green Lantern Footage ... But Where's the Costume? -- Todd Gilchrist shares what those in Hall H got to see of Martin Campbell's upcoming foray into superheroes while bemoaning the sad absence of any footage of Ryan Reynolds as the titular hero.

Green Lantern Tries Again with Four New Posters -- Warner Brothers did try to make up with the lack of any shots of Reynolds in costume, however, by dishing out four new posters for the film.

Five Things A Green Lantern Fan Should Know -- Todd also pulled together a nice list of main things a newbie to the Green Lantern should know about the film.



The Green Hornet

SDCC: Will "KatoVision" Save The Green Hornet? -- Having already released its trailer ahead of Comic-Con, The Green Hornet's presentation wasn't full of the same surprises some of the other first-look titles enjoyed, but Elisabeth did try to answer the one question those who didn't like the trailer had.



Scott Pilgrim vs. The World

SDCC Gallery: The Scott Pilgrim Experience -- Universal set up a whole Scott Pilgrim exhibit outside of the convention and Erik was there to tell us all about it.

SDCC Review: Scott Pilgrim vs. The World -- The studio also held a not-so-secret screening of Edgar Wright's film and Todd was there to review it.

SDCC: Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Panel -- David Ehrlich did a great job of sharing his notes verbatim from the Pilgrim panel.

SDCC: New Scott Pilgrim Clip: "Finish Him" -- If you're getting tired of the Scott Pilgrim trailers, or just can't get enough of them, you may want to move onto entire clips from the film.



Sucker Punch

SDCC: Sexy Sucker Punch Character Banners Revealed -- The girls of Zack Snyder's Sucker Punch each receive their own amazing posters.

Sucker Punch Trailer Now Online! -- Because still images aren't enough, Warner Brothers released the first Sucker Punch teaser trailer. (Note: this is not the same thing that con attendees were shown.)

Interview: Zack Snyder and Deborah Snyder -- Todd picks the brain of two of the most important minds behind what looks like the ultimate fanboy fantasy film.



Tron: Legacy

SDCC: 'Recognize' New Tron: Legacy Footage -- Despite having a presence at SDCC three years running now, Tron: Legacy still had plenty of new footage to show off.

SDCC: Second Theatrical Trailer for Tron: Legacy Hits -- Most of that new footage has stayed exclusive to the con thus far, but Disney was sure to get the fans at home something to sink their teeth into.



Sci-Fi, Action and Fantasy

SDCC: First Reconnaissance Photos from Battle: Los Angeles -- Sony has been pretty coy about releasing a good look at Battle: Los Angeles, but they did let out a trio of images from the alien invasion film.

SDCC: J.J. Abrams Sets His Sights On Spielberg With Super-8 -- Though much is still unknown about the project, the one Super-8 detail we do know is that this is Abrams' version of a Spielberg movie. Here he helps elaborate a bit on just what exactly that means.

SDCC: The Expendables Want to Emasculate You -- David pulls out 10 things from the Expendables panel that stuck with him, the saddest of which is a preponderance for CG blood.

SDCC: Will Skyline Be Worth the View? -- Alien invasion films seem to be making a comeback of late, but the most intriguing (and ambiguous) of the lot is Skyline, which David helps shed some light on.

SDCC: Die Hard 5 is Imminent According to Willis -- You can't always trust a star when they say one of their characters is bound to return any day now, but I wouldn't say that to Bruce Willis' face.

First Look: Daniel Craig Goes All Iron Man in Cowboys & Aliens - -Jon Favreau must love wrist-based energy weapons, as seen in this first image from his upcoming film.

SDCC: 5 Things to Be Ready For in Red -- Not sold on the ensemble action film Red? This should help.



Horror

Brad Pitt to Star in World War Z Adaptation -- Brad Pitt's Plan B Entertainment has had the rights to Max Brook's brilliant zombie novel for years now, but it looks like they're finally going to enter production on it.

SDCC: Guillermo del Toro Directing 3D Remake of Disney's Haunted Mansion -- One of the most unexpected news items to come out of SDCC was that Guillermo del Toro would like to remake The Haunted Mansion.

SDCC: Nic Cage Drives Angry, Is Kind Of Crazy in 3D -- Patrick Lussier may be poised to deliver one of the wildest 3D movies of 2011.

SDCC: Did Let Me In Win Over Anti-Remake Critics? -- Jen Yamato reports back on the overall reaction to the Let The Right One In remake.

SDCC: Resident Evil 4 -- Better Than Being Stabbed In The Face -- I think this is my favorite headline to come out of the entire convention.

SDCC: Paul Bettany, 3D and Priest -- Todd chats up the star of Screen Gems' upcoming post-apocalyptic flick about a world overrun by vampires.

SDCC: What The Hell is Drive Angry 3D? -- A simple question answered quite simply.



Life at Comic-Con

Gallery: It's Preview Night at Comic-Con 2010! -- Jen took her camera around the convention floor the night before the con proper to snap some pics of what was in store.

SDCC 10: Are Harry Potter Fans More Dedicated Than Twihards? -- An unanticipated revelation comes at the sight of the Horcruxes from the Deathly Hallows.

SDCC: Will Megamind Be Good or Evil? -- Animated features didn't have too big a presence at the fest, but David breaks down the good and bad of Megamind.

Comic-Con in 60 Seconds: Thursday, 7/22 -- Our first round-up of content from around the web.

SDCC Party Scene: Lucasfilm, G4, Tron and Scott Pilgrim -- The con doesn't stop when the panels close. No, it parties all. night. long.

Wild Speculatio-Poll: What Imaginary News Would You Love to Hear from SDCC? -- We wondered what the fans were hoping to be surprised by.

SDCC: Jackass 3D is Nasty ... But Still Kinda Hilarious -- Surprise, surprise, the Jackass crew have not lost their touch over the years.

Comic-Con in 60 Seconds. Friday, 7/23 -- Our second round-up of content from around the web.

SDCC: 7 Things I Learned Last Night -- Apparently Joss Whedon will dance with anyone.


SDCC: Machete Rips Guts, Feeds Tacos to the People! - Not only did Machete himself serve tacos to fans, but he also showed "seven awesomely NSFW minutes" of the film, which Jen tones down a bit for our SFW site.
SDCC: Adam McKay Confirms He's Directing The Boys! -- A few days prior to this announcement, McKay said he would only make The Boys if Simon Pegg starred in it. Let's hope he wasn't lying.

Gallery: The Hottest of Comic Con 2010! -- Let's face it, everyone loves cosplay.

Comic-Con in 60 Seconds. Sunday 7/25 -- Our third round-up of content from around the web.

SDCC: The Masters of Their Domain (Names) -- Two of our very own, Erik Davis and Jen Yamato, were part of the Masters of the Web panel moderated by Edgar Wright and Roberto Orci.

Joseph Gordon Levitt and His Hair Rule the New Hesher Clip -- Although it didn't have much to do with the spirit of the convention, Joseph Gordon-Levitt's Hesher got a bit of play.

SDCC: My 10 Favorite Bits & Pieces Of Comic-Con 2010 -- David numerates the ten best things about Comic-Con 2010, which is merely a prelude to...

The 2010 Comic-Con Awards! -- Exactly what the headline sounds like, only funnier.]]> 2010-07-30T21:02:00+00:00 http://news.moviefone.com/2010/07/30/cinematical-at-comic-con-2010-the-definitive-wrap-up/ <![CDATA[Research Shows Comic-Con Actually Hurts Movies]]> 19574980 Opining about how huge and out of control Comic-Con has gotten over the past few years isn't exactly new. After every year's show, countless scribes hit their keyboards ready to lament how the mega-event is too big for its own good and how comics -- the reason for its existence in the first place -- have been relegated to second-class citizen status. While I tend to agree with those views, I'm not convinced that it will ever really change. Comic-Con is big business now -- the proverbial dog-and-pony show crams more movies, panels, screenings, and assorted other hoopla into a several day span than any one person could possibly experience. When the cost to studios in terms of putting on the show is weighed against how much advertising bang for the buck they're getting and is determined to be a poor investment, that's when Comic-Con may finally start to change.

Heat Vision posted an interesting graphic that comes courtesy of Flixster. It tracks eight films featured at Comic-Con and how much the percentage of iPhone searches for those titles increased or decreased from last week to this week. The results are sort of surprising.

Hit the jump to find out how your favorite Comic-Con flicks are faring in the post-show afterglow.

Zack Snyder's Sucker Punch saw a whopping 2884% increase in searches. Scott Pilgrim gained 20% more traffic. Everything else? They lost ground. Tron, Thor, Captain America, Green Lantern, Green Hornet, and Megamind all saw drops in search engine traffic after the show.

Of course, as any first year Statistics student can tell you, correlation doesn't imply causation -- and there are numerous reasons for why this drop-off might have occurred. Everyone saw the new material for these movies last week and is taking a break now until more is released. Some of the movies aren't even close to their release. Plus, this isn't exactly a true random sampling -- while the iPhone is popular, it's hardly the only Internet device in town.

It is interesting though -- as Heat Vision points out -- how these numbers do seem to indicate that Comic-Con is failing to bring these films to a wider audience. Con attendees and the people who follow the event closely are checking the films out during the week of the show, but the films aren't "crossing over" to mainstream film fans in the weeks after. Spending money to promote movies to the people who were already going to see your film on opening weekend seems almost pointless.

Again, though, you have to take these figures with a grain of salt. It's all too easy to look at these numbers and start drawing conclusions -- and while they may be at least partially right, there are countless other variables to factor in as well. What we can see is that it appears movies hit a hype crescendo during the event and there's an inevitable letdown in the week after. Sort of like box office results these days.
]]> 2010-07-30T14:15:00+00:00 http://news.moviefone.com/2010/07/30/research-shows-comic-con-actually-hurts-movies/ <![CDATA[Listen to Daft Punk's Entire 'Tron: Legacy' Score (UPDATED)]]> 19574913 Whether you're a fan of Tron: Legacy, Daft Punk, futuristic dudes in funky light-up suits, or some kinky combo thereof, you're in luck. If the Daft Punk tunes from the first teaser trailer or even the second teaser trailer weren't enough, some YouTube user has uploaded all of the scenes that the techno twins scored for the upcoming movie. You know, the Disney flick that had everyone drooling at Comic-Con? After the jump, you can listen to each of them while playing with your Tron toys or riding your very own custom-built Tron lightcycle down the street.

UPDATE: Disney has confirmed that all of the tracks posted after the jump are fakes and fan created. In the meantime, we're still awaiting word on the six tracks posted below, which we believe to be legit.



Daft Punk - Tron Soundtrack (Sampler) by Some Kind of Awesome

















]]> 2010-07-30T11:02:00+00:00 http://news.moviefone.com/2010/07/30/listen-to-daft-punks-entire-tron-legacy-score/ <![CDATA[Five Things A Green 'Lantern' Fan Should Know]]> 19572703

Saturday morning at Warner Brothers' Green Lantern Comic-Con panel, Martin Campbell, Ryan Reynolds, Mark Strong and Peter Sarsgaard answered fan questions and screened a few minutes of footage from the forthcoming comic book adaptation. Following their public appearance, however, which certainly had attendees asking for more, the group fielded questions from reporters at a hotel adjacent to the convention, revealing more information about the characters, the story, and of course the much-talked about style of the film.

Cinematical joined reporters for that press conference, and attempted to squeeze some substantive information about the film out of the cast and filmmakers. But rather than repeating material revealed in the panel, we've compiled the most important (and hopefully, interesting) answers so that by the next time someone is talking about Green Lantern, you'll not only be familiar with the proposed franchise but primed to celebrate its cinematic incarnation.

1. Although the film will borrow from different periods in Green Lantern's comic history, Reynolds and co. are focusing on the man rather than the mythology. Reynolds indicated that the challenge and opportunity with Green Lantern was to give the series some humanity in its big-screen iteration. "Unlike many other comic books, it's such a vast universe to this character and his contemporaries," Reynolds said. "For the most part this is an origin story so I was able to focus a little on Secret Origins, but then, obviously, our script is a much more in depth interpretation of that basic storyline. Geoff Johns described this thing as a version of Star Wars in the DC universe. I think that was a pretty apt description. You have so much you can mine out of this, out of these comics and this character in particular. I think that any time you're dealing with a guy who has something unbelievable and insurmountable to overcome, it makes for a pretty interesting story. As an actor, it's an interesting and excellent thing for me to get an opportunity to play."

"This guy has a very distinct starting point," he continued. "He's a bit of a fractured human being. He's seen some difficult stuff in his life. He's seen his father die. We move on to find him a little bit later in life and he's kind of arrogant, cocky and aimless. It's this extraordinary power that is bestowed on him that sort of sets him on a bit of a humbler path. It's pretty cool." Despite the obvious research he put into developing the character, Reynolds confessed he has already constructed a defense for the inevitable fan questions he'll get: "Artful deflection," he joked. "I would never profess to be as well-versed or as literate in that comic book world as they are. I do know a bit about certain comic books, but I'll be the first to tell them when I don't know about that particular issue."

2. Despite playing what may be the piece's bad guy, Mark Strong is trying to find Sinestro's sympathetic side. "I'm not sure you prepare for villains necessarily," Strong said when asked how he prepared to play Jordan's sometime nemesis. "You prepare for a character. I suppose the way I look at villains is that nobody is born evil. Usually something happens to their time on the planet or in space that causes them to become the way they are. You have to look at who he is and what he stands for and what he believes in. He is an incredibly organized, fearless, exponent of the Green Lantern Corps who believes that he knows best."

"In this movie as it stands, he becomes mentor to the newly minted human Green Lantern and basically guides him through his first steps," he explained of his role in the story. "We deal with that process, so I don't think of him as a villain or even in a bad sense. He's just an incredibly powerful presence who knows what he believes and what he wants to be right. If there's anything that causes him later on to spill over to the dark side, it's his unquestioning belief in his own rightness."

3. Notwithstanding the cranium-cracking prosthetics, Peter Sarsgaard studiously avoided letting his character's formidable intellect give him a big head. Describing Hector Hammond, another adversary for Jordan, Sarsgaard revealed "He is a biologist. He teaches the university but his private time is quite interested in extremophiles, animals that live in extreme environments on earth as a way to understand creatures that live on other planets. There's a fine line there between science and wishful thinking. I thought about a lot of people who have sort of stretched our ideas [who] added a little bit of creativity to science like Carl Sagan or Isaac Asimov. The part of me that, when I was young read more things like that than I did straight comics. A sense of wonder about the world where you start filling in gaps, which is what most scientists try not to do. So I really thought of him as kind of a dreamer in a lot of ways."

4. Those initial shots of the Green Lantern costume are part of a work in progress, although Reynolds admitted that the interim version is ill-suited to the film's location shooting. "This costume is a motion capture suit that I'm wearing," Reynolds explained. "Because it's not seen on camera, they've managed to find a material that I think most would agree is the most aggravating substance on earth. We're shooting in Louisiana, which is pretty close to the sun in terms of the hottest place you can find anywhere around. The suit has actually been a little bit difficult running around in a unitard in the New Orleans high summer heat. [But] if I were wearing anything, it's going to be pretty uncomfortable doing an action movie this time of year in the deep south, so I can't be too hard on the suit."

Meanwhile, Reynolds revealed a serendipitous detail about the costume that seemed to suggest he was born to play the role of Hal Jordan. "There was a Cinderella element to it, because the FX house that was asked to make the Green Lantern mask had no idea who was auditioning, but they arbitrarily chose my head from their vast catalogs of actors' heads to build this mask around. So when I showed up to set, my mask fit a little better than maybe Regis Philbin's or Richard Chamberlain's. Or whoever else might have been auditioning that day."

5. Green Lantern may be considered one of the least audience-friendly comic book adaptations given its complex history, but director Martin Campbell is confident that he and his cast can lay its bag of snakes out straight. "It's not a tough one to explain," Campbell insisted. "I think it's all very, very clear. I think the story that we are telling, which is the Hal Jordon story, is quite concise, actually. I think that the fact that he is taken up to Oa and he's inducted and he becomes a Green Lantern and the way in which the ring works through will power. The stronger your will power, the stronger your construct. Construct being whatever your imagination cares to create. The actual story is very simple. I know there are many complex characters and all the characters from the origin story go on to the dark side in later comics and things, but I think it's very straightforward."

(If you understood what Campbell said above, please let us know in the comments below.)]]> 2010-07-28T23:15:00+00:00 http://news.moviefone.com/2010/07/28/five-things-a-green-lantern-fan-should-know/ <![CDATA[Interview: Zack Snyder and Deborah Snyder]]> 19570635
Watching a filmmaker grow up is an exciting thing. It's not a matter of managing missteps or chronicling their commercial appeal, its seeing how they absorb both their failures and successes and apply them to their future work. Zack Snyder launched his directing career with one of the most auspicious debuts of the last decade - a high-octane, hugely entertaining remake of George Romero's Dawn of the Dead - and has since matured into a remarkably sophisticated purveyor of thrills, while managing to maintain a comfortable foothold in the mainstream. And after two iconic adaptations of equally iconic comic book series (300 and Watchmen), Snyder has created his own fantasy world with Sucker Punch, an original project that combines the iconography of his earlier films along with a whole host of other influences to form something epic, sprawling, and most of all unique.

Following the first screening of footage from the film at Comic-Con's storied Hall H last Saturday (watch the trailer here), Cinematical sat down with Snyder and his producer (and wife) Deborah Snyder for a discussion about the evolution of his career. In addition to revealing a few details about the foundations of Sucker Punch, he offered insights into his creative process, and commented on the ongoing collaboration he enjoys with Warner Brothers in order to continue conceiving these spectacular new worlds.

Cinematical: As awesome as the footage that you screened at Comic-Con looks, the real success of a movie like this is based on how effectively all of the spectacle works towards examining something larger. How did you make sure as you conceived each set piece that the overall story was going to have a deeper emotional or conceptual resonance?

Zack Snyder: A hundred percent! We basically had a second story already done and really what happened is all of the action sequences just end up servicing the other story. You have this dramatic story with these girls that is pretty compelling and pretty intense and pretty present - it doesn't rely on anything - but in their personal struggles they do need something. So we use those fantasy sequences to get those needs met, and the thing that's interesting about it is that it's such an intimate thing and such a small thing that they actually need that when you blow it out to this amazingly, ridiculously gigantic sequence, it has some kind of [larger significance]. Again, it's interesting and ironic to me, personally, that something so simple and so small in their own lives when you think about it because when you do fantasize about something, it can be [the case] that the scale is not an issue. So that's kind of how we treated it; it always in the end came back to the girls and where they were and what they needed.

Cinematical: As unfettered as the creativity feels up on the screen, do you tend to construct these ideas linearly or does it sort of pour out of you in a stream-of-consciousness kind of way?

Zack Snyder: I write in a pretty, uh -

Deborah Snyder: I can't get over how he writes.

Zack Snyder: I write in a pretty straightforward way. I kind of sit down at page one and start writing.

Deborah Snyder: But he spends lots of time thinking - he'll be in thought and thinking and thinking, as opposed to a lot of people I know that are writers who will write and they'll crumple it up, or they go back and redo it. You, it all happens in your head, and then you put it down.

Zack Snyder: I kind of put it down in one, like -

Deborah Snyder: And that's usually how [the script] is.

Zack Snyder: But the thing that's interesting is that I do spend a lot of time constructing it because it is like a tapestry. It's all woven together in this kind of super-complicated way. But I feel like it's that I just have this slightly odd process; it doesn't mean that when I'm done, I don't go, "oh it would be nice to layer that one thing one more time." That's stuff that you can do. But pretty much it's stream of consciousness - maybe a combination.

Cinematical: Because these girls are in so many different outfits and have so many different personas, and you created them yourself, how careful did you have to be or how did you empower the actresses to make sure that the characters were themselves empowered and not just a sort of male fantasy figure?

Zack Snyder: Once the script was written, that was never really going to be a danger, because the girls, the characters were so important to me that I never wanted to belittle them or make them anything more than [people].


Deborah Snyder: And what's great about them and what's great about the action role that they're taking is that they can be badass and they can be fierce, but they also can cry and they can be sexy and beautiful and feminine - not necessarily masculine. That they are so dimensional, I think, is really important, and it was there and then the girls just brought even more to it as well.


Zack Snyder: We never shot it like an exploitation film; there's nothing about the film that - someone asked me before they'd seen any of the footage, "is this kind of like an exploitation movie? Is that like what this is? Because there are these sort of fetishistic-looking girls." And I was like, no, it's heart-attack serious. And they were like, "well, how do you do that?" and I said, I don't know, you just do it. But the truth is that in ways they're icon-busting or cliché-cracking rather than sort of embodying [them]. It's not like a Halloween costume where they dressed up like a schoolgirl, you know.

Cinematical: Something I wanted to ask you after Watchmen, which I thought was a pretty amazing achievement, was how conscious are you not of the tone, but the sort of levels on which something is meant to operate. For example, the thing about Watchmen is that it operates on this supremely sophisticated ironic level, providing the superficial gratification of a superhero movie even though it isn't about that at all. When you are conceiving these ideas, as you discussed with the fetishistic but empowering design of the women in Sucker Punch, do you tend to be very careful about building that into the design of the film, or is that something that sort of just comes out subconsciously through your creative process?

Zack Snyder: I think it's a combination of the two things because a movie is an ironic experience for me, because I know it's not real, and that never goes away for me. I was saying the other day that Toy Story 3 is a perfect movie to me because it never tries to make you think it's real - it's a cartoon - and yet you cry at the end and it's ridiculous because you have this experience of being completely tricked by your own brain that these characters are real, that they are alive and you care about what happens to them. In Watchmen, that was almost the main thing that I was going for - that tone of sort of irony on almost every level, whether it be history or it be our perception or superheroes, which is what I felt like Alan was doing anyway, but it was what I wanted to do with the movie. And I think Sucker Punch has a very similar point of view without being as much of a worldview; it's more about sort of the icons of sexuality and feminism and all of those things. It really sort of goes after those things more than it goes after, like I would in the past, some historical [portrait] of why we are who we are. This is more about why certain icons of sexuality persist, but I think also I love action and I love doing it, so I have this weird relationship with movies in that way. Like I'm always making fun of movies, but I love them more than anything.

Cinematical: Warner Brothers has such a unique ongoing collaboration with filmmakers. Obviously Kubrick was the gold standard back in the day, but you and Christopher Nolan have enjoyed a longtime partnership with them. What is it about that relationship that makes you want to continue to work with them as opposed to maybe shopping your projects around elsewhere?

Zack Snyder: Well, I think just the movie itself, Sucker Punch itself, the fact that it got made in the same -

Deborah Snyder: They greenlit Nolan's movie at the same time - two original ideas that were not like, oh, this is formulaic. They were bold ideas and for them to be like yes, this is what we want to do and we want to support our filmmakers, and we will take chances and strive to do something that's different, no other studio is doing that.

Zack Snyder: And hopefully by the same token, we try and make a movie that audiences would hopefully find different. If they're tired of the same old summer fare, there's something else. People can go, I'm going to sit down, the lights are going to go down, and that's going to be something else, and I think Warner Brothers respects that and they seem to have really been amazingly generous with us.

Deborah Snyder: Even with Watchmen - and even with 300. They had just done Troy and they were like, another sword and sandal movie?

Zack Snyder: They had done Alexander too.

Deborah Snyder: They were like, we don't really need this. It's like sword and sandals fatigue and we were like, this is going to be something different. I don't think they really understood what it was until we started shooting.

Zack Snyder: And even then, it was all greenscreen. They were like, "what is this?" But they were like, okay, we trust that you know what you're doing and it's going to be cool.

Deborah Snyder: And that blind faith sometimes, you know, it's faith in the person, and it's a two-way street of mutual respect.

Zack Snyder: But we want to make them a great movie; I want them to make money. But it's just if they can use our points of view and our movie and sort of the way we do it and then the images that we create, if they can figure out a way that that works in the marketplace, then that's awesome and everyone wins.]]> 2010-07-27T21:45:00+00:00 http://news.moviefone.com/2010/07/27/interview-zack-snyder-and-deborah-snyder/ <![CDATA[SDCC: 5 Things to Be Ready For in 'Red']]> 19569475
Among the sneak peeks and previews at Comic-Con of films coming soon and not-so-soon, Robert Schwentke's Red managed to be one of the more promising surprises this year. Stars Bruce Willis, Mary-Louise Parker, Helen Mirren, and Karl Urban joined producer Lorenzo Di Bonaventura and comic creators Warren Ellis and Cully Hamner to premiere a new trailer, talk about the film, and pique fan interest in this odd, balls-out, exciting-looking new film.

But rather than merely recounting everything the panel participants said, we've compiled an abridged list of the stuff that was of most interest from the panel, and which provoked some of the most enthusiastic responses from attendees.

1. Moviegoers are guaranteed to get their money's worth from the movie. "I think over 75 movie stars are in Red," Willis revealed jokingly, explaining that the rotation of cast members made the production an unpredictable, fun experience. "Every day was fun. It was a really ambitious project and the work that the actors did became easier each week because every week we got another big movie star who came in that we were all excited about. I think that John Malkovich and Mary-Louise [Parker] and I spent the most time together, and it was like recess - it was so easy to do and so much fun to work with these actors."

Helen Mirren added that they recruited some real acting muscle: "They had The Queen, and then they had God," she said.

2. Even with her high-art pedigree, Mirren will be manning up just like the rest of the rough-and-tumble cast. "As an actor, those are the roles that you long for," Mirren explained. "You always want something that's going to kind of kick your last role out of the water and put you on a new path, and this miraculously came along for me. Bruce is sitting to my left and Mary-Louise is sitting to my right, but I was a huge fan of both of these actors so it was a great honor for me and somewhat intimidating to find myself acting with them. And also I guess the people who will go and see this film are not the people who will go and see a film about Tolstoy, so it's kind of nice to find a new audience, I hope."

3. Karl Urban not only worked but fought with one of his own acting icons in the movie. He said, "I've got to say I haven't had so much fun in years. It's not often you get to pick up one of the most iconic action heroes ever and throw him across the room and watch him smash into some furniture. He got me back for it, big time, too. It was a lot of fun. It was one of those situations where I got work with someone whose work I had admired for such a long time and then to actually work with him where finally all of my expectations of who he actually was were exceeded by the humble and generous actor that he is."

4. The creators of the comic book acknowledge that changes were made, but give the film their blessing and say they were definitely for the best. "My role was to stay out of the way," Warren Ellis said. "I said to the production team and the writers that I'm always there if you want to talk, but I want to see what you make with the film. I want you to make an adaptation, not a translation; it's yours now so go and have fun with it. But with the quality of the studio and the writers and the cast and the director, who the first time I met him came up and quoted to me from the first graphic novel I ever wrote in 1989 - which was so long ago for me that I had no idea what he was talking about - these are people who love comics and that there was little more that I could do other than just sit back and let them get on with it."

Cully Hamner, meanwhile observed that the story needs different things in different mediums. "The film is going to be different than the book," he observed. "The tone is a lot broader, I think. But when I visited the set, there were copies of the book everywhere, and that's a mark of respect, I think. I think that there's a lot of respect for what we did, even though they had to sort of broaden it a little bit for an audience, which I think was totally appropriate."

5. Although her training wasn't extensive, Mirren said she learned a few skills to pass on to her future audience. "I did some gun training, but that was it, really," she admitted. "The great thing about our job is that we find ourselves in these extraordinary situations and learning these skills that hopefully we'll never have to use. Certainly learning how to shoot a gun is something I had to learn. Of course I was surrounded by experts - not just people who were trained, but a lot of my co-actors knew how to shoot off guns, and all I had to do was watch them, really."

"But the most difficult thing about shooting a gun at least on film is not to have a silly face while the gun is going off," Mirren pointed out. "Because it's always a bit of a shock so you find yourself, you know, sort of sticking your tongue out. So the hardest thing was just to kind of keep a straight face while you are shooting a gun. Remember if any of you ever have to do that in a film in the future."]]> 2010-07-27T12:02:00+00:00 http://news.moviefone.com/2010/07/27/sdcc-5-things-to-be-ready-for-in-red/ <![CDATA[The 2010 Comic-Con Awards!]]> 19569529

Some would say that there are no winners at Comic-Con (only 150,000 losers), but those people don't have snippy articles to write about the winners of Comic-con. Also, those people probably weren't there when Ryan Reynolds recited the Green Lantern oath to an absolutely flabbergasted little boy and obviously won Comic-Con. So without further ado - and after exhausting hours of sifting through ballots with the guys from Price Waterhouse Coopers - I present to you the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con Awards!

Best Way to Start Comic-con:
Winner: Waking all 5 of the people packed into your hotel room at 7:30 on Thursday morning with Edith Piaf's "Non, je ne Negrette Rien."
Runner-up: A hypodermic needle of amphetamines directly to the heart.

Best Reason to Wear 3-D Glasses:
Winner: Drive Angry 3-D. Because two dimensions are simply not enough to contain Nicolas Cage. Or his anger.
Runner-up: They're the last line of defense between you and a pen to the eye.

Best Reason to Remove 3-D Glasses Despite the Fact that they're the Last Line of Defense Between You and a Pen to the Eye:
Winner: Thor. Kenneth Branagh knows how to shoot for depth, just not this kind of depth. The Thor footage was lifeless, silly, and without an iota of the scale required to balance the character's godly origins. Thanks to the woefully mishandled 3-D, it was also dim and vaguely disorienting. How could a film that features Anthony Hopkins as Odin and Natalie Portman as the prettiest thing in the universe seem so... uninteresting?
Runner-up: The Alpha and Omega trailer. Finally, a kids movie about a wolf desperately trying to have sex with another wolf.

Best Proof that No Lessons Were Learned From I Am Legend:
Winner: Priest, and its CG vampires.
Runner-up: The last Paul Bettany movie.


Best Repeat Performance:
Winner: Anthony Hopkins as Odin (Thor) as Anthony Hopkins as Hrothgar (Beowulf).
Runner-up: Michael Sheen as Castor (Tron: Legacy) as Jared Leto as Angel Face (Fight Club)

Best Ass:
Winner: Sylvester Stallone. Seriously, that thing could clench and yank Thor's hammer from its stone. Maggie Q and Scarlett Johansson worked their mojo on my hormones to be sure, but Sly - with his black slacks and billowing white button-down - reminded you why you take all those horse steroids in the first place.
Runner-up: Me, for missing the panels for The Haunted Mansion and Super.

Best Reason to Be a 14 year-old Boy:
Winner: Super 8. J.J. Abrams - in his continuing quest to redefine the dynamic shared between modern media and its audience - made a point of how neat it would be for some kid to be jazzed by the Super 8 trailer only to later learn that he's actually going to be the star of the movie. Reminded me of a thought I had about Lost, which is that actor Mark Pellegrino might have been just another one of the fans who spent two years wondering about who Jacob might be, only to learn that the answer was a bit closer than he could have imagined...
Runner-up: Absolutely no responsibilities / chance to meet Chris Hansen.



Best Reason to See Let Me In:
Winner: Richard Jenkins.
Runner-up: You hate your money. If you've ever thought, "I would love to pay $14 to see a bunch of talented people squander a year of their lives on an inexplicably faithful watered down facsimile of a great film I've already seen," then this is the movie for you. Or so the screened footage would suggest...
2nd Runner-up: Another great chance to see that hysterical trailer for Gulliver's Travels! That bit about Jack Black's muttonchops gets better every time.

Best Emasculation of Hans Zimmer:
Winner: Daft Punk in Tron: Legacy. Sorry, Zimmer's score for Inception, you just weren't loud and confrontational enough.

Best Opportunity for Warner Bros. to Have Christopher Nolan Announce the Title for the Sequel to The Dark Knight:
Winner: Comic-con 2010.
Runner-up: The comments section of this post.

Best Cure for Cynicism:
Winner: Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. This movie is a brilliant bundle of joy from first frame to last. Among the very best films of the year, it's also a breathless reminder that cinema offers filmmakers the means to adapt graphic novels as uniquely expressive works rather than simply the tools necessary to copy them wholesale.
Runner-up: The tone of Cowboys & Aliens. Rather then running with a jokey, flippant tone that eschewed the classic conventions of the Western for something a bit more palatable to modern audiences, Jon Favreau and co. opted for a traditionally dusty and deliberate feel that marries John Ford with Close Encounters of the Third Kind. This was both a relief and an unexpected change of pace for writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman (Transformers, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen), who usually write films that opt for a feel of "unrelenting agony."

Best Reunion:
Winner: The Avengers. Chris Evans and Scarlett Johansson finally together again so Hollywood can milk that blockbuster Nanny Diaries chemistry just one more time.
Runner-up: Tron: Legacy. The sight of old Jeff Bridges watching younger, hollow-eyed Jeff Bridges was like seeing a man meet his own zombie avatar. In a related story, by the time you finish reading this article Paramount Pictures will have announced Zombatar: Undead and Loving It for Summer 2013. And in a slightly less fictional related story, the Tron: Legacy footage re-united film fans with "awesomeness."

Best Diversionary Tactic:
Winner: Comic-con brass telling the masses of Hall H not to pay any mind to the infamous and tremendously unfortunate eye-stabbing incident in the back of the room... thus alerting the masses of Hall H to the infamous and tremendously unfortunate eye-stabbing incident in the back of the room.
Runner-up: Comic-con brass then diverting attention from the attack by re-running the Trailer Park trailers on the Hall H screens, beginning with Gulliver's Travels in a misguided effort to distract the hordes from a violent attack on a fan by showing them an even violent-er attack on a literary classic.

Best Answer to Why the Nerd Crossed the Street:
Winner: To get to Pacey-con! Duh.


Runner-up: To get to that Starbucks beneath the Bayfront Hilton that had a comparatively tiny line and played nothing but sci-fi T.V. show themes. And believe you me, the X-Files music was the only appropriate soundtrack to the sight of Batman ordering a Frappuccino.

Best Reason to Avoid Comic-con Altogether:
Winner: Your name is M. Night Shyamalan, and the Devil trailer is being screened for 6,500 burned geeks in Hall H.
Runner-up: You have a healthy respect for your physical well-being.

Best Excuse to Leave Comic-con Before Sunday:
Winner: There really isn't any good reason I can think of - your regular life is simply not this much fun. The wonder of Comic-con is that you can be disappointed by a significant portion of the panels and still leave with a reinforced love of storytelling as well as hazy memories of the best weekend of your life.
Runner-up: The Glee panel.]]> 2010-07-26T22:45:00+00:00 http://news.moviefone.com/2010/07/26/the-2010-comic-con-awards/ <![CDATA['Sucker Punch' Trailer Now Online!]]> 19569478

One of the Hall H presentations I was most anxious to see was Zack Snyder's Sucker Punch. I'm an unapologetic Snyder fan. I think he's one of the most interesting directors to pop on the scene in this decade. He's developing a trademark style for himself and even if you don't like it, you have to respect him for being original enough to stick to his speed ramping.

Sucker Punch is his first original work, which is always a fun prospect from any director, and I like what I know of the concept. I was eager to see how it played in Hall H, which tends to champion Snyder. (His 300 and Watchmen presentations rank among some of the more memorable things I've seen there.) This year was an exception, if only because everyone seemed to struggle with what they saw. Everyone I pumped for information said they liked it, but they honestly didn't know what it was. The consensus was that the visuals were amazing.

Now you (and I!) can see the footage ourselves. Snyder just opened a Twitter account, and one of his first Tweets was an announcement that Sucker Punch's ComicCon trailer was now available online. It's over on Apple in glorious hi-def (or you can watch it after the jump). Like those in Hall H, I find it difficult to describe, so just watch it for yourself. All I know is that I want to see more, and I'm crossing my fingers that its plot and performances match the incredible world Snyder appears to have created.

]]> 2010-07-26T21:23:00+00:00 http://news.moviefone.com/2010/07/26/sucker-punch-trailer/ <![CDATA[SDCC: My 10 Favorite Bits & Pieces Of Comic-Con 2010]]> 19567906
No two people experience Comic-con in quite the same way (well, maybe those question-whoring Hall H twins do) - there's just too much to do, see, smell, and wait for. Of the experiences and impressions I had this weekend that might mean anything to the public at large, these are the ten that - at some miserable point 35,000 ft. over Kentucky on the redeye tonight - are going to help me remember why I keep coming back.

10. Daft Punk.

The Tron: Legacy footage was an exciting, if measured tease (with an odd gait), but one bit of both the reel and the eventual film about which I have absolutely no reservations is the score by Daft Punk. The samples from the panel were astounding, and when we got a glimpse of those French electro wizards DJ-ing the games in their white jumpsuits, I had to catch my nerdy whimper like a young O-ren Ishii. Had the Daft Punk pyramid then risen through the Hall H stage my entire body would have gone all sorts of spastic, and without an ounce of concern that it was 10 A.M. on a Thursday morning.

9. Finally getting my hands on Coraline's doll.

This one sort of pushes the boundaries of that whole bit about these memories being of interest to the public at large, but finally finding this stupid doll is what the dealer's room is all about. I had planned to dress as Coraline for Halloween last year, but every time I ordered one of these things from Ebay they would simply just never show up - must have happened 2 or 3 times. So despite the fact that I've already committed to my costume for this year (the middle portion of a Human Centipede), I was pretty excited to stumble across one of these blue-haired rag-dolls. It may not be Superman #1 or anything, but it does have buttons for eyes. And that's not nothing.

8. Richard Jenkins has another great performance in the bag.

Richard Jenkins has made a routine of appearing in competent or superior films, and his increasingly diverse performances are consistently excellent regardless of the genre in which he's delivering them. He was every bit as hilarious in Step Brothers as he was warm and effecting in The Visitor, and in Let Me In (Matt Reeves' Let the Right One In remake) Jenkins gets a chance to go dark. And while I remain unconvinced that this project is of any legitimate value, the footage Overture showed us is every bit as bold and confident as it is completely redundant.

One extended clip that deviated in action (if not consequence) from the Swedish film featured Jenkins in full-on Buffalo Bill mode, wearing a suit pieced together from plastic bags and lying in wait for the car's teenaged owner to return so that Jenkins could find fresh blood for his vampire ward. Jenkins is possessed and fiercely believable, especially when it all goes horribly awry, and the clip proved that - if nothing else - Let Me In is going to be another great opportunity to see one of our finest actors explore some new terrain.

7. Danny Trejo serving me a soft taco.


I never really predicted this would happen (I always thought it would be a hard taco), but the Machete shindig in a Gaslamp parking lot had a way of realizing dreams I never knew I had. Despite being a pasty Jewish kid from New England, I've long had a sincere and enduring desire to see Danny Trejo: leading man. But Robert Rodriguez waited just long enough, as Trejo's Machete seems haggard and lurching right up until the moment he uses a guy's intestine to repel down a building, at which point Trejo registers as a hero who's as surprising as he is truly worthy. The man has always been a star, and it's great that people will finally have the chance to see him shine (and by "shine," i clearly mean "brutally destroy faceless henchman in a non-stop rampage of blood, guts, and really leathery skin").

6. Edgar Wright completely derails the writing of this article by re-tweeting me as I'm writing this article.

True story. This may have been my favorite SDCC 2010 moment, but the rankings here are as arbitrary as drinking coffee. It just so happened that the blurb I had for #6 was especially uninteresting. Much unlike Scott Pilgrim vs. the World! (see, that's called paying it forward). But seriously, this was the first time I can remember that I unabashedly loved the film that most thoroughly dominated Comic-con (The Avengers doesn't count), and that's a nice feeling at a time when I felt especially disconnected from the passions and pleasures of the average attendee. I mean, this was what face would have looked like during during the exuberant Thor panel if I had a mustache: : { .

5. Ryan Reynolds makes everyone feel like a kid again.

Remember that time when Ryan Reynolds recited the Green Lantern oath to a young kid and the wee fan's jaw completely fell off of his face? And everyone in the room had goosebumps and remembered why they love stories in the first pace? And then everyone stared at Ryan Reynolds and thought about what a great choice he is for the role? And then everyone felt really ugly and un-muscular? ... Ugh, stupid Ryan Reynolds.



4. Joss Whedon Dance Party

Cause if you were just tasked with directing The Avengers, you'd probably have to blow off some steam, too. Also, you'd probably want to dance a lot cause that is pretty much the most incredible gig in the world.

3. Zack Snyder using his success to make a real movie in Sucker Punch.



I loathe 300 and Watchmen, and Zack Snyder's defense of the process by which he slavishly transmogrified those films from their respective graphic novels did nothing to sway me. It bothers me to no end when a filmmaker tasked with adapting a novel (graphic or otherwise) fails to take advantage of the unique tools that cinema makes available to them to explore and express the source material in a way not possible in the original medium. And that goes doubly true for filmmakers who have already proven that they have talent (I always get a kick out of the Dawn of the Dead remake, and despite my gripes both 300 and Watchmen obviously have their moments). So I was thrilled to see Snyder finally exploit his cache and milk Hollywood for the means required to bring us his first completely original vision, and I was all the more thrilled when that vision looked light on speed ramps and heavy on awesome. I'm not exactly sure how the World War I imagery, cabaret, dragons, cleavage, and steamy lesbian prison sex are going to come together, but I am sure I don't care. Even if the dark cloud of Xerxes looms...

2. Influential filmmakers take back 2-D.

The Cowboys & Aliens footage did nothing to convince me that Jon Favreau has the capacity to stage invigorating action sequences, but it did a lot to convince me that I love Jon Favreau. Although Dinner for Five, Love & Sex, PCU, Elf, and the fact that we share the same birthday have always been working in his favor, after Iron Man 2 he needed a push back into my good graces. By refusing to exchange the cameras he wanted for the cameras needed to shoot 3-D, he illustrated his unwillingness to compromise the classic look and feel of his mercifully old-fashioned quasi-western, and that's all it took to win me over. Again. The sublimely dusty and weather-beaten aesthetic of the footage was proof enough that his decision was for the best for the film, and the audience's enthusiastic response to his announcement hopefully communicated to the studio reps that we only want 3-D when it's appropriate. With Sucker Punch's similar announced at con to be released exclusively in 2-D, it looks as if we might already have weathered the worst of the hideous post-conversions and unnecessary money grabs with Clash of the Titans and The Last Airbender.

1. The Avengers announcement is followed immediately by a nerd marriage proposal.

I can't believe it's taken this long, and I can't believe the whole thing didn't induce me to projectile vomit. But when that scrawny pole of a nerd found all 6,500 Hall H attendees turning on him as he asked the first question of the Kevin Smith panel, he got us back on his side in a big way by asking another question. To his girlfriend. I don't know if either of those two kids were alive to see Clerks in theaters, but they met at SDCC last year, they got engaged here this year, and Smith suggested that they get married here next year (and - as an ordained minister - he offered to do the honors). The spectacle induced as many cringes as it did smiles and laughs (there were a few more allusions to fleshlights and "hammers" than I want for my own proposal), but to follow one of the biggest moments in con history (The Avengers assembled!) with the ultimate expression of intra-personal nerd love was an undeniably nifty reminder as to what keeps this big machine spinning.

I hope to be back tomorrow for some SDCC awards, and in the meantime want to thank the awesome folks at Cinematical for inviting me to write for them this weekend.]]> 2010-07-26T21:15:00+00:00 http://news.moviefone.com/2010/07/26/sdcc-my-10-favorite-bits-and-pieces-of-comic-con-2010/ <![CDATA[Joseph Gordon Levitt and His Hair Rule the New 'Hesher' Clip]]> 19568971
If not for Tom Hardy, Joseph Gordon-Levitt would have been the best part of Inception. JGL's portrayal of the clean-cut and no-nonsense Arthur has finally shown mainstream audiences what film geeks have known for some time -- this guy's a damn good actor. I still have a hard time seeing him and not thinking of little Tommy Solomon on Third Rock from the Sun, but that's starting to change with each new role.

I think I might be able to shake the image of the adorably cute pre-teen Joseph Gordon-Levitt once and for all after seeing this new clip for Spencer Susser's film Hesher. The footage played at Comic-Con over the weekend, which definitely seems strange for a Sundance film, but as Twitch points out it was almost assuredly to capitalize on Natalie Portman being in attendance (she also appears in the film) and JGL's Inception buzz.

You can check out our own Erik Childress' review to get the full breakdown of what Hesher's all about, but the basically the film follows a 13-year-old boy whose mother has died in a car accident. He meets Hesher (Gordon-Levitt), an angry, tattooed loner who shows him a lot about life -- most of it not necessarily good.

The film played Sundance earlier this year, earning mostly mixed reviews. Newmarket Films has picked Hesher up for distribution, but no official release date has been announced.

Hit the jump to watch the new clip, then head to the comments section to tell us what you think of this new turn for Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

]]> 2010-07-26T16:45:00+00:00 http://news.moviefone.com/2010/07/26/joseph-gordon-levitt-and-his-hair-rule-the-new-hesher-clip/ <![CDATA['Green Lantern' Tries Again with Four New Posters]]> 19569100

That first image of Ryan Reynolds in the Green Lantern costume didn't go over too well online, and many of us were surprised that Warner Bros. didn't give us a peek at Reynolds in costume during our brief glimpse of footage at the film's panel in Hall H (read our coverage of that panel). While The Green Lantern footage definitely looked cool, folks criticized Warners for not showing it twice and not screening it in 3D. But maybe it can stand back up and dust itself off after releasing these four new character posters, giving us a tiny look at Peter Sarsgaard as Dr. Hector Hammond and Mark Strong as Sinestro.

As far as what we did actually get to see at Comic Con, here's Todd's description of the footage: "The clip was only two or three minutes, and featured just slivers of what one can expect will be epic storytelling. But what was there was nonetheless modestly impressive: Ryan Reynolds plays Hal Jordan, a human initiated into the Green Lantern Corps by Sinestro (the aforementioned Mark Strong). After a montage of images featuring other Lanterns, including some odd (or to fans, oddly familiar) aliens, Jordan seems surprised to discover that he's wearing an emerald-colored ring which, during a scuffle in a vacant lot, manifests a gigantic green fist and lays out three adversaries at the same time. Meanwhile, we also get a few snapshots of other characters in the film, including Peter Sarsgaard as Hector Hammpnd, and Blake Lively as Carol Ferris."

Check out all four posters in the gallery below. Are you satisfied with what you've been seeing so far on Green Lantern, or does Warners have to step it up a bit and show us more, more, more?

%Gallery-98223%
]]> 2010-07-26T15:30:00+00:00 http://news.moviefone.com/2010/07/26/green-lantern-tries-again-with-four-new-posters/ <![CDATA[SDCC: What The Hell is 'Drive Angry 3D'?]]> 19568934

Who can blame the Comic-Con masses for not showing up first thing Friday morning for a movie called Drive Angry 3D? The cavernous Hall H was suspiciously easy to get into today, even with fan fave Nicolas Cage slated to appear -- but those in attendance were treated to a bloody good trailer (Cage channeling '70s grind house road rage!) for what looks to be Cage's next truly balls-out, slightly-maybe insane cult character.

If Summit was disappointed at all about the half-capacity turnout, at least they can take comfort in the fact that, now, the fans on hand who DID catch the 2011 action pic panel will remember it come February. What was so memorable about the Drive Angry 3D panel? Hit the quick list below for highlights.

IT'S AN HOMAGE TO '70s EXPLOITATION FLICKS: Director Patrick Lussier (who created similar genre 3D thrills in My Bloody Valentine 3D) wanted to make an action flick that paid homage to the awesome car movies of the '70s. Influences include Vanishing Point, Duel, Race with the Devil, and Bullitt. Also: the 1973 Eastwood Western High Plains Drifter.

LUSSIER DIDN'T WANT ANY CG EFFECTS: Aside from filming Drive Angry in actual 3D, Lussier kept things old school and lo-fi, smashing real cars, damaging a bridge in Lousiana, and making stunt ladies (and actress Amber Heard) mount the hood of a '69 Charger while Nic Cage drove it at speeds up to 90 mph.

Read more -- and check out the film's teaser trailer -- after the jump




NIC CAGE PLAYS A CRAZY HYPER CHICK MAGNET WHO LIKES TO DRIVE FAST CARS: On his character, Milton, whose daughter gets her baby stolen and her throat slashed by Twilight daddy Billy Burke: "He's not on drugs but he does enjoy a bit of sugar. He's got a touch of the kevorka to him."




FAST CARS WILL BLOW UP, FACES WILL BE SMASHED, AND NIC CAGE WILL BE BAD-ASS: He drives a muscle car. He's out for vengeance. He saves Amber Heard from a trailer park existence and she and her daisy dukes subsequently join him on the road. Also seen in the Comic-Con trailer: Girl fights, slo-mo bullets to the brain, 3D impaling, cars jumping through fire, Cage shooting bad guys with a 6-barrel gun called "The Godkiller," William Fichtner as a character called The Accountant, and Cage driving a Dodge Charger with a bumper sticker that reads, "I brake 4 pussy."





Sample lines of dialogue:

"Where is she?" "First full moon she's dead and all Hell's gonna walk the Earth."

"That baby girl's all I got."

"What kind of gun IS that??"

"I am going to kill you and then I'm going to defile your corpse."

%Gallery-98219%
]]> 2010-07-26T15:15:00+00:00 http://news.moviefone.com/2010/07/26/sdcc-what-the-hell-is-drive-angry-3d/ <![CDATA[Watch Comic Con Geek Out on 'The Avengers' Introductions]]> 19568996

Probably the biggest Hall H moment at Comic Con this year came when, during the Marvel panel on Saturday night, Kevin Feige turned the microphone over to Samuel L. Jackson to begin introducing the full cast for The Avengers. Halfway through Jackson turned it over to Robert Downey Jr., and that's when this place really lost it. Afterwards, I heard stories about kids crying in the back and shaking uncontrollably as the entire cast stood there on stage -- hit head on with the realization that, yes, Marvel is going to make an Avengers movie ... and OMG THAT IS F**KING AWESOME!

While this moment was definitely a fun one to watch, a lot of people are still cautiously optimistic when it comes to The Avengers. Will there be too many cooks in the kitchen? Will there be too many characters to go around? Is this film destined to be criticized and ridiculed? It's weird, because I don't think there's any middle ground when it comes to The Avengers. This is a film so big, so massive and so buzzed-about that it will either turn out to be one of the greatest superhero films of all time, or one of the biggest mistakes of all time. Obviously we're all hoping for the former -- and we'll begin to get a better feel for this monster as more and more is released from Thor and Captain America -- but Marvel definitely needs to be careful considering the criticisms lobbed toward films with multiple heroes and villains as of late. Should be a fun one to watch come together.

Watch the Avengers assemble for the first time after the jump.


]]> 2010-07-26T14:45:00+00:00 http://news.moviefone.com/2010/07/26/watch-comic-con-geek-out-on-the-avengers-introductions/ <![CDATA[SDCC: The Masters of Their Domain (Names)]]> 19567249
photo credit: Wilson Morales

This year's Masters of the Web panel was framed as an "Expression of the subjectivity of film - a look at the diversity, expression, and perspectives" through which the medium is funneled to the masses by some of the Internet's most respected voices on the subject. Moderated by Transformers 2 scribe Roberto Orci and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World director Edgar Wright, the spirited conversation that went down in ballroom 32b Thursday afternoon was practically pornographic for any voracious film nerds who get excited by the sight of bylines in the flesh.

It was easy catnip for the handful of people out there who want to know what CHUD's Devin Faraci's face looks like while he's listening to Screen Rant's Vic Holtreman (spoiler alert: slightly pained yet impressively zen), but methinks that the discussion produced some insights that would have been of interest to a substantially wider audience, and anyone with even a passing curiosity for this industry might have gleaned a tidbit or two as to how criticism functions in a world where the voices are fragmented across global networks of information and opinion.

Beyond Faraci and Holtreman, the panel was rounded out by Cinematical's very own Erik Davis and Jen Yamato, Comingsoon.net's Ed Douglas, Joblo's Mike Sampson, and Latino Review's George "El Guapo" Roush. And Roberto Orci was quick to remind us all that every one of them despised his Transformers 2, going so far as to quote Faraci's particularly scathing review.

These are the five things that stuck out from the way-too-brief dialogue.

1. The integrity of their word is pretty much the only thing online film writers have. When pressed as to how they have to consider the responses of their subjects to their often critical pieces, Faraci opined, "You can't weigh that at all... If readers think I'm soft-balling or sucking dick, they won't come back." Roush followed, "The readers come first... Don't make bad movies, and we won't trash them."

This might not seem to be particularly revelatory, but when you consider the friendships that can ferment between web-folk and film folk on set visits, at Comic-con, etc... it's crucial to keep in mind. Mr. Erik Davis then shared an anecdote about how Zack Snyder was very vocal about Davis' dismissal of 300, but mentioned that it's easy to be honest because, "The good thing about what we do is that there's always going to be a next movie."

2. It's strange how you never see Roberto Orci and dead Other / Tom Cruise cousin William Mapother at the same place at the same time... Observe:


It's like Marc Cuban and Will Forte had twins.


3. Gossip is an ugly business. Everyone's gotta eat and hits make the world go round, but gossip-mongering isn't a satisfying business. Mike Sampson put it best when he suggested that to see how pervasive the tendency is in the industry, "All you have to do is look at how many headlines end in a question mark." Douglas confirmed, "Rumors take up so much time... we'd rather just be a news site." But Faraci illustrated how the issue isn't always so black and white, opining with a sigh that "There are sites that make their living posting bullshit Batman 3 rumors... but a story can be correct today and not correct tomorrow, it doesn't mean it was never correct in the first place."

4. Women can - and do - rule the web. Ms. Jen Yamato may have been the only girl present on the panel, but that won't be the case next year, as the crowd was promised that the panel would be roughly 50% fangirl in the near future. Judging by the healthy applause her contributions to the conversation elicited from the crowd, Yamato is doing an exceptional job of holding down the fort for the fairer sex.

5. The fanboys have fanboys. Online film writers are not exempt from the hysteria of crazed fans that comes with having an abstract public persona of any kind - given that disparate readers have only the blogger's words to go by, it seems as if some particularly forthright opinions have become interpreted as personal, physical attacks, and digitally diffused words have sometimes become grounds for very real moments of awkward retaliation.

Faraci began the exploration as to the double-edged underbelly of anonymity, saying "Every reader who I meet in person is really sweet - every reader who e-mails me calls me a fat douchebag." Roush followed that up by sharing the story of a fan who perennially threatens to come to Comic-con and beat his ass, which lead to a funny moment where a guy in the front row raised his hand. After Yamato sighed that "I has a surprising lack of crazy fans, and could use some more," the same guy in the front row raised his hand again.]]> 2010-07-26T11:18:00+00:00 http://news.moviefone.com/2010/07/26/sdcc-the-masters-of-their-domains/ <![CDATA[SDCC: Marvel Regains Film Rights for 'The Punisher']]> 19567941 Fans of the Punisher, the Marvel Comics vigilante that's failed to make the transition from comic book panel to the big screen (three standalone attempts, with one semi-success, 2004's The Punisher starring Thomas Jane as the title character, and two abject failures, 1989's The Punisher starring Dolph Lundgren and 2008's Punisher: War Zone starring Ray Stevenson) can take comfort in the news slipped into the Marvel Entertainment panel Saturday night in Hall H: Marvel has regained the film rights for the Punisher from Lionsgate. Kevin Feige, the president of production for Marvel Entertainment, had this to say: "Frank Castle is under the roof of Marvel Studios... and we hope to bring him into the fray shortly."

Obviously, that's not much in the way of news, but it leaves open the possibility that the Punisher will be make an appearance in an upcoming shared universe film, or less likely, given the commercial and critical failure of Punisher: War Zone two years ago. That commercial failure explains why Lionsgate let the film rights revert back to Marvel Entertainment. As a street-level character without superppowers obsessed with retribution and a Death Wish-style moral code that allows him to maim, torture, and kill criminals as he thinks necessary, the Punisher would make an odd fit in a shared universe that includes Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, and the Hulk (among others), but there's always the possibility that the Punisher will appear as supporting character, if not in The Avengers, but in another shared universe project.



Unfortunately, the Punisher can't share screen time with Daredevil, another street-level character who exists in a similar urban environment (Hell's Kitchen0, at least not for the foreseeable future. 20th-Century Fox owns the film rights for Daredevil, the Fantastic Four, and the X-Men. In addition, Sony Pictures has film rights to Spider-Man, leaving those characters unavailable for now. Crossovers aren't impossible, but they would require co-licensing agreements between Marvel and the other studios (unlikely for now, but not impossible).

So what do you think of the news? Would you like Marvel Entertainment to try another standalone Punisher film? Assuming Thomas Jane won't be returning (an excellent assumption), who would you like to see cast as the Punisher? Who would you like to see as the director? And if Marvel decides not to go with a standalone Punisher film, who else from the Marvel Comics universe would you like to see in a film co-starring the Punisher?]]> 2010-07-26T09:48:00+00:00 http://news.moviefone.com/2010/07/26/sdcc-marvel-regains-film-rights-for-the-punisher/ <![CDATA[Comic-Con in 60 Seconds. Sunday 7/25]]> 19567951

Out of all the stuff seen at this year's Comic-Con, will the above image be the most memorable? In response to Jeff Wells' question of whether Saturday's eye-stabbing incident was the event's "Altamont moment," I could only wondered if Morgan Spurlock followed in the Maysles brothers' footsteps and caught the incident on camera while shooting his and Joss Whedon's SDCC documentary. Seriously, though, we wish the victim a speedy recovery.

Cinematical Wire.
Gallery: The Hottest of Comic Con 2010!
Full Cast for 'The Avengers' Announced!!
Have We Met Before? -- The 'Avengers' Reunions
So Mark Ruffalo is the New Hulk ... Thoughts?
Marvel and the Avengers FTW?
Fans Love 'Green Lantern' Footage ... But Where's the Costume?
First Look: Daniel Craig Goes All Iron Man in 'Cowboys & Aliens'
New 'Scott Pilgrim' Clip: "Finish Him"
'Die Hard 5' is Imminent According to Wilis
Nic Cage Drives Angry, Is Kind Of Crazy in 3D
Adam McKay Confirms He's Directing 'The Boys'!
Will 'Skyline' Be Worth the View?
Will "KatoVision" Save 'The Green Hornet'?
Did 'Let Me In' Win Over Anti-Remake Critics?
Paul Bettany, 3D and "Priest"
'Resident Evil 4' -- Better Than Being Stabbed In The Face
7 Things I Learned Last Night
Trailer Park: Comic-Con 2010
Ten Films That Weren't at Comic Con ... But Should Have Been

Sci-Fi, Fantasy & Superheroes.
A lot of speculation that Thanos will be the villain in The Avengers has come with the reveal of an Infinity Gauntlet prop.
Or will that Gauntlet-related villain simply be Thor's Loki? Tom Hiddleston hints his evil character might be in the film.
Star Trek 2 will not begin filming in January, as far as Zachary Quinto knows. He also understands if J.J. Abrams doesn't return to direct.
This might be a tease at what Legendary Pictures' new Godzilla movie will look like.
Speaking of both Abrams and monster movies, Cloverfield 2 is tentatively on hold. "Not dead, dormant."

Horror.
It didn't make the special SDCC edition of the Trailer Park, but here's the spot for 30 Days of Night: Dark Days.
MTV's Teen Wolf series will supposedly be much edgier than the movies.

Con Tangents.
Here's photo-gallery proof that "People at Comic-Con Love Boobs."
Collider Entertainment has been formed to bring Hollywood talent to comics, rather than bring comics to Hollywood talent.
Similarly, Antoine Fuqua and Wesley Snipes have their own sci-fi comic book, After Dark.
Tommy Wiseau confirmed to Movieline that next year The Room will get a 3D release!
Four indie filmmakers are uniting for an anthology-like adaptation of Will Eisner's 1930s immigrant tale A Contract With God.
A reason to mention Glee on a movie blog: they're doing a Rocky Horror-themed episode.


Don't forget, for breaking headlines and quick bits of Comic-Con goodness, follow @cinematical on Twitter as well as our Con-goers @erikdavis, @elisabethRappe, @mtgilchrist, @davidehrlich and @jenyamato.]]> 2010-07-26T07:03:00+00:00 http://news.moviefone.com/2010/07/26/comic-con-in-60-seconds-sunday-7-25/ <![CDATA[Gallery: The Hottest of Comic Con 2010!]]> 19567702

Those who've been following our Comic Con coverage for the past few years know that we can't leave San Diego without doling out our much buzzed-about annual Hottest of Comic Con gallery. This year we've done things a little differently, and instead of focusing solely on the hottest females in costumes at the convention, we mixed it up with some hot females, some hot males, some hot costumes and, um, is that Nick Frost?

Really, what's the point in writing any more than that. Just go check out the gallery below to see what I mean (and continue to come back because we'll be adding more pics over the next couple days).

%Gallery-98142%

(Photo credit: Erik Davis and Jen Yamato)
]]> 2010-07-25T21:02:00+00:00 http://news.moviefone.com/2010/07/25/hottest-of-comic-con-2010-gallery/ <![CDATA[SDCC: Marvel and The Avengers FTW?]]> 19567889
The lines. The crowds. The crazy stabbing in Hall H! Con-goers had to deal with a lot just to make it to Saturday's delayed Marvel panel for Captain America and Thor, but they were rewarded handsomely for their patience with an epic presentation of gods and superheroes -- followed by the single biggest collective geek-out moment of Comic-Con 2010.

Yes, the Avengers pwned the competition.

The restless denizens of Hall H couldn't have been more ready to consume what Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige cooked up, beginning with a sparse, if effective, presentation of Joe Johnston's Captain America movie with Johnston, Chris Evans, and Hugo Weaving in attendance.

A brief -- and I mean, really brief -- teaser reel set the tone for the highly anticipated 2011 tentpole: A slow scan of Cap's familiar red, white, and blue shield layered over WWII newsreel footage, leading up to a reveal of Chris Evans in his Captain America costume. "Next summer, meet the world's first Avenger," the screen read, before the trailer ended with a first person view of Evans hurling Cap's shield at the camera. When the lights went up, Johnston explained that they've only been in production for a week; the teaser shots of Evans in his costume came from test footage, and they're still working out the kinks. The final suit, Johnston explained, will borrow from Ed Brubaker's version but veer towards something slightly more modern. Still, he promised, the look of Captain America will feel appropriate to its 1940s-era setting.

Despite only having a week's worth of shooting in the can, Johnston shared a full scene with the Comic-Con crowd so freshly filmed that Feige pointed out, "It still has time code on it, guys!

The scene gave fans a glimpse of Captain America's main villain, Johann Schmidt (Hugo Weaving), leading his Nazi squad on a raid in Norway in 1942. Bent on locating a special item, Schmidt (who later becomes the baddie Red Skull) and his men blast their way into an ancient-looking tomb, menacing the older man tasked with protecting a certain secret. Schmidt opens a coffin and pulls out a white cube hidden inside -- but it's a fake, and he smashes it on the ground.

"The Tesseract was the jewel of Odin's treasure room," he declares. He moves to a wall with a tree etched across it and locates a box containing what he's after. He opens it, and a blue light emanates from within. "It's not for the eyes of ordinary men," warns the terrified man. "Exactly," Schmidt replies.

What's inside? The fabled Cosmic Cube, a device that can grant persons untold power -- and maybe drive them a little insane.

The scene, even in unfinished form, was impressive enough to satisfy fans even if it was lacking in actual Captain America footage. More importantly, it hinted at the idea that Marvel's upcoming slate of films will refer to one another as Thor, Captain America, and The Avengers make unprecedented cross-over references, building one comprehensive film universe.

Cappy's debut was followed by the Thor panel, which had a lot riding on its Comic-Con 2010 performance. Featuring an unknown star, a lesser-known Marvel superhero, and a director better known for adapting Shakespeare, Thor hadn't had the overwhelming built-in support of an Iron Man or even Captain America... so it's a good thing Marvel brought out the big guns and premiered a rollicking first trailer packed to the gills with story, character, action, romance, and external Marvel universe references. Most importantly? Chris Hemsworth's abs in 3D!

Thor will be released in 3D, but judging from the 3D trailer it'll be less of the gimmicky style and more immersive. Simple compositions were made visually intriguing by the use of the third dimension -- a top-down view of a building, Hemsworth's bare chest framed in a mirror.

The trailer opens in the desert, as we hear Clark Gregg interrogating a mysterious, stone-faced, blonde hunk of man. "Where did you receive your training? Afghanistan? Chechnya?" Shortly thereafter (actual film chronology not apparent) Thor breaks out of the secret government compound where he's being held, leaving a trail of busted agents and doctors in his wake. We flash to the ornate, fantastical world of Asgaard, where Thor wears his traditional Norse-style armor and is banished by Odin to Earth for leading his people into war with his uber-aggro ways. Thor wakes up on Earth, which sucks for him -- except he's found by a hot scientist lady (Natalie Portman) who he'll later kiss with the passion of a thousand lightning bolts! After some presumed character development, the newly mature Thor returns home to battle his evil bro, Loki, who's taken over the gleaming throne of Asgaard. And at the very end, Agent Coulson and a bunch of his men encounter a giant robot in the desert -- and shortly thereafter, discover that it's not "one of Stark's" when it blows their cars up with its eyes.

It's obvious that Thor will follow a few tried-and-true superhero origin story clichés. The reluctant hero with daddy issues; the power of a woman's love, courtesy of a winsome Natalie Portman as the human scientist nerd-girl who steals Thor's heart.

But if director Kenneth Branagh (that's "Ken" to the thousands of Hall H patrons in attendance) delivers a final film consistent with his Comic-Con trailer, fans might be too busy ZOMG-ing at Thor to notice.

Especially since, on top of Joe Johnston's Captain America assurances and the impressive Thor trailer, Marvel trotted out its FULL Avengers cast -- Sam Jackson, Robert Downey, Jr, Scarlett Johansson, Clark Gregg, Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, and the newly announced Jeremy Renner (as Hawkeye) and Mark Ruffalo (replacing Ed Norton as The Hulk), along with Avengers director Joss Whedon.

The mere sight of their assembled Avengers onstage was almost too much for the geek contingent to handle -- and yet, during the fan Q&A, Feige promised more when asked by a Punisher fan if he plans to bring the Marvel antihero back to the big screen any time soon: "Frank Castle is under the roof of Marvel Studios... and we hope to bring him into the fray shortly."

Beat that, DC! (Seriously, we'd love for you to try.)]]> 2010-07-25T20:37:00+00:00 http://news.moviefone.com/2010/07/25/sdcc-marvel-and-the-avengers-ftw/ <![CDATA[SDCC: New 'Scott Pilgrim' Clip: "Finish Him"]]> 19567374 Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Edgar Wright's (Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead) big-screen adaption of Bryan Lee O'Malley's manga- and videogame-influenced six-volume comic book series about a twenty-something slacker, the girl of his dreams, her seven, super-powered, evil-exes, doesn't hit theaters for (almost) three weeks, but San Diego Comic-Con has been all about Scott Pilgrim, from banners, to parties, to, of course, the panel (covered here by David Ehrlich for Cinematical), and even advance screenings (click here for Todd Gilchrist's SDCC review). You can even download a free Scott Pilgrim-related game (details here), but alas only for the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad. As part of the visibility-raising marketing campaign for Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Universal has released multiple trailers, remixes, and clips exclusively to Yahoo (ten so far, with more, presumably, to come as we closer to the August 13th release date).

In the latest one-minute clip, set somewhere near the end of the film (spoilerphobes should skip the description and the clip too), Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera), bummed about the direction his life has recently taken, receives a call from Ramona V. Flowers' (Mary Elizabeth Winstead's) seventh evil ex, Gideon Graves (Jason Schwartzman), while Scott's roommate Wallace Wells (Kieran Culkin), gets the last, best line, a perfect punhline to the scene.
You can check out the clip below:



So what did you think of the clip? What do you think of Universal's marketing strategy? Are they showing too much? Pushing too hard? Or were you going to see Scott Pilgrim vs. the World anyway? And, if so, are seeing Scott Pilgrim vs. the World for the cast, the director, or because you're a fan of Bryan Lee O'Malley's just concluded series?]]> 2010-07-25T16:03:00+00:00 http://news.moviefone.com/2010/07/25/sdcc-new-scott-pilgrim-clip-finish-him/ <![CDATA[SDCC: Paul Bettany, 3D and "Priest"]]> 19567280
When faced with Paul Bettany, I had but one question: "You've been doing a lot of these religious themed movies -- " "You mean two?"

"In media and Internet terms, I think that equals 200," I teased. He laughed. "Are there some personal demons you're trying to work out with the church?"

"No. No, I have no personal demons -- well, I have personal demons but they're not with the church. There happen to be a lot of these sorts of movies around, you know? Religiously themed movies, and vampire movies are often religious themed. Although I think vampirism is an awesome alternative to Christianity as a way to survive death!" (Afterwards, I realized it's four -- The DaVinci Code, Legion, Creation, and Priest. Draw your own conclusions!)

Priest is the first Tokyo Pop book to be made into a movie, which is something I'm embarrassed to say I didn't realize until the panel itself. Min-Woo Hyung visited the set, loved it, and gave it his blessing. He was even inspired enough to write a prequel comic. (Which I received and is currently being mangled in my backpack. Sorry!) The Western elements have been played down in favor of sci-fi, and Priest takes place about 20 years after the events of Min-Woo's final book. The war between the vampires and priests have ended, the priests (and priestesses) are now akin to Vietnam veterans who are unwanted and unloved.


The first footage of Priest is difficult to describe. Sizzle reels always are -- lots of fighting, lots of vampires snarling (look elsewhere for sexy vampires, these resemble the cave dwellers of The Descent), lots of slow motion. The sci-fi world is a grittier version of Underworld. Lots of metal, swirling trenchcoats, but it's livened up with some desert landscapes. The 3D (another post-conversion, but they promise they're taking their time) looked pretty good, but typical ... crucifixes flying out at the screen, 3D mountains, that sort of thing. I'd love Priest to be good, but I'm going to need a little more to go on.

But hey, Twilight ladies -- if you want to see Cam Gigandet as a boy sheriff who becomes a man, this will be the movie for you.]]> 2010-07-25T15:03:00+00:00 http://news.moviefone.com/2010/07/25/sdcc-paul-bettany-3d-and-priest/ <![CDATA[First Look: Daniel Craig Goes All Iron Man in 'Cowboys & Aliens']]> 19567676

Leave it up to Jon Favreau to be shooting for only four weeks and to show up at Comic Con with as much footage as he did. After introducing the cast of Cowboys & Aliens -- including Daniel Craig, Olivia Wilde, Sam Rockwell and Harrison Ford (who was brought out in handkuffs, mocking a scenario that had just taken place inside Hall H where someone was arrested for stabbing a fellow con-goer in the face) -- Favreau told the crowd that he wanted to do a straight up John Ford-esque Western with old school sci-fi elements reminscent of films like Close Encounters of the Third Kind. He also insitigated a monstrous cheer from the crowd when he announced the film wouldn't be in 3D. A sign of what's to come? Perhaps.

The footage looked great, beginning with about three straight-up Western scenes setting up Daniel Craig as a stranger who rolls into town with a metal "thing" on his arm and an obvious war story. After being arrested for murder and paraded out into the street, Ford's evil, grimy anti-Indiana Jones Col. Woodrow Dolarhyde demands that Zeke Johnson (Craig) be given to him and ultimately disposed of. It's during this confrontation when alien ships begin attacking the small town, sending folks running for their lives. But Johnson notices that arm bracelet thingy lights up, and he uses it to shoot down one of the ships. And that, my friends, brings us to the above image.

(P.S. Mark my word: Harrison Ford is going to steal every scene he's in.)

I'm personally not crazy about this first image because it immediately cries out "See, the guy who did Iron Man is doing Iron Man as a Western now!", though it does make sense from a marketing standpoint and from a viewpoint of "Let's release an image that mixes both genres and gives people a feel for the film's tone."

What do you think? Cowboys & Aliens hits theaters on July 29th, 2011.
]]> 2010-07-25T13:05:00+00:00 http://news.moviefone.com/2010/07/25/daniel-craig-cowboys-and-aliens/ <![CDATA[SDCC: 'Resident Evil 4' -- Better Than Being Stabbed In The Face]]> 19567468

The panel for Resident Evil: Afterlife was so painful that the guy who got stabbed in the eye immediately afterward was probably feeling relief more than anything else (although the unimaginable agony coming from the new hole in his face was probably a close second. also, the guy really should have kept his 3-D glasses on. I mean, the knife lunging at him would have looked so cool). Okay, and now that I've fulfilled my requisite duty of sarcastically mentioning the Great Comic-Con Stabbing of 2010, I must apologize (and express my sympathies) to everyone involved, and clumsily segue to the the Resident Evil panel itself, which indelibly reaffirmed my belief that no one involved in the making of these films has any understanding as to what makes the videogames so effective.

Methinks I'm particularly bummed by this because the videogames - especially the first two installments - provide such rich source material for a mysterious and deeply terrifying series of cold and calculated horror films. But the chance for the likes of Ti West to steer this franchise has come and gone, and though I must accept that Paul W.S. Anderson's films have found a rather large audience, I can't help but be baffled as to why. Having said that - and with all due respect to those who enjoy these flicks - here are my pure, unadulterated thoughts from the panel that broke Comic-con.

4:05 Paul W.S. Anderson comes out to... applause? I guess you have to clap for a guy who managed to marry Milla Jovovich despite directing Soldier. Dude sure is charming.

4:07 Wentworth Miller, Ali Larter (who's all sorts of pregnant), and Milla Jovovich take the stage, and the trailer plays out in full 3-D.

4:09 The trailer suggests (and Anderson later confirmed) that this film was shot on location all over the world (apparently the zombie apocalypse begins in Tokyo's Shibuya Crossing). But Anderson continues to insist upon blanketing all of his films in a blanket of sterile gray hues, and the brunt of the flick still looks as if it was shot on a soundstage. And while I respect that the films are not beholden to the games, the notion of Claire and Alice running amok together truly discards any notion of survival horror, the essence of which was predicated upon a character being ... alone.

4:13 Anderson is asked "Why 3-D?" And besides the obvious fact that it provides a perfect excuse for Screen Gems to go back to the well, Anderson tells a nifty story about how Cameron showed them a chunk of Avatar around this time last year, and they decided the technology was ready and to use the very same cameras. Anderson designed the set with 3-D in mind, but didn't write the script with audiences in mind (oh SNAP).

4:15 Milla Jovovich calls making Resident Evil films "A grueling Disneyland."

4:16 Milla is asked how Alice developed for her over the course of four films, and answers "Alice keeps evolving. I get to come back all these times over and over and tweak things... In this film Alice is a bit more human and loving and trying to get her friends together to take Umbrella down." No snark here - that sounds good to me.



4:18 We're treated to a scene in which the enormous executioner from Resident Evil 5 (the game) cleaves his way through a man's torso and into the shower room, and then fights with Alice and Claire in a scene that uses so much slow motion it makes Zack Snyder's use of the technique seem judicious. The executioner is appropriately clumsy, but with every action so glacially extended the whole thing just feels silly, and makes the hulking, axe-wielding monster seem totally harmless. It doesn't help that neither Larter nor Jovovich pretend for even a moment that they're in any danger.

4:22 The clip ends with the executioner being deceptively dead before launching his axe at the screen. Weak. Why doesn't his head sprout teethy, vile, organic tentacles like in the games before launching those at the screen? An axe is so industrial, so nu-metal, this whole franchise looks like it was inspired by the music of Staind.. we all remember Staind, right?

4:26 Anderson just mentioned the head guys from Resident Evil 4 (even though he attributed their introduction to the uninspired Resident Evil 5)! He's aware of the great things the videogames offer him to work with, but totally disregards them! Love this guy.

4:33 An older gentleman introduces his question with "Resident Evil is my favorite movie franchise of all time!" Expecting Rod Serling to pop out any minute. He doesn't. Because he's dead.

4:38 Leon is not in the film - Jill Valentine is. There ya have it.

4:40 A dude in a sling dressed as a Star Trek Red Shirt asks Jovovich to say "Multi-pass." She complies. I am alarmed at how delighted this makes me. The panel has been saved.

I hate to be so dismissive, but it seems to me as if the Resident Evil franchise continues to squander a golden opportunity. And when Anderson opines about how great it is to have the same faces both in front of and behind the camera for the duration, I can't help but think that this franchise can only be rescued by a reboot, and it's a franchise that absolutely deserves to be rescued. Because even with 3-D and Wesker, the one thing the panel made abundantly clear is that the fourth installment is just bringing us more of the same.]]> 2010-07-25T11:02:00+00:00 http://news.moviefone.com/2010/07/25/sdcc-resident-evil-better-than-being-stabbed-in-the-face/ <![CDATA[SDCC: Did 'Let Me In' Win Over Anti-Remake Critics?]]> 19567362
Every time director Matt Reeves has talked publicly about his English-language remake of Tomas Alfredson's cult vampire flick Let the Right One In, he's had to make a case for relevance based on sheer enthusiasm alone. But on Saturday at Comic-Con, Reeves finally had real proof to show skeptical fans of the original -- two clips that revealed just how much, in a good way, his film differs from the original.


Let Me In is released worldwide in October, and some of what Reeves had to show wasn't 100 percent complete -- though I challenge anyone to name anything in the two Comic-Con exclusive clips that didn't look, well, kind of amazing.

[SPOILERS FOLLOW]


Reeves, joined by cast members Kodi Smit-McPhee, Chloe Moretz, and Richard Jenkins, first screened the trailer while talking the usual jazz about how much he wanted to put his own spin on John Lindqvist's original novel, on which Let the Right One In is also based. The trailer set the mood for Hall H patrons, depicting a lot of familiar-looking settings -- the snowy locales, the school, the brick apartment building where Owen and Abby (Oskar and Eli in the Swedish film) first meet.

We already know that Reeves has a deep respect for the material and for Alfredson's fantastic Swedish-language film. What many fans were curious to see was how well Let Me In could justify its own existence.

To that end, Reeves chose the right two scenes to bring to Comic-Con. In the first, we catch up with Abby (Chloe Moretz) and Owen (Kodi Smit-McPhee), newly acquainted and both somewhat wary, as they visit a local arcade. The excited Owen shows Abby how to play Ms. Pac-Man, even if he's no good at catching the spooky ghosts, and offers to buy her candy -- "You can have anything you want!" -- which she reluctantly refuses. Owen's face falls with rejection, so Abby quietly relents. "I guess I could have one."

The small gesture makes Owen happy, but the candy makes Abby sick. She vomits in the parking lot, where Owen finds her, bewildered. He embraces her, and they share a sweet, quiet exchange in which Abby hints at her true nature. It's an extremely well-acted and affecting scene that should convince skeptics that Reeves found the right young performers -- two of the best actors of their generation -- to breathe new life into these characters.

Reeves admitted he hadn't seen either Smit-McPhee in The Road or Moretz in Kick-Ass before casting them as his leads, because "nobody would show me anything!"

But impressive auditions (and the kids' previous work, including Smit-McPhee in Romulus, My Father) convinced Reeves that he had the right pair for his remake. "I felt like if we couldn't find the kids, we couldn't make the movie," he said.

If Reeves' first clip demonstrated the acting chops of his child actors, his second showed the audience how he's changed events in the film, with still-effective results. Richard Jenkins, playing Abby's older companion/guardian, sets out on a hunt to get Abby the blood she needs to survive. Reeves, inspired by real life stories of parking lot stalkers, here has Jenkins lie in wait in the back seat of a victim's car -- a scenario that goes awry and plays out in breathtaking fashion, culminating in an interior POV shot of the car careening into traffic and rolling down an embankment. It's tense and sad for Jenkins, who conveys his character's tragedy through his eyes alone, his face largely obscured by a makeshift mask.

Plenty rides on the success of Let Me In besides the film itself; it's the first original film in 35 years from Brit horror specialists Hammer Films, according to Hammer prexy Simon Oakes, who took the stage to introduce the panel and address the thousands of fans packed into Hall H. Based on the reaction to Let Me In at Comic-Con, the rebooted Hammer Films is winning fans over with every subsequent look at the October 2010 release.

Still, it might take more than a few clips and earnest Q&As to convince the skeptics. Chime in below and tell us if you're warming up more and more to the vampire drama -- and if not, what will it take to get you onboard? ]]> 2010-07-25T09:02:00+00:00 http://news.moviefone.com/2010/07/25/sdcc-did-let-me-in-win-over-anti-remake-critics/ <![CDATA[Have We Met Before? -- The 'Avengers' Reunions]]> 19567479

An amusing little conversation popped up on the twitter, and (of course) it centered around the nerd-tastic appearance of the entire Avengers team on the 2010 Comic-Con stage together. We still have the Thor and Captain America flicks to look forward to (which is good because The Avengers isn't due until 2012), but that means we'll have plenty of time to contemplate the previous permutations of this Marvel-ous squad.

In other words, here are the movies in which some of "The Avengers" have previously appeared together. (And please, nobody say "You forgot Iron Man 2!")

The Nanny Diaries (Captain America & Black Widow)
The Perfect Score (Captain America & Black Widow again!)
The Spirit (Nick Fury & Black Widow)
S.W.A.T. (Nick Fury & Hawkeye)
Zodiac (Iron Man & The Hulk)

Bonus Nerdy Picks

Angel {episode 1.11} (Hawkeye & Whedonman)
Buried (Deadpool, Green Lantern & Hannibal King)
The Assassination of Jesse James... (Hawkeye & Justin Hammer)
Cellular (Captain America & Abigail Whistler)
In Good Company (Black Widow & Agent Coulson)
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (Iron Man & old Batman)
Lakeview Terrace (Nick Fury / Frozone / Shaft & Nite Owl II)
Lords of Dogtown (Hawkeye & The Joker)
Not Another Teen Movie (Captain America / Johnny Storm / & Jimmy Olson)
O Brother Where Art Thou? (Elastigirl & Samuel Sterns)
Ocean's 11 (War Machine, Jason Bourne, Venom and the old goofy Batman with nipples)
The Prestige (Wolverine vs. Batman!)
Shutter Island (Hulk and Rorshach)
Star Trek (Thor and old Hulk)
Wonder Boys (Iron Man and old Spider-Man)

I'm sure there are more out there. Who'd I miss? Feel free to break out all the X-Men if you like! (Note: "bonus nerdy picks" must contain at least one (1) Marvel character. Otherwise it's totally cheating.)


Big thanks to these (and other) twitter pals for helping out with this amusing little project.

@williambgoss
@gholson
@forcesofgeek
@sonic43
@craig_mcquinn
@hollywood_trey
@vactor
@tedums_precious
@droidguy1119
@shanemd
@halfastick
@mimekiller
@lazygarfield
@vito_selvaggi

(Let me know if I left you out. I know a lot of fantastic movie freaks on the twitter.)
]]> 2010-07-25T05:03:00+00:00 http://news.moviefone.com/2010/07/25/have-we-met-before-the-avengers-reunions/ <![CDATA[SDCC: Adam McKay Confirms He's Directing 'The Boys'!]]> 19567183 During Sony's panel for The Other Guys, Adam McKay dropped a nice bomb of a confirmation -- he finally signed (as of that day, too) to direct Garth Ennis' The Boys.

McKay has been in talks for the project all summer, and was still stressing the nebulous nature of that while doing press this month for Guys. He recently told CHUD that the decision would be definitive if he could get Simon Pegg to sign on as the book's lead, Wee Hughie. Ennis based Hughie on Pegg, and it's a given that he should play him. As of July 20, McKay and Pegg hadn't even entered in talks.

But it is ComicCon, and Pegg and McKay are both here ... did talks take place? McKay left no doubt that "the deal" for his directorial skills was made at ComicCon. If McKay has signed on, does that mean we'll have the ultimate example of dream casting ever? One can only hope. You can't exactly find another Simon Pegg, can you?

Don't be surprised if the next wave of ComicCon news -- and the Paul roundtables will probably be happening as you read this -- bring news of Pegg being officially on board for The Boys. Is it possible we'll actually get a Garth Ennis movie in our lifetime? ]]> 2010-07-25T03:03:00+00:00 http://news.moviefone.com/2010/07/25/sdcc-adam-mckay-confirms-hes-directing-the-boys/ <![CDATA[SDCC: Full Cast for 'The Avengers' Announced!!]]> 19567449

UPDATE: Marvel has released the first official image of the entire cast together on the Comic Con stage. See above.

The Marvel panel was packed, loud, opinionated and hungry. We'll have footage reports on Captain America: The First Avenger and Thor in a little bit, but first, as expected, the full cast for The Avengers was officially announced by Samuel L. Jackson and Robert Downey Jr. And they are:

Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury
Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark
Clark Gregg as Agent Coulson
Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow
Chris Hemsworth as Thor
Chris Evans as Captain America
Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye
Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner / Incredible Hulk
Joss Whedon, Director

Joss Whedon: "I have had a dream all my life and it was not this good." ..."This is The Avengers; a team is more than the sum of its parts -- this cast is more than I could have ever hoped for ... and I am going to blow it. I need your love; I need your support."
]]> 2010-07-24T22:55:00+00:00 http://news.moviefone.com/2010/07/24/sdcc-full-cast-for-the-avengers-announced/ <![CDATA[SDCC: 7 Things I Learned Last Night]]> 19567318 Some would argue that a day of Comic-con doesn't really begin until the panels are over and the guests and attendees flood downtown San Diego. You never know where the night is going to take you or what you're gonna learn, these are the things I remembered when I woke up this morning.

1. Joss Whedon loves to dance, and no Comic-con is complete until you or someone you love has been caught up in the maelstrom of his sweet, sweet moves. As fluid as his dialogue and as inexplicable as his being hired to direct The Avengers, Whedon's soulful and sweaty gyrations are hypnotic, and he wants to share them with you, so always be prepared. He was as gracious with his rhythm as he is with his fans, posing for pictures and pairing lonely dancers with available partners like Felicia Day and Nathan Fillion. Just don't leave him hanging - the man is all too familiar with things being canceled just as they're getting good, so if you enter the fray you best be prepared to stick it out for the long haul. They shoot nerds, don't they?

2. Avatar was merely a fancy tech demo for Jackass 3-D. And I have the nausea to prove it.

3. Former reality TV star Adrian Curry is officially the greatest Slave Leia ever. I may not have the ultimate authority to make that claim, but I hold this truth to be self-evident. If you want to be a stickler about it, maybe the guy from The Guinness Book of World Records (who was here to give Stallone a plaque confirming Rocky to be the most successful sports franchise ever) is still here. I think I saw him dancing with Joss Whedon last night, having what was officially the greatest night of his life.

4. Batman is going to have a big 2012, and not just in theaters.

5. It is not possible to ride in a peddie cab without feeling like a sucker. Also, it is not possible to ride in a peddie cab without actually being a sucker. Note: I've had to re-learn this lesson every night for the past 6 Comic-cons.

6. The Syfy-themed restaurant at the Hard Rock continues to be a great place for amazing late-night con encounters. Last year I got my gang got into a Bender-impression shouting match with John Dimaggio (we lost - it turns out his Bender impression is pretty good), and last night Shoot 'Em Up and Eight Days a Week director Michael Davis regaled us with a story about how he once directed George Lucas, Clint Eastwood, and his idol Steven Spielberg (whom he looks very much alike) in a birthday video tribute to a Hollywood icon. Which was all well and good until his editors accidentally forgot to include Kate Capshaw - Spielberg's wife - in the cut that was sent to Spielberg for approval. I can't remember what happened next, but given that Spielberg and Capshaw are still married, I assume the story had a happy ending.

7. Greg Mottola's Paul - starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost and hitting theaters next March - is going to be better than you can possibly imagine.

Don't forget, for breaking headlines and quick bits of Comic-Con goodness, follow @cinematical on Twitter as well as our Con-goers @erikdavis,@elisabethRappe, @mtgilchrist, @davidehrlich and @jenyamato.
]]> 2010-07-24T18:32:00+00:00 http://news.moviefone.com/2010/07/24/sdcc-6-things-i-learned-last-night/ <![CDATA[SDCC: 'Die Hard 5' is Imminent According to Wilis]]> 19567250 Bruce Willis was at Comic-Con Thursday, promoting his role in Sly Stallone's upcoming action flick The Expendables. When he was done with that, Mr. John McClane sauntered over to MTV where he dished on a few things -- the most impressive of which was a proposed fifth installment in the Die Hard series. Yippie ki yay.

Willis told MTV that "It's imminent. The coin is about to drop." The actor didn't offer much more than that, which is unusual since he's been pretty vocal in his demand that director Len Wiseman return to helm the next film for awhile now. The real question is, who can McClane fight this time around? No one's ever going to top Hans Gruber, but I could totally see McClane running around to thwart a terrorist attack by an Al Quaeda sleeper cell on US soil. That may seem a little cliche at this point, but it's not the story that really matters -- it's the idea of an iconic action hero like McClane stopping it that would put my butt in a theater seat on opening night.

Meanwhile, the actor took the time to discuss another project he'd like to be involved in, a sequel to M. Night Shyamalan's Unbreakable. "I think we'd have to hip-check Night [Shyamalan] into doing it," Willis said. I don't know about that, Bruce -- given Shyamalan's recent track record, a return to Unbreakable might be just the thing he needs. I'm sure there's someone out there who would fund it based on Willis' involvement too.

What do you think? I'm not so sold on an Unbreakable sequel -- I'd like the original to remain untarnished in my mind, but Die Hard 5 sounds fine by me. Hit the comments section and share your thoughts. ]]> 2010-07-24T17:32:00+00:00 http://news.moviefone.com/2010/07/24/sdcc-die-hard-5-is-imminent-according-to-wilis/ <![CDATA[SDCC: Fans Love 'Green Lantern' Footage ... But Where's the Costume?]]> 19567298 "Welcome to Sector 2814," says the booming voice of Mark Strong. "The guardians have chosen you for enlistment. But first you must be tested." There was little more than an undulating green orb on the screens of Comic-Con's Hall H, but the capacity crowd sat in rapt attention as the very first footage was screened of The Green Lantern, Martin Campbell's forthcoming big screen adaptation of the iconic comic book series.

The clip was only two or three minutes, and featured just slivers of what one can expect will be epic storytelling. But what was there was nonetheless modestly impressive: Ryan Reynolds plays Hal Jordan, a human initiated into the Green Lantern Corps by Sinestro (the aforementioned Mark Strong). After a montage of images featuring other Lanterns, including some odd (or to fans, oddly familiar) aliens, Jordan seems surprised to discover that he's wearing an emerald-colored ring which, during a scuffle in a vacant lot, manifests a gigantic green fist and lays out three adversaries at the same time. Meanwhile, we also get a few snapshots of other characters in the film, including Peter Sarsgaard as Hector Hammpnd, and Blake Lively as Carol Ferris.

Sadly, there were no shots of Reynolds in the suit, which has thus far received mixed reviews from fans after being revealed on the cover of a recent issue of Entertainment Weekly. (We're confident that as director Martin Campbell later explained, it's a work in progress and will later turn out beautifully, but we hoped that our current concerns had been more immediately allayed.) But the only real problem with the footage was that it was just plain too short, especially since we're extremely excited to see the finished film.

Stay tuned for more specific information from the Green Lantern panel on Cinematical, but in the meantime let us know what you think of the film - whether or not you were lucky enough to join us in Hall H to see the footage! ]]> 2010-07-24T16:32:00+00:00 http://news.moviefone.com/2010/07/24/sdcc-fans-love-green-lantern-footage-but-wheres-the-cost/ <![CDATA[So Mark Ruffalo is the New Hulk ... Thoughts?]]> 19567092 I'll say one thing for the casting directors over at Marvel, Inc, and that thing is this: they know how to cast their movies. Generally it's the villain side of the equation that gets us all excited -- probably because villains are more interesting than heroes and character actors are more compelling than movie stars -- but the latest word regarding my all-time favorite Marvel character has me, well, pretty psyched.

Mark Ruffalo's "breakout" performance was a damn fine one in You Can Count On Me, and fest-heads / indie fans have long realized that Ruffalo is a rather versatile performer. The guy can do vulnerable, tough, frustrated, sweet, funny, angry, etc. with no trouble at all. Even casual fans who noticed Ruffalo in films like Zodiac, Shutter Island, and Blindness were quick to point out how quietly memorable his work was. And while I enjoyed Eric Bana's inscrutible Banner in Hulk and Edward Norton's angry loner in The Incredible Hulk, I'm also rather impressed with Marvel's third casting choice. Guys dig Ruffalo's wise-ass straight-shooter approach, the ladies seem to like his manliness ... all in all, a fine choice.

Mr. Ruffalo will be joining Chris Evans (Captain America), Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man), Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow), Samuel L. Jackson (Nick Fury), Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye and Don Cheadle as War Machine. It will be up to screenwriter Zak Penn and director Joss Whedon to bring this massive crew together -- and personally I cannot wait to see what this flick looks like.

So on this lazy day of flipping through all the colorful Comic-Con coverage, my question is two-fold: A) What are your favorite Ruffalo performances, and B) What are your thoughts on him joining the Marvel team as everyone's favorite green beast?
]]> 2010-07-24T16:03:00+00:00 http://news.moviefone.com/2010/07/24/so-mark-ruffalo-is-the-new-hulk-thoughts/ <![CDATA[SDCC: Will "KatoVision" Save 'The Green Hornet'?]]> 19567186

As you know, the reaction to the The Green Hornet's first trailer was mixed. At ComicCon, one of the looming questions would be if Hornet's panel could turn the tide of bad buzz. Even Seth Rogen was open about how desperate he was for Hall H to like the new footage, which came complete with 3D and our first look at the much mentioned KatoVision. Rogen couldn't have felt very positive considering that his panel seemed to be the beginning of the Hall H exodus -- a bad sign on a day of thin panels for the legendary Room of Madness.

So, what did we see? Essentially, a longer and recut version of the original trailer. Decidedly absent were all the Rogen "trademark" jokes, such as the line about taking Kato's hand for an adventure. This footage played Hornet a lot straighter and a lot more action oriented. If this cut had debuted originally, there wouldn't have been nearly as many "Rogen is playing Rogen! He's a stoner goofball!" comments. However, unless they cut that character angle and all silly lines from the film -- or unless it's really that slight -- audiences aren't going to be any more enthusiastic about Britt Reid.

The KatoVision was definitely cool. The camera zooms into Kato's eye, and gives you his version of a fight scene. It's definitely surreal and a bit more Michel Gondry-esque. He sees each weapon, which lights up in red next to his opponent, and he mentally calculates how to destroy them or it. It's also akin to a first person shooter -- the closest example might be using the Dead Eye "point and shoot" in Red Dead Redemption. Only fancier. With 3D. The 3D is still being converted in post and they stressed what we were seeing was rough. I was in the absolute worst seat, so take my word with a grain of salt, but I.it was pretty good 3D. Certainly not The Clash of the Titans' double heads and muddiness.


The fight scene was a quick, slick, and badass one. Lots of bones cracking, lots of screaming, lots of crunching. And lots of cars multiplying. Gondry loves the multiplying cars. Part of Kato's vision / technique involves time and space stretching as he throws someone across the hood of a car -- which becomes 20 cars, presumably to show how hard and fast he's throwing the guy.

The only problem? The scene in question kicked off with Reid breaking into a graveyard and beheading the statue of his dead father. The silliness is still there. It will remain to see if KatoVision and explosions can truly balance that out.]]> 2010-07-24T15:02:00+00:00 http://news.moviefone.com/2010/07/24/sdcc-will-katovision-save-the-green-hornet/ <![CDATA[SDCC: Nic Cage Drives Angry, Is Kind Of Crazy in 3D]]> 19567075 Who can blame the Comic-Con masses for not showing up first thing Friday morning for a movie called Drive Angry 3D? The cavernous Hall H was suspiciously easy to get into, even with fan fave Nicolas Cage slated to appear -- but those in attendance were treated to a bloody good trailer (Cage channeling '70s grind house road rage!) for what looks to be Cage's next truly balls-out, slightly-maybe insane cult character.

If Summit was disappointed at all about the half-capacity turnout, at least they can take comfort in the fact that now, the fans on hand who DID catch the 2011 action pic panel will remember it come February. What was so memorable about the Drive Angry 3D panel? Hit the quick list below for highlights.

IT'S AN HOMAGE TO '70s EXPLOITATION FLICKS: Director Patrick Lussier (who created similar genre 3D thrills in My Bloody Valentine 3D) wanted to make an action flick that paid homage to the awesome car movies of the '70s. Influences include Vanishing Point, Duel, Race with the Devil, and Bullitt. Also: the 1973 Eastwood Western High Plains Drifter.

LUSSIER DIDN'T WANT TO USE ANY CG EFFECTS: Aside from filming Drive Angry in actual 3D, Lussier kept things old school and lo-fi, smashing real cars, damaging a bridge in Lousiana, and making stunt ladies (and actress Amber Heard) mount the hood of a '69 Charger while Nic Cage drove it at speeds up to 90 mph.

NIC CAGE PLAYS A CRAZY HYPER CHICK MAGNET WHO LIKES TO DRIVE FAST CARS: On his character, Milton, whose daughter gets her baby stolen and her throat slashed by Twilight daddy Billy Burke: "He's not on drugs but he does enjoy a bit of sugar. He's got a touch of the kevorka to him."

FAST CARS WILL BLOW UP, FACES WILL BE SMASHED, AND NIC CAGE WILL BE BAD-ASS: He drives a muscle car. He's out for vengeance. He saves Amber Heard from a trailer park existence and she and her daisy dukes subsequently join him on the road. Also seen in the Comic-Con trailer: Girl fights, slo-mo bullets to the brain, 3D impaling, cars jumping through fire, Cage shooting bad guys with a 6-barrel gun called "The Godkiller," William Fichtner as a character called The Accountant, and Cage driving a Dodge Charger with a bumper sticker that reads, "I brake 4 pussy." Wow.

SAMPLE LINES OF DIALOGUE:

"Where is she?" "First full moon she's dead and all Hell's gonna walk the Earth."

"That baby girl's all I got."

"What kind of gun IS that??"

"I am going to kill you and then I'm going to defile your corpse."

Drive Angry 3D is released February 11, 2011.
]]> 2010-07-24T11:03:00+00:00 http://news.moviefone.com/2010/07/24/sdcc-nic-cage-drives-angry-is-kind-of-crazy-in-3d/ <![CDATA[SDCC: Will 'Skyline' Be Worth the View?]]> 19566839

The answer, of course, is: What's Skyline?

From the fraternal team that brought you Alien vs. Predator: Requiem... okay, perhaps that's an unfair (certainly unfortunate) place to start. Colin and Greg Strause's Skyline is the kind of film that needs Comic-con, and regardless of its final quality, it's also the kind of film that Comic-con needs. An original property birthed over a lunch meeting early last fall, Skyline is home-brewed sci-fi that appears to be as earnest and impassioned as it does harmlessly derivative. Eric Balfour, Donald Faison (Turk!), Scottie Thompson, and Brittany Daniel are a bunch of fresh-faced kids who love to PARTTAYYYY when suddenly - at 4:58 one morning (the trailer is very precise about this) - their hedonistic weekend is interrupted by a phalanx of aliens who really don't like Los Angeles (I can't blame them, but unfortunately I lack both their technology and their ambition). If the kids in Cloverfield weren't trendy enough for you, Skyline is the movie you've been waiting for and now know exists.

But Alien vs. Predator: Requiem was an unmitigated disaster, and being excited for whatever the Strause Brothers do next is like frothing at the mouth for BP's next big underwater project. That being said, sometimes Comic-con has a way of making you question the most well-earned of cynicisms. So here are 8 reasons why Skyline may not be the worst film of 2010:


1. The Strause brothers are aware of their mistakes, and might have even learned from them. I wasn't there during production for AvP:R, so I can't speak as to why that film is so cosmically awful, but I can confirm with no small relief that its co-directors are cognizant of its myriad failings. When one member of the audience asked the panel about the design ofSkyline's aliens, Colin Strause wasted little time in responding that they're proud of their work, and "Want to make sure that people can see them this time around," an obvious allusion to the unintelligible lighting and compositions that marred their previous effort.

2. DAVID. ZAYAS. Dexter's loyal and lovable pal, it's great to see such a charismatic actor finding more genre work (a quick IMDB search confirms that Zayas also appears in The Expendables). In Skyline he's an employee at the hotel around which the early portion of the film seems to revolve, and though his dialogue in the clips shown was limited to witticisms like "Let's move!," when David Zayas says "let's move," he doesn't just move your body away from advancing alien hordes, he also moves your heart.

3. Blockbuster filmmaking on an indie scale. With micro-budget projects like Garreth Edwards' Monsters coming down the pike, large-scale films made on the cheap are becoming increasingly common, but they're still impressive, especially when they look like Skyline. The Strause brothers - inspired by Paranormal Activity to make a film in their own bedroom - shot and financed the film without studio participation. Of course, it's a lot easier to drum up some top-drawer equipment and a stellar special effects crew when you own Hydraulics, a company whose design and effects work has been featured in everything from Avatar to Iron Man 2. But by avoiding having to make even the smallest of production decisions by committee, it looks as if this time - for better or worse - the Strause brothers have made the movie they wanted to make, even if they had to do it without the benefit of some standard Hollywood amenities. As Donald Faison put it, "It's hard to make a movie about the end of the world when you have to worry about waking the neighbors."

4. The Last Airbender.



5. The aliens are enormous and varied. Their ships burst through the clouds, anticipated only by giant trails of blinding blue light (that have an unfortunate effect on human skin). Most of the shots of the beasts themselves couldn't fit more than a leg or a mouth into the frame, and a wide glimpse of a flying squid-like creature reminded me of a less pungent and vile version of the monsters from The Mist. Actually, I'd say that the prevailing vibe is one evocative of Gears of War, with the pulsating swaths of blue at the heart of the creatures the only bright color to be found amidst their grey masses.

6. It's clever. Maybe. The trailer's money shot involves a windstorm of human bodies being violently sucked into the belly of an alien ship. My first thought was that some sort of gravitational pull was in effect, but the lack of cars, pets, and various debris had me thrown. But then Colin Strause mentioned that the movie was primarily "About mass abduction... about how humans are like moths to a flame." This got me thinking that the blue lights serve as a spectacle to draw people from their homes and get them to look up at their new overlords (the trailer's tagline - "Don't look up" - suggests that you shouldn't do that, so much). The cultural implications of this dynamic are endless, and it seems like a meaty enough metaphor to support a monster movie.

7. As the Strause brothers said themselves, "If you hate Skyline, we can't blame anyone else." That's a beautiful thing, especially cause these guys seem really nice and well-intentioned, and I already feel bad publicly registering my distaste for their previous film... which was a life-crippling magnum opus of all things terrible in this world.

8. Devil.

Skyline hits theaters on 11.12.10, and the fact that I'm now eager to see it is proof enough that this panel was a shocking success.]]> 2010-07-24T09:03:00+00:00 http://news.moviefone.com/2010/07/24/sdcc-will-skyline-be-worth-the-view/ <![CDATA[Comic-Con in 60 Seconds. Friday, 7/23]]> 19567025

Has the recession hurt the SDCC cosplay tradition? Today's Twitpic is courtesy of @FunnyOrDie

Cinematical Wire.
Review: Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Panel
Warner Bros. Planning 'Wonder Woman' Surprise?
Sexy 'Sucker Punch' Character Banners Revealed
'The Expendables' Want to Emasculate You
'Machete' Rips Guts, Feeds Tacos to the People!
Johnston Talks a Less Jingoistic 'Captain America'
'Dan Dare' Ready for Takeoff With Warner and Worthington
SDCC Party Scene: Lucasfilm, G4, Tron and Scott Pilgrim
'Jackass 3D' is Nasty ... But Still Kinda Hilarious
Wild Speculatio-Poll: What Imaginary News Would You Love to Hear from SDCC?

Sci-Fi, Fantasy & Superheroes.
Comics Alliance covered the Geoff Johns/DC Comics panel and shares updates on the Flash and Green Lantern movies. The plural of "movies" pertains partly to the (obvious) intent for GL sequels. Deadline does the TOLDJA on confirming that Mark Ruffalo has officially (and obviously) signed to play Bruce Banner/The Hulk in The Avengers. Also, Superhero Hype shares (obvious) confirmation from Joss Whedon that Jeremy Renner is Hawkeye in The Avengers, but as for Nathan Fillion as Ant-Man, Whedon and Marvel claim Ant-Man won't be in The Avengers. EW highlights its own "Women Who Kick Ass Panel."

Horror.
ShockTillYouDrop.com has an exclusive look at the Comic-Con poster for Guillermo del Toro's surprise remake of The Haunted Mansion. Speaking of del Toro, he says he is doing a stop-motion Pinocchio movie with a soundtrack by Nick Cave. That's not necessarily horror, but the thought kind of scares me. Pajiba spotlights Japanese splatter comedy label Sushi Typhoon. JoBlo.com reports on the "too hot for Comic-Con" footage from Piranha 3D.


Con Tangents.
So, Eva Mendes uses Comic-Con as a place to pick up underage fanboys? Yeah, keep dreaming guys. I love this pic that answers the question "where's Waldo?" with "looking at Playboy cartoon characters."

Don't forget, for breaking headlines and quick bits of Comic-Con goodness, follow @cinematical on Twitter as well as our Con-goers @erikdavis, @elisabethRappe, @mtgilchrist, @davidehrlich and @jenyamato. ]]> 2010-07-24T05:17:00+00:00 http://news.moviefone.com/2010/07/24/comic-con-in-60-seconds-friday-7-23/ <![CDATA[SDCC: 'Jackass 3D' is Nasty ... But Still Kinda Hilarious]]> 19566995

After watching the Jackass crew destroy each other for years as a TV show and then through a number of films, I thought by now I'd be sick of the shtick. Yeah, it was funny the first 47 times you smashed that midget in the face with a pie full of nails, but could the guys -- including their fearless leader Johnny Knoxville -- somehow find enough originality and nasty humor to keep things going through yet another film? Well, after watching eight minutes of footage (in 3D, no less) I feel pretty safe in saying that, yes, these Jackass boys still know how to make you want to vomit within two minutes flat.

The footage was screened in the front of a giant trailer truck set up in an open parking lot in downtown San Diego -- where, among other things, you could hang out in the sun, play ping-pong, drink beers (out of these really cool paper bag-style koozies -- see image above), chat up the cast, eat free burgers and listen to cool music. What more could you want in life? I mean, really. Two of the several eight-or-so-minute screenings were filmed for audience reaction TV spots, and it's definitely not hard to get an audience reaction when it comes to Jackass. Let's just say the name of the main stunt we were shown was "Bungee Poo Cocktail", and it involved Steve-O sitting inside a port-o-potty filled with, um, poo, before being bungeed up in the air. I don't think you want me to tell you what happened next.

And it was in 3D.

Was the 3D better than Avatar? Maybe I'll let you decide on October 15th. But know that Jackass fans have nothing to worry about; these guys may have aged a bit, but they're just as sick and twisted as they've always been ... with or without the 3D.

Check out a gallery from the Jackass 3D event below.

%Gallery-98128%


]]> 2010-07-23T22:56:00+00:00 http://news.moviefone.com/2010/07/23/jackass-3d-is-nasty-but-still-kinda-hilarious/ <![CDATA[Wild Speculatio-Poll: What Imaginary News Would You Love to Hear from SDCC?]]> 19566676

The 2010 San Diego Comic Con is now in full swing and that means that a lot of news is being broken about upcoming geeky things, like AMC's upcoming tv adaptation of The Walking Dead and Tron: Legacy. If you're into that sort of thing, and I'm sure most of us are, that means that we're secretly hoping for an outlandish bit of news to escape San Diego. Something big. Something strange. Something unexpected.

So we put it to you, the reader, to vote for your favorite bit of news that you know is not likely to be broken but consarnit should be anyway. As always, if you choose 'Other,' tell us why in the comments section.
]]> 2010-07-23T21:45:00+00:00 http://news.moviefone.com/2010/07/23/wild-speculatio-poll-what-imaginary-news-would-you-love-to-hear/ <![CDATA[SDCC: Warner Bros. Planning 'Wonder Woman' Surprise?]]> 19566714 Break out your bustiers and grab your lasso, because it looks like the Wonder Woman movie may be happening after all.

After more than five years of false starts and countless rumors (Jessica Biel and Megan Fox have both been linked to the role, while Jennifer Love Hewitt has said she'd love the part even if no one was asking her ... ) it appears as though things might finally be moving ahead on the project. Gossip swirling around Comic-Con indicates that Warner Bros. might finally unveil plans for a live-action film featuring the popular DC character at tomorrow's press conference from the convention.

Website The Playlist is saying that David Goyer could be involved with the project, which is both exciting and a little bit terrifying. Goyer wrote Batman Begins and helped craft the story of The Dark Knight. Those are both things that make me excited about him tackling this project. The scary part would be if they let him direct. Goyer's a great writer, but when he's calling the shots behind the camera, things don't seem to go nearly as well. Don't believe me? Check out Blade: Trinity or The Unborn.

It should be noted that this is purely speculation at this point -- no one's confirmed anything about Goyer or a Wonder Woman film and we most likely won't know something definitive until after tomorrow's Warner Bros. press conference. If it does come to pass, the assumption is that the film would have a 2013 release date.

We've chatted about potential Wonder Woman directors and actresses before, but feel free to make your picks in the comments section below. ]]> 2010-07-23T21:00:00+00:00 http://news.moviefone.com/2010/07/23/sdcc-warner-bros-planning-wonder-woman-surprise/