[Posted by Jeff Sneider]

Kris Tapley is "not big on" the idea that Johnny Depp may play The Riddler in the next Batman film, and frankly, I agree. Since when did villains overshadow the superheroes themselves?

Vulture interviews Tarantino mainstay Michael Madsen about his possible involvement in "Inglorious Bastards." Speaking of which, if Quentin doesn't end up casting Eddie Murphy (which has been rumored for the last few weeks), why not Chris Tucker? After all, he gave his best performance as Beaumont in "Jackie Brown" and he was also great in the half-war movie "Dead Presidents."

Talk about cool news! Quint lands a movie deal the same day that Moriarty's installment of "Fear Itself" debuts on NBC. The question is, when will we see Harry Knowles' "2gether 4ever?"

Empire debuts a classy quad poster for Jon Avnet's "Righteous Kill," which stars the two greatest actors of all-time, and no I am not talking about 50 Cent and Donnie Wahlberg. No offense Mr. Cent. As tough a time as the media has given De Niro and Pacino lately, I'll still be there opening night for their first teaming in 13 years. If their reunion winds up half as good as "Heat," I'll be happy.

Cinematical sinks its teeth into a story about Godiva releasing a "Twilight" chocolate bar. It certainly sounds dark and delicious but I'll wait and see how it tastes... if I can afford it.

With "Swing Vote" opening tomorrow, 411 mania has a cool retrospective of Kevin Costner's career. Unfortunately they leave off "3000 Miles to Graceland," a guilty pleasure in which Costner rocks some bad-ass 'burns.

I saw Guillaume Canet’s French thriller "Tell No One" last night and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it. So here, just for the heck of it, is Stephen Holden's glowing review in The New York Times. Track it down, give it a chance, and if you dig it as much as Stephen and I did, disregard the title and tell everyone about it.

Vulture laments the delay of the much-anticipated "Ghostbusters" videogame. By the time this thing gets released, Baby Oscar will be in a retirement home. Hopefully they'll use the additional time to resurrect Vigo the Carpathian who was always overshadowed in "Ghostbusters" lore by Slimer and the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man.

MySpace has the first look at the trailer for Peter Sollett's comedy Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist, starring Michael Cera and my personal celeb crush Kat Dennings. It also features a hot soundtrack (Modest Mouse, Vampire Weekend), a trio of supporting funnymen in Jay Baruchel, John Cho and Aaron Yoo, plus the naked girl from "Broken Flowers" and a Gray's Papaya cameo! I could watch this trailer an 'infinite' amount of times. Seriously, what's not to like?

Jeff Wells points to a bootleg version of "The Wolfman" trailer, which despite its poor quality, looks pretty good. It seems Universal is aiming for an R-rating because there's some nasty gore in there, which is always reassuring.

In other trailer news, Cinematical finds out "What Just Happened?" The Hollywood satire stars Robert De Niro as a movie producer based on Art Linson and a bearded Bruce Willis as a thinly-veiled version of Alec Baldwin circa "The Edge."

Finally, I direct you to a June 13th posting at Dark Horizons about Lionsgate's decision to dump "Midnight Meat Train" in a handful of theaters this weekend. At first I wasn't too concerned because I figured that at at least one theater in L.A. would step up and show it but having checked my local listings, I see the closest theater is in Norwalk, CA. As a horror fan, I'm extremely disappointed that I won't be able to check out a midnight screening this evening and if you feel the same way, you should let Lionsgate know in the comments section of this post. How am I supposed to ride the train if it doesn't stop in my neighborhood?

{Posted by David S. Cohen}

With all the furor over the McCain ad that dissolves from Britney Spears to Paris Hilton to Barack Obama, calling the latter a celebrity, let me add one small voice in defense of Ms. Spears.

The meme here seems to be that they are all celebrities, that is to say, people who are famous for being well-known. Plenty of people are defending Obama against that charge, but not Spears.

Now I don't know the woman and I'm not a fan, but not so long ago Britney Spears was mainly known as a star performer, something that requires some actual skill and hard work. More recently, even after she became a tabloid train wreck, her last album got some pretty good reviews. She got famous by becoming a star; she didn't become a star because she was famous. So, without going out of my way to be snarky about Paris Hilton, she's not Paris Hilton.

So... ummm... leave Britney Spears alone?

{Posted by David S. Cohen}

Are stories about the struggle against racism in sports in the 1950s and 60s turning into the male equivalent of chick flicks? And can't today's crusading fimmakers find something current to make movies about?

U's trailer for The Express caught my eye and hit on a pet peeve.

When I was a script reader, I'd tell the companies I read for "Don't send me chick flicks, you know, 'How to Make an American Quilt During a Weekend at the Lake With Boys on the Side.' It's not that I hate them, but I don't watch them, I don't really get them, and I don't think I'd know a good one if I read one.'"

But hey, I'm a guy, I get sports movies. I also trace some of my earliest memories to the days of the civil rights movement in Illinois and Kentucky, so I enjoy stories about that time. But I'm getting tired of movies that put the two together.

[Posted by Peter Debruge]

It's about time: Just as hand-drawn animation is going out of style, Disney finally gives us an African-American princess. But I have no clue what to make of this trailer. Others can have a field day with the P.C. issues raised. Me, I just don't see the charm of this scene, meant to set the tone for the movie: A toon princess has second thoughts about kissing a frog. Doesn't that violate all the unwritten rules of the Disney universe, as parodied so well in last year's Enchanted? Now that animation has gone post-modern, does that mean it can't go back?

(Hat tip to Zap2It's Dan Fienberg for unearthing the trailer.)

[Posted by Peter Debruge]

These days, my favorite thing about Pixar is the way each new idea they announce sounds even farther afield than the last, then the movie comes out, and it charms the pants off everybody: Rats in a restaurant? A robot love story?

Last week at Comic-Con, Pete Docter unveiled footage from Pixar's next curve ball, Up, in which an 78-year-old geezer (voiced by Ed Asner) fulfills a promise to his late wife, setting out on a great adventure to Paradise Falls, Venezuela. In the clip, the old guy pulls a fast one on two retirement home employees sent to collect him, attaching hundreds of helium balloons to his house and drifting away (with a hyper 9-year-old wilderness explorer named Russell unwittingly whisked along for the ride).

It was a gorgeous sequence, full of humor and sheer zen wonder -- the teaser only touches on it, since much relies on subtle character moments as old-timer Carl engineers his take-off (best of all, the presentation assured me Pixar isn't veering into Danny Deckchair territory here). That semi-surreal vision of so many multi-colored balloons against a clear blue sky reminded me of one of my all-time favorite television spots, the brilliant not-a-lick-of-CG ad for Sony's Bravia set:

But Docter lost me a bit when things flash forward to the jungle, to find Carl and Russell dragging the house by garden hose to its final destination: one of the unseen-by-human-eyes mountains that looms above the Venezuelan jungle. Is there really enough material here for more than a short film?

Then again, if we've learned anything from Pixar, it's that plot isn't nearly as important as character, and Docter made clear on the panel that his inspiration for Up was the personal revelation that old folks have led interesting lives. It's an intriguing thought: Could building a movie around a septuagenarian prove to even riskier than rats or robots -- and every bit as rewarding? (Don't forget, Pixar struck gold in this territory once before with the Oscar-winning Geri's Game, left.)

[Posted by Peter Debruge]

Anyone out there in the habit of watching movies or TV shows online? I've been slow to embrace the process, mainly because the titles provided through iTunes and elsewhere have been ones that would be better served by the largest possible screen. But my man Matt Dentler, who recently left his SXSW film festival gig to work for Cinetic Media, has engineered a deal that gives me hope: Watch Hoop Dreams for free on Hulu.

Now, here's a movie everyone should see, the same landmark documentary Roger Ebert named best film of the '90s. I remember being a bit disappointed when Criterion polished it up for DVD a few years back, since the film was originally shot on video and couldn't possibly meet the company's usual standard of visual quality -- the advantage here is that unlike other blockbusters you might attempt to watch online, Hoop Dreams doesn't suffer tremendously from the streaming video downgrade. But if those other more popular pics are more your style, check out Hulu's library -- they're adding a new film that can be viewed for free online every day this summer.

[Posted by Jeff Sneider]

Nikki Finke is hearing rumors about "Austin Powers 4". Yeah, baby!

Jeff Wells inhales "Pineapple Express", calling the first three-quarters of the film a "legendary stoner comedy."

Duane Dudek of the Journal Sentinel reports that Woody Allen's new movie, not "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" (which was excellent) but the one starring Larry David and Evan Rachel Wood in a May-December romance, will be called "Whatever Works." Works for me.

US critic Thelma Adams sits down for an interview with "Frozen River" star Melissa Leo, whose performance is garnering Oscar buzz. Too bad Tom O'Neill feels the need to basically throw her under the bus.

"Tropic Thunder" strikes David Poland like a disappointing bolt of lightning.

Roger Ebert sits down to talk about "Man on Wire" with the man himself, Philippe Petit.

Kevin Williamson has a smokin' interview with "Pineapple Express" star Seth Rogen.

And finally, after reading that last bastion of truth, Page Six, Vulture contemplates a future without NBC honcho Ben Silverman. I say without Ben Silverman, there is no Paradise.

[Posted by Peter Debruge]
Inspired by Pineapple Express (arguably the world's first coherent stoner comedy), Philadelphia Inquirer critic Carrie Rickey runs down the all-time greats of the genre:

1. The Big Lebowski (1998)
2. Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989)
3. Dazed and Confused (1993)
4. Dude, Where's My Car? (2000)
5. Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982)
6. Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle (2004)
7. Half Baked (1998)
8. Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001)
9. Repo Man (1984)
10. Up in Smoke (1978)

Click through to see her justifications. Carrie's choices strike me as a little recent (what about Easy Rider or the Jack Nicholson-penned Roger Corman classic The Trip?). It's not a comedy, but Jerry Garcia's favorite movie of all time, The Saragossa Manuscript, seems custom-made to be seen on LSD. And Donald Cammell/Nic Roeg's Performance virtually induces that mindset, no matter how sober the audience is.

But when it comes down to it, stoner movies have always annoyed me, since they're engineered to play best when the audience is high, thereby excusing egregious leaps of logic and/or continuity. Then again, they open the door to a sort of randomness simply not permissible in mainstream comedy. My favorite such example, the dude/sweet tattoo scene in Dude, Where's My Car?

Here it is dubbed for foreign television:

[Posted by Peter Debruge]

In this teaser for the new Inglorious Bastards DVD (which I review here), Quentin Tarantino recalls, "The first time I heard about Inglorious Bastards was the Variety review":

Ah, those were the days, when film lovers turned to us for their first morsel of information about exploitation and genre films. We're still tops when it comes to casting news, but the fanboys deserve credit for leading the charge on fringe cinema scoops online (let's hear it for Twitch, baby!). Personally, I can't imagine having to sit through all the pornos that Variety crix were expected to review in decades past.

As you've surely heard by now, Tarantino's cooking up his own in-name-only tribute, a men-on-a-mission WWII epic likely to end up as two separate films (cuz the guy's just that inspired). L.A. fans can catch a screening of the restored print tonight at the New Beverly Cinema, assuming you can get tickets. Everyone else will be served just fine by Severin Films' 3-disc DVD.

[Posted by Peter Debruge]

Now that I've picked on the MPAA, I thought I'd turn my attention to the FCC, who decide what flies on TV. Not sure how many of you caught the Comic-Con sneak of Heroes Villains, the back-with-a-vengeance third season of the popular NBC show, but I can't help but wonder whether they'll really be able to get away with the episode's big surprise (SPOILER ALERT!) -- namely, that Sylar finally manages to catch Claire, slices her head open and, after noodling around in her noggin for a spell on-camera, steals her power.

The scene makes the brain-eating scene from Hannibal look downright tame by comparison, although Tim Kring clearly realized he was operating in similar territory. When Claire asks whether Sylar plans to chow down, he quips, “Claire, that’s disgusting.”

(Posted by David S. Cohen)

Al Gore = Gore-Al = Jor-El?

This hits close to home because I may have married the only woman in the world, other than maybe Tipper, who thinks An Inconvenient Truth is a hot date. No pun intended.

[Posted by Peter Debruge]

It's starting to feel a little all-Twilight-all-the-time over here, and as much as I like the tween Vampire tale, nothing compares to Harry Potter. Here's a teaser for the latest, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (also available in HD from WB bedfellow AOL:

Ooh, scary Harry! I love how things are getting progressively darker with the series, although WB's The Dark Knight proves that no matter how grim they get, we can count on the MPAA to slap a kid-friendly rating on the film. Am I the only grandma-minded critic out there who thinks the R-rated Billy Elliott is more appropriate for kids than, say, Lord of the Rings or The Love Guru?

(Posted by David S. Cohen)

I've been having some problems with our DSL service and was considering switching to cable, despite Time Warner Cable's horrific rep for customer service. An ATT tech came by the house today and said something to the effect that ATT's U-Verse service has been installed locally, though it's not listed as available in our area (Westside L.A.). I'm guessing there'll be some sort of IPTV service announcement very soon.

No inside dirt on when Verizon FiOS might arrive, sorry.

I wrote about IPTV and the Telcos' entry into the TV biz here back in 2006. They've been slow to deploy here in L.A. but I'm guessing that people will like it once they see it. 

[Posted by Jeff Sneider]

Rumors swirl that Johnny Depp may reunite once again with Tim Burton to play the Mad Hatter in the director's take on Alice in Wonderland.

JoBlo has the one-sheet for Matthew McConaughey's Surfer Dude, which brings to mind Big Fish and prison clothes.

Nikki Finke has the lowdown on CAA parting with veteran agent Rick Nicita, who segues to Morgan Creek.

Vulture takes a look at the Tropic Thunder bobbleheads but of course they leave out the best one, Brandon T. Jackson's Alpa Chino.

Jeff Wells offers his thoughts on this year's Venice Film Festival lineup.

AICN's Quint has a solid interview up with director Sam Raimi and his Drag Me to Hell leading lady Alison Lohman, while Capone takes a moment at Comic-Con to sit down with Paris Hilton and her Repo! The Genetic Opera writer-director Darren Lynn Bousman.

With the Cinematical team on a mini-vacation following Comic-Con, the site revives a December post featuring Seven Stupid Things Last Men on Earth Do.

According to DHD, Alicia Keys and Jack White have recorded the theme song for the latest Bond film, Quantum of Solace.

Rob Scheer finds himself wrestling with the powerful themes of Boy A, which opened in limited release last week.

AICN has an early look at Beverly Hills Chihuahua, a movie about, well, just read it at your own risk.

MCN's Noah Forrest takes a scary ride on Brad Anderson's Transsiberian, which looks pretty good to me, but I'm partial to any movie featuring Kate Mara. Except Shooter, of course.

JoBlo's Sturdy lambastes the MPAA for, among other things, its NC-17 stance on Kevin Smith's raunchy comedy Zack and Miri Make a Porno.

And finally, the Vulture gang asks you to do your patriotic duty as an American and see The Dark Knight. They even include a very helpful pie chart full of lame excuses you might need to make if you haven't seen it yet.

[Posted by Stuart Oldham]

Believe it or not -- Guy Ritchie has another job besides being married to Madonna (and the press). The 'Lock, Stock' director is back with another British gangster film and this time, he's brought along Gerard Butler for the ride.

I am in Maine, taking a stop at an internet cafe in Ellsworth before driving into The Silence.

You won't hear from me for a while, but the Variety team led by Peter Debruge and David S. Cohen will keep on blogging and there's still plenty of Comic-Con fodder to be plundered.

Back in a week or so.

[Grand Theatre, Ellsworth, Maine]

(Posted by David S. Cohen)

Saw The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor last night, and couldn't help shaking my head at the fight scene between Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh. Admittedly, like athletes late in their careers, neither can do some of the things they did 20 years ago -- Hey, who can? -- but was it really necessary to cut the fight up into little bits, the way you would with actors who can't perform fight choreography for more than a second or two at a time? These are two of the most dynamic, skillful martial arts performers in recent memory. Wouldn't it have been great to watch them move around?

So I was especially interested in this video slide show from Dennis Lim Slate.com: Let's Step Outside: The Evolution of the Fight Scene from the Duke to the Dark Knight. Particularly note the fight between Chuck Norris and Bruce Lee, where at one point they actually go to slow-motion to make sure you can see what they're doing -- and be sure you know it's them doing it.

[Posted by David S. Cohen]

London's TimesOnline, burying its lead in a long, unrevealing puff piece on George Lucas in conjunction with the upcoming release of the new Star Wars: Clone Wars animated movie, puts this near the bottom of the story:

"Really, though, it was a challenge getting the story together and getting everybody to agree on it. Indiana Jones only becomes complicated when you have another two people saying ‘I want it this way’ and ‘I want it that way’, whereas, when I first did Jones, I just said, ‘We’ll do it this way’ — and that was much easier. But now I have to accommodate everybody, because they are all big, successful guys, too, so it’s a little hard on a practical level.

“If I can come up with another idea that they like, we’ll do another. Really, with the last one, Steven wasn’t that enthusiastic. I was trying to persuade him. But now Steve is more amenable to doing another one. Yet we still have the issues about the direction we’d like to take. I’m in the future; Steven’s in the past. He’s trying to drag it back to the way they were, I’m trying to push it to a whole different place. So, still we have a sort of tension. This recent one came out of that. It’s kind of a hybrid of our own two ideas, so we’ll see where we are able to take the next one.”

Ya gotta hand it to George. He's the only guy in the business who can get away with giving an interview to a major newspaper implying 1) Spielberg succeeded with Raiders by taking orders from him; and 2) Spielberg is a nostalgic stick-in-the-mud whom he cajoled into doing another Indiana Jones picture and accepting his forward-thinking ideas.

[Posted by Dave Lewis]

On the last day of Comic-Con, producers Brad Fuller and Andrew Form allayed fans’ Friday the 13th fears with promises that their reboot of the horror franchise would keep Jason Voorhees out of hell, deep space and Manhattan. 

Fuller and Form are well versed in the land of horror remakes, with credits that include Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Hitcher, The Amityville Horror and soon, Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds. And, as cineastes might feel about Hitchcock, horror fans expect loyalty to the source material. The first-look teaser for Friday the 13th (shown twice) seemed to satisfy with slick thrills, plenty of R-rated gore and what appeared to be a fleeting glimpse of Jason as a boy. Likewise, the poster offers a faithful image of Jason's gruesome goalie mask.

The producers promised a more "realistic" take on the legendary slasher; this time around, the masked man sticks to Crystal Lake. "We tried to keep it rooted in reality,” said Form. “We tried to go totally away from the supernatural.” Form and Fuller said they took some inspiration from parts 2-4 of the original series, although it goes back to basics by exploring Jason's past and revealing how he got the mask.

“They made Jason smart,” said Derek Mears, who plays the iconic Voorhees. “You feel sympathy for him." Leave it to other actors to dream of assaying Hamlet, or at least Superman; Mears said that as a child he used to think, "Someday, I'd like to play Jason."

That said, when the panel suffered from dull spots, Form didn’t hesistate to pull in the film’s hunky and amiable star, Jared Padalecki. Offered Form, "Have you guys seen Jared with his shirt off?" The thought of seeing the star of the CW's Supernatural bare-chested got the fangirls screaming, the sound Form and Fuller hope to hear February 13. See more photos from the "Friday the 13th" Comic-Con panel.

Here's an excerpt from Variety's 1980 review of the original Friday the 13th.

(Posted by David S. Cohen)

The Food Network was smart to break format and bring back three contestants to the finale of "The Next Food Network Star" instead of the usual two.

I agree with the choice of Aaron McCargo Jr. as winner of the competish. Even my wife, who's vegetarian, was grinning watching him grill a steak in the finale. Though not a trained TV performer, McCargo has natural charisma.

But does anyone else think Adam Gertler had a pretty good idea for a cooking show? I sure did. And doesn't Lisa Garza seem like she's a natural to, well, do something on television? I'm looking forward to see what they end up doing as well.

(Posted by David S. Cohen)

Another random thought sparked by Andrew Klavan’s op-ed piece in the WSJ arguing that the “Dark Knight” filmmakers are secret conservatives who must mask their true opinions by putting them into a comicbook movie.

If we extrapolate from the movie to real life, since Batman gives control of his let's-spy-on-everyone-in-Gotham's-cellphones technology to Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman), who doesn’t approve of it and believes it’s too much power for one man to have, the Nolans et al must believe that the one person who ought to have control of the government’s real-life warrantless wiretapping system is…. senator Russ Feingold?

I tried to think of someone in show business whom I'd trust with that power. My wife suggested… Morgan Freeman. But I’m not so sure. True, he’s Hollywood's go-to guy for kindly authority figures: God, the President, the head of the Fraternity of Assassins. (Okay, not always so kindly.) But I’ve interviewed him on a couple of junkets and I think there’s just a touch of the rogue about Mr. Freeman. It’s part of his charm. But I can’t help but wonder if, given that power, he just might have a little bit too much fun...

The stoner comedy Pineapple Express, an inspired Seth Rogen/Evan Goldberg/James Franco/David Gordon Green/Judd Apatow collaboration, will score big time. "I always thought Superbad would get made," said Rogen at the Pineapple Express panel. "But this I never expected to get made. When I watch this stuff I am amazed."

See photos from "Pineapple Express" panel at Comic-Con.

Besides the fact that both Rogen and Franco are growing into leading man status, the revelation in the film is the third leg of the stoner trio, Danny McBride.

I ran into him at the Pineapple Express party Friday night, the best of the Con (three agency parties thrown by CAA, UTA and WMA were packed with agents, mostly, while the PE party was poolside, civilized, not too crowded). It turns out that McBride really wants to direct. He studied film at the North Carolina School of the Arts, where he and Jody Hill and Ben Best concocted the raucus martial arts comedy The Foot Fist Way, which played at Sundance and was eventually picked up by Adam McKay and Will Ferrell. He also has a juicy role as a special effects wrangler in Tropic Thunder and is coming up in Land of the Lost and Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles as well.

McBride now has a rising comedy career as a member of the McKay/Ferrell and Apatow comedy troupes. The ungodly stoner trio of Rogen, Franco and McBride did a lot of improvising, he said, including the last scene in the movie. (Apatow says that Rogen is unusually gifted at improvising entirely in character.) "I let the cameras roll," said Green at the Pineapple Express panel. "We do a lot of improvising. I let the actors have as much fun as possible which hopefully will translate to audiences. We started with a sober take, then went higher and higher until they were dancing on the ceiling."

"You don't have to know how to read," added Rogen.

"You don't have to memorize lines, which is nice," said McBride, who was told his character had shaved armpits, but not the reason why. "That's what you have to figure out," Rogen told him.

And nobody smoked dope. There were dangerous stunts, McBride pointed out. "I smoked a lot of weed in high school," said Rogen, who admits he once smoked pot with a fishbowl on his head. "You can't smoke weed when you're making a movie. It's too hard. There's too much heavy equipment around."

McBride answers a few questions on the Comic-Con press balcony:

At Friday night's EW director’s panel, Kevin Smith, Judd Apatow, Zack Snyder and Frank Miller gave up their geekiest moments.

Smith said he had just hugged Snyder, whom he had never met, after seeing Watchmen footage: ”I see Watchmen, I’m ready to fuckin’ die, my life has been fulfilled.”

Apatow confessed: “When I was in 6th grade, I chased Baa Baa Black Sheep star Robert Conrad on my bicycle for five blocks."

When Star Wars fan Snyder was shooting a TV commercial with Harrison Ford, he told the star that he had a full-scale action figure of Han Solo in Carbon Freeze in his house. “He said, ‘You probably shouldn’t have told me that,’” recalled Snyder.

On the set of Miller's first film Sin City (which he co-directed with Robert Rodriguez), in the first scene Bruce Willis comes in and finds out his girl has become an exotic dancer. Jessica Alba appears on stage with a lasso. “I had picked Emmy Lou Harris’s ‘Wrecking Ball,’" said Miller, "and I found myself bursting into tears to find that [what I had dreamed] had come true.”

[Photo courtesy the movieblog]

Judging from Comic-Con, vampires and werewolves of all shapes and sizes are on the rise.

Besides the romantic vampire phenom Twilight and the sexy HBO-targeted True Blood, a host of other vampire movies were on display at the Con.

Greek production designer and creature maven Patrick Tatopoulos has taken over the Underworld franchise, heading into prequel territory to provide equal time for the werewolves in Underworld: Rise of the Lycans, starring a well-buffed, long-maned Michael Sheen (The Queen) as a werewolf in love with a sword-wielding, horse-riding, warrior vampire, Rhona Mitra (Doomsday), the daughter of vampire overlord Bill Nighy. "The last two stories were through the eyes of the vampires, in the air," said Tatopoulos. "This is about earth, a love story and quest for freedom."

"I'm a vampire, I'm a zombie and a squid," said Nighy. "How many people do you know can make that claim?"

Some of the fans actually booed a trailer showing Noah Wyle as a gentle librarian who falls for a sexy vampire in Jonathan Frake's The Librarian: The Curse of the Judas Chalice, basically a Something Wildish romantic comedy for TNT. The sequel Lost Boys: The Tribe looked pretty warmed over, too. “You’ll never grow old, you’ll never die and you’ll never know fear again,” one vampire tells a new recruit. Also not something I will ever see is Quarantine, a 2009 Screen Gems horror flick that traps a bunch of terrified people inside a tenement which has been infected by rabid vampire/werewolf attackers. It's done Cloverfield-style, and we're looking at the videotape. Or not.

X-Men's Wolverine is a kind of mutant superhero werewolf, right?

Hugh Jackman brought down the house when he popped into the Con, surprising the denizens of Hall H with a remarkable amount of energy for someone who had been on a plane from Australia, having just wrapped the X-Men spin-off, Origins Wolverine. It's his first visit with an X-Men movie, he said. Impulsively, Jackman jumped into the audience and greeted Wolverine comics creator Len Wein. "I have to shake your hand, buddy," he said. Without your pen I wouldn't have a career."

The movie is due May 1, 2009, based on a script by David Benioff. "The movie is big, it's action packed," Jackman said. "If I can describe the Wolverine movie in two words: It's badass." He added, "You're going to see a lot of berserker rage."

Fox co-chairman Tom Rothman and Jim Gianapulos were in the house as they screened some footage of Jackman and Liev Schreiber pitted against one another in training as they learn to control their powers. Gambit (Friday Night Light's Taylor Kitsch) was also unveiled. After the panel, Jackman flew off across the Pacific again, this time to Japan, for a vacation.

Yes, having Rick Baker (American Werewolf in London) do prosthetic make-up for The Wolfman is a good thing. CG will be used for the transitions, Baker admitted at the Hall H panel: “Something magical happens when you get an actor in good makeup, when he sees himself in the mirror, and says, ‘I’m the Wolfman.' This is an old-school gothic horror movie.”

“Everybody talks about how boring the makeup process is,” said Benicio del Toro, whose manager Rick Yorn sold Universal on this period remake of the Lon Chaney, Jr. classic, a fave of his client. “I loved watching him build the makeup for four hours. It’s about becoming. It’s exciting. The tough part is taking it off. That gets desperate.”

Even if del Toro is a genuine fan who argued for staying true to the original, the actor (as directed by last-minute helmer Joe Johnston) looks uncomfortable in 19th century tweeds as the estranged American son of Brit noble Anthony Hopkins and pursuer of corseted beauty Emily Blunt.

“I was running and screaming,” Blunt said. “I liked the whole idea of being a damsel in distress.”

“And I was chasing her,” said del Toro.

[Photo Jackman and Len Wein courtesy LA Times]

Click here for more photos from Comic-con

The franchise reboot of Terminator looks pretty strong under McG's direction. (It comes out May 22, 2009.) That the filmmaker is eager to prove himself with this picture can only be a good thing. His career is an odd one: many TV series and music videos led to his first film, Charlie's Angels, and its sequel, followed by the male weepie We Are Marshall. So McG (nicknamed after his mother's maiden name, because there were too many Joes in the house) is ready to rock.

He ran the panel like a paratrooper/cheerleader, even calling Christian Bale in Japan, and frequently asking the crowd to roar its approval. (It's become a sign of success to manipulate the audience into playing footage twice.) McG is in mid-shoot in New Mexico, where he likes the bleak desert, he told me later when I asked him about the film's Road Warrior influence. Playing to the fans, he said, "the whole thing began by listening, everyone wanted to look at the future, not T4. It's post-Judgement Day."

McG surrounded himself with credible talent, from Dark Knight's Jonah Nolan, who did a rewrite, to the dark Knight himself, Bale, ILM and the late animatronics wizard Stan Winston, whose designs "are all over this picture," McG said. "We have a lot of hardware," he said, displaying the bare-bones Cro-Magnon model T-600 Terminator, and plans to dedicate the film to Winston.

J.J. Abrams came to the Con with Fringe and Lost but not Star Trek, even though he could have, he told me. He was willing to, and had enough footage, even if he's still working on visual effects. Paramount did not want him to, he said. The studio's only presence at the convention was a screening of Tropic Thunder, which featured a funny intro with Ben Stiller, Robert Downey, Jr. and Jack Black as stars competing for geek cred. It would have played well in Hall H, if Paramount had done a Tropic Thunder panel, but the buzz on the screening spread throughout the convention anyway, as did the positive reaction to Pineapple Express.

Abrams was looking for Simon Pegg at the Pineapple Express party, who had starred as Scotty in Star Trek.

Here's EW's take on Star Trek's no-show at the Con.

One of my favorite bits in Hall H came from the always amusing Kevin Smith, responding to a question about the endless debate about rebooting Superman again. He cited Bryan Singer's intention to pull off a Wrath of Khan, the good, action-packed Star Trek movie that followed the first one, which was comprised, Smith said, mainly of long, lingering shots of the Starship Enterprise. "If you were into The Enterprise, it was porn," he joked.

Posted by Peter Debruge
We interrupt this Comic-Con mania to bring you a sneak peek at Oliver Stone's "W." Could this be the most in-your-face political satire since Dr. Strangelove? See for yourself (click here if the video doesn't load):

According to Ain't It Cool News' Drew McWeeny (who found it first), the trailer wasn't supposed to break until Access Hollywood on Monday night. But the quality of this upload is so sharp, it's gotta be an inside job.

In case the powers that be yank it down before you get a chance to see the teaser, it opens with Josh Brolin as GWB doing a drunken table dance at a bar, while James Cromwell (as GHWB) sternly lectures him, "If I remember correctly, you didn't like the sporting goods job. Working in the investment firm wasn't for you either, or the oil rig job. You didn't exactly finish up with flying colors in the Air National Guard, junior. What are you cut out for? Partying? Chasing tail? Driving drunk? What do you think you are, a Kennedy? You're a Bush -- act like one!"

The montage featured beneath daddy's disappointed voiceover features college drinking games (or fraternity initiation perhaps), womanizing, a stint in the slammer, gambling and drunk driving -- and those are just the antics the MPAA allows studios to feature in a green-band trailer.

"What drove George W. Bush from here..." ("You want an ass-whipping?" the older Bush threatens when things get rowdy between father and son around the house) "...to here?" the trailer speculates, cutting to a shot of a salt-and-pepper-haired Brolin with his feet up on the desk of the Oval Office.

And as if the irony weren't thick enough already, it closes with a montage of the cast playing W's inner circle accompanied by the song "What a Wonderful World."

Shots of the ensemble after the jump...

Frank Miller's The Spirit may be too smart for the room. (Here's my interview with Miller.)

The footage for Miller’s homage to his comics mentor, the late Will Eisner, looked fun but strictly narrow niche, much the way Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino’s Grindhouse played best for folks who felt the same way about their B-movie inspirations.

Miller is a gifted, crafty storyteller/entertainer who clearly is having fun playing with his new medium while staying true to Eisner. “I grew up on Superboy, my love of telling stories derives from that,” said Miller at a director’s panel. “Any way I can explore the hero and bring him to life is another way to do my life’s passion. It’s my job to give you what you don’t ask for and don’t know you want.”

“We wanted the voice of the artist on the screen,” said producer Deborah Del Prete at The Spirit panel. “We went to Frank because of that vision.”

Miller embraced the advantages of his new medium, he said at the directors' panel. "I first went crazy with sound and movement. You don't understand how big that was. I was doing boxes with words over heads. My idea of an explosion was to write BOOM. I had some wonderful moments cutting shot to shot. Some aesthetics you develop translate beautifully into film."

When Samuel L. Jackson (The Octopus) kept demanding bigger and bigger guns, Miller asked the prop department to wire some guns together. “We made up the meanest, nastiest bad guns you’ve ever seen in your life,” said Miller. “When he holds them he looks like a robot transformer.”

Then Jackson had to work out in order to carry them. “I lost some weight that day,” he said. “I became a black skinhead.”

Lead Gabriel Macht plays a cop who comes back from the dead with some extra skills and juiced up pheromones, so that every woman he meets falls in love with him. While there are a bevy of bodacious babes (from Eva Mendes to Scarlett Johannson) in this stylized Sin City-style green-screen movie, and leads Macht and Jackson make powerful opponents, Lionsgate has some tricky marketing challenges ahead on this pic, which opens Christmas Day.

Miller says he dropped a half-finished graphic novel to work on this movie. According to Zack Snyder, Miller is also working on the prequel to 300, about an historic Spartan battle set shortly after the Battle of Thermopylae. Miller handed in the script for Sin City 2 some time back. I asked Rodriguez what was going on with that. Clearly the Weinsteins did not encourage him to rush ahead with that one, and he’s put it on a back burner in favor of something else, he said.

Here's The Spirit trailer.

Comic-Con Photo Gallery: The Spirit Panel

The question hovering after Watchmen's delirious reception at Comic-Con is what will Warner execs Alan Horn and Jeff Robinov do now? They were both at the panel, and could see how well the Philip Glass-enhanced extended trailer played. It was gorgeous, visually arresting stuff, and the actors on the panel all reinforced the idea that there were real, rich characters to play here, well-written, with depth.

Of course what Marvel cut from The Incredible Hulk was the extra character nourishment added by Edward Norton. So will WB do the same here? Studios are responsible for looking carefully at the bottom line. So will cutting the movie down and losing some characters hurt the project? Every movie has a perfect length--but is it what's perfect for smart discerning Watchmen-philes and film critics, or the general public?

Here's my interview with Zack Snyder, and here's Reelz' video interview and Time's Watchmen take.

"Superhero movies don't exist just as summer popcorn mindless entertainment," Snyder told the 6500 fans packed into Hall H. "Watchmen talks about stuff that's important and serious. Serious filmmakers and actors are making these into cool movies. There are a lot of other cool graphic novels out there like Frank Miller's Dark Knight to make into movies."

Snyder said most of the movie was not shot the way 300 was made, on green-screen, but rather live action with practical effects--except for the Mars sequences and other FX being dropped into the movie, like Rorschach's moving inkblot mask. Billy Crudup did have to wear a suit covered with 140 dots as the very blue Dr. Manhattan.

"Getting into a costume and sticking a scar on my mouth helped me get in the mood to kill people," said Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who plays Comedian (pictured here).

Matthew Goode took a big leap from the very twee Brideshead Revisited to Watchmen, which he admitted he had to look up on Wikipedia.

Snyder is taking the pirate story and animating it and putting it out on its own DVD, he said at the directors panel, with Gerard Butler doing the voice of the sea captain. He says he shot the transitions in and out of the black freighter so it can be added on the Watchmen DVD, too.

Artist Dave Gibbons expressed his amazement at walking around a real set (in Vancouver) and seeing his drawings brought to life. His trademark boxed signature will be visible on some of the sets in the movie, he said. He wished that Watchmen creator Alan Moore hadn't had such a bad experience on his last adaptation (V for Vendetta) that he refused to have anything to do with this one. That doesn't mean, Gibbons added, that the official Watchmen website shouldn't mention the guy's name.

The movie opens March 6, 2009.

Comic-Con Photo Gallery: Watchmen Panel

Here's the trailer.

[Posted by Kristina Rettig]  Actor Lee Pace in the Pushing Daisies press room. Pace said the cast has a $20 bet to see who can find Chewbacca at Comic-Con first. “The one thing that I love about this season is that Ned’s got a lot of problems," he said. "In the first episode, Chuck moves out [and] Olive goes to the convent." Showrunner Bryan Fuller credits the show's tone to Amelie, French cinema and horror movies and "a lot of credit goes to [exec producer] Barry Sonnenfeld" for its visual aesthetic. Photo by Olivia Hemaratanatorn

Some movie footage shown at the Con doesn't score with the crowd. Sometimes it's a question of how the material is presented. I was intrigued by the 4 1/2 minute extended trailer shown by Australian director Alex Proyas of his Nic Cage thriller Knowing (which Summit will release on March 20, 2009) mainly because it looks like it has more brain matter and visual skill behind it than most of the mind-numbing pictures shown here. Clearly, just because I respond to some of the artier presentations-- like Frank Miller's The Spirit-- doesn't mean they'll be mass audience fare.

I can't wait to get my hands on the director's cut of one of my fave dystopian sci-fi films, Proyas's 1988 Dark City, which will be released July 29th. It's the movie he originally made, 15 minutes longer than the bastardized edit that New Line Cinema released. "It's the cut I first tested," he told me. "Unfortunately the testing process did not go so well. We made a lot of changes. There are huge differences. The pace is different. This is a more honest-to-goodness director's cut."

Here's more info on Knowing from my interview with Proyas, as well as his first ever appearance at Comic-Con:

After the visually dense future worlds of Dark City and I, Robot, a studio tentpole which also featured heavy VFX, Proyas was happy to get back to a more reality and character-based drama, he said. "While there are quite a few effects sequences in it, they are subtly done. It's documentary in style, quite raw, hopefully believable."

The breathtaking plane crash scene, where Cage, having deciphered a page of numbered codes that predict disasters about to occur, stands on a highway and watches in horror as a plane crashes in front of him, was shot in one hand-held take, Proyas said.

The spec script by novelist Ryne Douglas Pearson had been kicking around for a decade (Richard Kelly couldn't get it off the ground). When Proyas read it ten years ago, he didn't see how to make it work, but five years later it came back to him in a tweaked form that he liked better. "It was improved substantially," he said. "I saw a clearer direction for where I wanted to take the story. Nic's character has lost his faith in human nature and the way the universe functions. He's on a quest to find meaning in the way the universe works."

Proyas was also relieved to get away from filmmaking-by-committee at Twentieth Century Fox, where making I, Robot, "a large and complex beast," was clearly not a pleasant experience for him. "It's increasingly important as to who I'm working with," he said, grateful that he could shoot in his native Australia.

A sci-fi, not comics fan, Proyas grew up on the classic novels of Arthur Clarke, Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein and Ray Bradbury. And he has no plans to direct Silver Surfer, he said at Comic-Con: “Unfortunately that is just a rumor. I don’t know where that came from. I do like Silver Surfer, but I’m not going to be doing it.”

Here's the Knowing trailer:

"It's not minimum Payne, not medium Payne, it's maximum Payne!" declared director John Moore at the Max Payne panel. True confession: my experience with videogames is limited to Myst, Riven, and Sim City, basically. I have never played Max Payne and never will, nor is this movie aimed at my demo. Hardly.

"My challenge was not to screw it up," said Moore, who deployed a subjective video-game POV camera as well as super-so-mo Phantom camera which shoots up to 1000 frames per second. "You've got to follow the story. If you take the controller out of a player's hand, and he gives up control and lets you take it from here, you have to give him something exciting and kick ass. That's the point of playing the game. So on Max Payne we kick the shit out of the camera to make you feel like you're Max Payne in the movie."

The footage played well in the Hall. But no self-respecting female will go see this hardcore actioner, no matter how well Mark Wahlberg flexes his biceps. "After Invincible, The Happening and The Lovely Bones, I wanted to kick ass," he told the crowd. He compared this role (wishfully) to what he did in The Departed and Fear, saying this part is "driven by emotion." Wahlberg felt his Boston street cred helped in playing this role. "Payne is a happy man until his family is taken away from him and he gives up all hope in humanity," he said. "This is a dark and ugly world he lives in."

Mila Kunis plays one of quite a few tough babes on display at Comic-Con this year. "I learned how to use a gun and kick ass in five-inch heels," she said, playing to the gallery. "I had weapons training with an automatic and a colt and baton. I got to beat Mark up."

Click here for cast photos from this panel

Here's the trailer:

[Mark Wahlberg, Mila Kunis and Ludacris]

According to a San Diego State University study released on July 22, if things are bad for male film critics, they are worse for women.

Here's a sample of the findings in Thumbs Down: The Representation of Women Film Critics in the Top 100 U.S. Daily Newspapers:

*Men write the overwhelming majority of film reviews in the nation's top newspapers. In Fall 2007, men penned 70% and women 30% of all reviews.

*Of the newspapers featuring film reviews, 47% had no reviews written by women critics, writers or freelancers. In contrast, only 12% had no reviews written by men critics, writers or freelancers.

*Films with women filmmakers (directors and writers) and films with female protagonists and ensemble casts comprise a larger proportion of films reviewed by women than men. Thus, the under-representation of women film critics, writers and freelancers may cause films featuring females or with women filmmakers to receive less coverage.

The bottom line is that film criticism in this country's newspapers remains a largely male enterprise, echoing the heavy male dominance behind the scenes and on screen in the film industry.

And the coverage that movies with femme appeal do get from male critics is not the necessarily as positive or understanding as that from female critics. Mamma Mia! and Sex in the City would be recent examples. Why would a guy particularly engage with a romantic comedy like 27 Dresses? Professional film critics will argue that it is their job to know how to review such a movie. Let's put it this way. Some men are better able to adopt the female POV, and tap into their femme side, than others. Many men are not trained to do see things from the perspective of the opposite sex. All women are.

That's one reason why today's movies are so geared toward men, while women starve for material aimed at them. Women are accustomed to going along and accepting slim pickings in pictures by and about men. Even at Comic-Con, there's a sense that female fans are yearning for romance. The screaming response to Twilight's Brit heartthrob Robert Pattinson was enormous. He could be the next Leo di Caprio after Titanic, if Twilight hits as big as I suspect it will.

Men here were scratching their heads over Twilight. No clue.

Here's the LAT's video interview with Pattinson at Comic-Con. I feel sorry for the guy:

[Variety photo of Twilight's Robert Pattinson by Martha Hernandez]

Photo Gallery: 'Twilight' panel

[Posted by Krissie Rettig]

Warning -- spoilers ahead.

Lost fans may have come to see series creators Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, but they stayed for the prizes.

Like the Heroes panel before it, Lost needed time to hit its stride. Meeting the fictional head of recruiting for the Dharma Initiative (Hans Van Eeghan) was interesting; video of Octogon Global Recruiting representatives answering bizarre queries can be entertaining. However, fans want only one thing: Answers to burning questions left over from the previous season.

Adding to the fanboy and -girl glee, there were prizes for those who did the asking. One of the most unexpected prizes was the surprise arrival of star Matthew Fox, but it proved superfluous as all inquries continued to go to Lindelof and Cuse.

“Death is a relative term, really,” Lindelof told a fan who asked if the characters Jin and Locke were actually dead. “The show will still have both of those characters on the show.” (The fan was rewarded with bottle of water from Lost’s Oceanic Airlines).

And, when asked by a cave-dwelling fan whether Lost would end after two more seasons, Cuse gave the man a Lost calendar. “Mark the date,” Damon instructed. Well played.

Another fan was rewarded with a Heroes DVD box set after slapping Lindelof and Cuse on the wrist for season 4’s flash-forward/flashback episode with Jin and Sun, a combo that thoroughly punked many fans.

Here’s a list of other Lost tidbits revealed in the Q&A:

• The reflection in the water of the Oceanic Six (which resembled a cityscape to an inquiring fan) doesn’t mean anything. For once, it’s just a reflection.
• We will get to see Rousseau’s story in season 5.
• Cuse and Lindelof will employ a new storytelling device that is neither a flashback nor a flash-forward. In their classic nebulous style, the two didn’t elaborate.
• The show begins shooting in three weeks.
• Vincent (the dog) did “make it” beyond the season 4 finale and will be in season 5.
• Cuse and Lindelof wouldn’t say whether Jack and Kate will wind up together.
• However, they did confirm that Kate and Sawyer will see each other again.
• Daniel Faraday knows about the “secondary protocol” because his notebook (seen mostly in The Constant) holds information from both the past and present.
• Richard Alpert is “quite old.” Fox guessed that he was about 125.
• We will see Alpert barefoot in season 5 (for those wondering if the giant stone foot at the end of season 3 was his).

For rabid Lost fans, these tiny yet significant revelations are the biggest prize of all.

Click here for photos from this panel

[Posted by Brian Lowry]

If television has been something of a supporting player at Comic-Con, the 2008 edition pushed the medium's genre stars fully to center stage.

"Heroes" and "Lost" filled the 6,500-seat main auditorium - the first time series have invaded a space previously reserved for features. Many people slept out to ensure seats for Saturday's "Heroes" session and were rewarded with an early viewing of the full third-season premiere.

New Fox programs from Joss Whedon and J.J. Abrams, "Dollhouse" and "Fringe," were among the weekend's more eagerly awaited presentations. And HBO's upcoming vampire drama "True Blood" was awash in theatrical-style promotion rivaling any of the major movie launches.

Post-strike anxiety clearly played a role in some of the producers' pleas to fans, asking them to beat the drum for shows sidelined longer than usual due to last season's work stoppage.

"Chuck" producer Josh Schwartz wasn't subtle, urging the audience to help the NBC sophomore hour survive a difficult time slot.

Given the tepid ratings for many scripted programs in the spring post-strike, networks and producers have reason for apprehension about the fall. For that reason, Abrams was philosophical about the "Fringe" pilot leaking online in advance, saying the breach at least reflected an appetite existed for the show.

[Posted by Erin Maxwell]

"Feast your eyes on the greatest writing staff in human history," said Rainn Wilson, introducing the writers of The Office. "Behold their gorgeous, gorgeous writer bodies."

It's been three days of Comic-Con. Let's let the writers speak for themselves: 

On Comic-Con
Greg Daniels: I always wanted to come to Comic-Con, but I wanted to spend time with my kids. I regret that now.

The Office vs. the office
Jennifer Celotta: One time we were just watching the animated cube bounce around the screen. Greg asked us what we were doing and we said, "It's just about to land in the corner."

Improv vs. scripted material
Michael Schur/"Mose": Rainn is a magical genius who creates all his own lines on the spot. Actually, we usually shoot the script a few times, but then we will let the actors and the writers tinker with it by adding lines. What gets in the show is a Frankenstein version of what we wrote.

Greg Daniels: The creators of the British Office, Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, told us to make the actors great. Sometimes this is too successful.

Favorite characters
Mindy Kaling/"Kelly": I like writing for Ryan, especially for this season. He turned into the biggest d-bag of all time.

BJ Novak/"Ryan": I love writing for Michael. It's so cool to see someone in authority that is so innocent and so wrong.

On Pam and Jim
Daniels: We took inspiration from the classics. Sam and Diane. Ross and Rachel.

Novak: Spence and Heidi.

Using life experiences in writing
Rainn Wilson: I killed my girlfriend's cat once.

Anthony Ferrell: I used to work at Countrywide Loans and the printer would always fail.

Daniels: We had the Dundies at my real office, but we called it the Swampies. And we also had the office Olympics there.

Kaling: Michael, isn't there that time you walked into Greg's office as you saw his penis?

On being, as one fan put it, "the resident sex symbol for The Office."
Wilson: I feel great about that. Eat my shorts, John Krazanski!

Gallery: 'The Office' panel

[Posted by Kristina Rettig]

“Completely. Off. The. Hook.”

That’s what executive producer/writer/panel moderator Jeph Loeb promised for the upcoming chapter of Heroes (subtitle: Villains) as he tried to warm up the crowd before introducing the cast. Unfortunately for Loeb, the panel itself began very much on the hook. Broken elevators, traffic and other mishaps plagued the ensemble cast and they were entirely AWOL for the panel’s first 20 minutes.

As a result, poor Loeb was forced to play gameshow host to kill time, including getting the crowd to chant “He-roes! He-roes!” and having sections of Hall H face off in a screaming competition to prove whose fandom was bigger. Yikes. Nervousness seeped through the hall as fans wondered whether they would ever get the incentive to get on the Villains bandwagon, after what many said was a lackluster season 2.

Fans’ fears of an awkward, cast-less panel were relieved at about 10:55 am when the entire cast took the stage, including Tim Kring with a metallic suitcase handcuffed to his wrist. The contents turned out to be a DVD of the first episode of Heroes: Villains, titled The Second Coming. Once it was revealed that the panel would screen the first half of the two-hour season 3 premiere, the audience was pretty much reduced to a puddle of shivery fanboy goo.

Did it deliver? There were some scrumptious superhero goods, setting a high bar for the upcoming season. Without giving away too much, here is what I can tell you without absolutely destroying the experience:

1. Hiro gets some instruction from beyond the grave regarding his sacred duty and destiny.
2. Mohinder makes an important scientific discovery that has deep ethical and personal implications.
3. An unlikely messenger tells Claire something she didn’t know about herself and her abilities.
4. Malcom McDowell is awesome.
5. Peter Petrelli has some… issues.
6. We are given clues as to what superpower Angela Petrelli might have.
7. Maya’s accent mysteriously disappeared.

Fans were also told that missing episodes and much of the online content would appear on the season 2 DVD.

The episode’s success repressed any traumatic memories of the panel’s first 20 minutes. Milo Ventimiglia described the upcoming season as “Melt. Your. Brain.”

Off the hook, indeed.

Photo Gallery: 'Heroes' panel

[ Posted by Erin Maxwell]

The Simpsons came en masse to take on more than 3,000 crazed fans. The panel included Matt Groening (creator and executive producer, at right, looking jolly), Al Jean (executive producer and head writer), Matt Selman (executive producer), Michael Price (co-executive producer), Matt Warburton (co-executive producer), Don Payne (consulting producer), Carolyn Omine (consulting producer), Mike Anderson (supervising director) and David Silverman (movie and TV series director).

However, the panel did not include name tags that would allow me to tell who is who. And, rather than a moderator to host the event, fans were given a mike to exorcise their demons upon the panel. So, I now give you Team Simpsons vs. Ballroom 20:

Q: Will Marge ever gain weight rather than have Homer lose weight? (NOTE: Asked by either an 8-year-old or a short adult with a really high pitch. Sorry. I had terrible seats.)
A: *Stunned look from the panel*

Q: What celebrities will be on the show next season?
A: We have Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Robert Forster and Denis Leary. Denis will be on the show about Bart wanting a cell phone, but his parents won't let him have it. Denis loses a golf tournament and throws his phone. Bart finds it and does funny things like call his agent and sign him up for Everyone Poops: The Movie. Also, Seth Rogen will be on the show.

Q: Matt, will you be doing more with your Life in Hell comic?
A: For those who don't know, I draw a weekly comic called Life in Hell for the L.A. Weekly. It used to be in the San Diego Reader, but they don't like portrayals of gay couples in their publication, like with the characters Akbar and Jeff. So now every year I come to Comic-Con and denounce the San Diego Reader.

Q: What is the strongest season of the show?
A: Next season!

Q: Tell us about the ride (at Universal Studios Hollywood).
A: If you take drugs and watch The Simpsons on TV, you don't have to take drugs anymore. This will be like doing drugs and watching The Simpsons.

Q: What do you make of the rumors that this is the last season of the show?
A: Nothing should last forever, except The Simpsons.

Q: Why do the characters never age?
A: It would be like The Cosby Show. When the cute kids got older, they just brough on more cute kids. We can't do that with the show because it would change it. Sometimes we wonder what it would be like to see Bart as a teenager. Then you realize he would commit a felony, be tried as an adult and go to jail. We don't want to do that show.

Q: What do you think of all The Simpsons merchandising?
A: I saw this great diorama once at Comic-Con a few years ago of the Simpsons surfing. It was beautiful. The guy told me it was imported from Australia. Then he looked at me for a second and said, "Wait, didn't you create the Simpsons?" I said, "Yes. Yes I did." He said, "Sir, it would be an honor to sell this to you."

Q: Where do you get your jokes from?
A: Family Guy.

Q: How much of your life experiences are used in the show?
A: Well, when I was a kid they put a dome over my city and my family escaped to Alaska.

Q: What's it like to work on The Simpsons?
A: It's a labor of love. And a labor of work.

Q: Words of advice?
A: Remember folks, if you hang in there for 30 years, you too will have an animated show on Fox.

The real working stiffs of Comic-Con are the movie site web masters and their staffers, tirelessly filing away at their laptops, before, during and after panel after panel. "We wake up at 7 AM and go to bed at 2 AM," said IESB's Robert Sanchez at Thursday morning's web masters panel, "posting news, trying to link to others' stories. We celebrate our work. The entire online Comic-Con community can be proud we kick ass."

Enthusiastically and profanely moderated by self-styled bad-ass directors Brian Taylor and Mark Neveldine (Crank and Crank 2: High Voltage), the panel provided a chance for them to promo themselves, natch, with clips from their upcoming Gerard Butler actioner Game.

All of the ten web masters consider themselves movie buffs first. "Instead of more traditional media, we start off as film fans, not traditional journalists," says MovieBlog's John Campea. "Every film fan loves finding a jewel, which we share with everyone else. I am not a journalist. I don't know what I am doing."

Some seemed to revel in the demise of old media. "The New York Times' profits are down 97%," proclaimed Sanchez. "That's awesome! Our profits are up 2 %. We're fanboys and geeks and proud of it. We appreciate filmmakers like you who reach out to the online community and make sure we reach out to our viewers and readers. We work hard not to be spoonfed by the studios. We have to get scoops."

To his credit, Devin Faraci of CHUD distanced himself from that POV, saying: "The internet is great at getting information out there but the truth is none of us assholes are out foraging for the latest George Bush scandal, and neither is Drudge or Wonkette. We need dedicated people who are funded to go places and report. The death of print journalism is a big problem for this country. I do care if the L.A. Times doesn't have a film critic or is closing its Berlin branch. We're fucked. It's a spooky time. Sure, the same way the studios are taking PR back into their own hands, instead of going through newspapers, the government will have its own bloggers on the payroll."

Faraci was also willing to admit that the websites don't always do their fact-checking. "We end up writing stories that turn out not to be true," he added, "scripts are changing day to day. And people from the studios are planting misinformation, like Chris Carter of X-Files."

When asked how Latinoreview got its hands on so many early scripts six months before they go into production, Kellvin Chavez quipped: "We clean your offices."

Today, these once unassuming fanboys are courted by studio flacks and granted early access to set visits, star interviews and marketing materials. "Studios are paying attention to sites and fans as part of the online community," said Sanchez, who was thrilled to be invited to DreamWorks Animation and meet Jeffrey Katzenberg. "They appreciate us more than traditional news."

"To be honest it sort of makes me jaded a little," said Brad Miska of Bloody-Disgusting.

Clearly, these web masters enjoy their access but are on their own as far as following any guidelines or maintaining objectivity. "I've been to a whole bunch of sets and met cool people," said Faraci. "It's amazing to step on a soundstage and see how it happens, to appreciate how hard it is."

AICN's Vespe admitted that all the access was problematic for a reviewer. "The danger of getting to know people isn't so much that you are willing to give a good review to a bad movie but that you see a mediocre movie and want to like it more." He said that when given access to the Transformers set, he made sure someone else reviewed the movie. "I write off the emotion of the first time I see a movie," he said, "that's what separates us from journalists. We're there because we want to be there, we're not some stage critic on assignment who doesn't care about movies."

12-year web veteran Garth Franklin of Dark Horizons, who says he built his site through word-of-mouth, visited the set of Driven and still wrote a bad review. "You have to tell people if a film sucks," he said, "even if you don't hear from them again."

Of course I disagree with Campea's definition of what a blogger does: "Real blogs don't break news like news sites," he insisted. "Blogs write opinion in editorials."

And the boycott of the trades does not seem to be widespread. "I'm not part of it," said Erik Davis of Cinematical. "We just do our own thing and link to whoever we get the story from."

"We do a lot of hard work," said Sanchez. "We had a scoop on G.I. Joe. And then the trades go out and post without giving any credit."

Cinematical uses fan reactions to trailers like The Terminator Salvation to gauge their interest in certain films, said Davis: "Each of these sites is posting about Dark Knight 20 times a day and it's not stopping."

[from left, Mike Sampson of Joblo (also pictured blogging in Hall H), Garth Franklin of Dark Horizons, Brad Miska of Bloody-Disgusting, Erik Davis of Cinematical and Eric Vespe (Quint) of aint-it-cool-news.]

Playtone producer Gary Goetzman wishes that Warner Bros. chief Alan Horn hadn't expressed his reservations about Spike Jonze's Where the Wild Things Are to the LAT's Patrick Goldstein:

"We've given him more money and, even more importantly, more time for him to work on the film," Horn said. "We'd like to find a common ground that represents Spike's vision but still offers a film that really delivers for a broad-based audience. We obviously still have a challenge on our hands. But I wouldn't call it a problem, simply a challenge. No one wants to turn this into a bland, sanitized studio movie. This is a very special piece of material and we're just trying to get it right."

On the City of Ember train, Goetzman responded: "Warner Bros.' vision and Spike and my vision of the picture may be a little different. In the end good taste will prevail. The final cut is Spike's. Warner Bros. is not taking over the picture and has no intention of bringing down the hammer on anyone here."

The kid starring in the pic as Max (Max Records) isn't going anywhere. He was picked by Spike and approved by Warners, said Goetzman.

Goetzman admitted to me and AICN's Mr. Beaks that the live-action animatronic wild things definitely did not work in the context of shooting in the jungles of Australia and that CGI is being added now. "CG can always look right," he says. As for the rumor that kids ran screaming from an early research screening, Goetzman says that's not true: "There was no screaming, no crying, none of that."

Clearly, Jonze, who is still working on the troubled movie, needs more tinkering time. The original October release date is long past. But it does seem to make Goetzman a tad nervous that there is no new release date set. Clearly, limbo is not a comfortable place to be.

Earlier post: Where the Wild Things Aren't.

[Posted by: Kristina Rettig]

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD.

Kiefer Sutherland drew the lion’s share of enthusiasm from the 24 crowd Friday evening, but the panel's special guest star was Carlos Bernard, an actor known to die-hard fans as Jack Bauer’s right-hand man, Tony Almeida – the one who died in season 5 at terrorists' hands in the CTU medical ward.

So what’s he doing here to promote Season 7?

Said Sutherland, “When [the writers] said that Tony was coming back again, I said, ‘How?’”

Fans’ fears of a hokey explanation were (somewhat) assuaged by the promise that the writers have concocted a compelling story arc that includes a very good explanation of why Tony’s still alive. “The writers insisted that Tony wasn’t dead,” said executive producer Howard Gordon. We didn’t love the way he died.”

Luckily, plausibility has never been a deal-breaker for most 24 fans, although they did grill the cast and crew over some of show’s biggest mysteries. Such as: “When does Jack ever go to the bathroom?” ("Whenever they cut to the White House, you can assume that Jack is getting a drink, taking a whiz and getting something to eat.) Or: “How does Jack make it from downtown to Van Nuys in 10 minutes?” ("Our 24-hour day is a really light traffic day.")

The panel also focused on the Africa-set 24 prequel, Exile, which will premiere about two months before the regular season resumes in January. The clip sent sporadic shockwaves through the room as fans got their first glimpses of Bauer kicking butt in Africa (and saving children, of course).

Regarding the show’s controversial use of torture, “Jack is going to have to face and deal with the things he has done,” said co-executive producer David Fury.

The panel’s best moment may have come when a young man, Cameron, asked Sutherland about his pervasive use of the phrase “Damn it!” and asked Keifer to give him a “Damn it, Cameron!” Sutherland turned around and, in classic Bauer bravura, yelled “DAMN IT, CAMERON!” The crowd erupted in cheers. It’s gonna be good to have Jack Bauer back.

The trick with Terminator Salvation is that the setting has moved from contemporary L.A. into the post-apocalyptic future, when the adult John Connor (Christian Bale) is battling to save humans from extinction. So Charlie's Angels director McG, who many film buffs have questioned as the appropriate choice for this project, has been able to reinvent the look of the series, make it "darker and grittier," says production designer Martin Laing, who also designed City of Ember. He says James Cameron spent three hours with McG, and was "very supportive," as was one-time Terminator Arnold Schwarzenegger, now California's governor.

And the rating? "McG will make the best movie," he says. "He's not constrained. It will be PG-13 or R; we're trying for PG-13."

BTW, re: Terminator and Dark Knight star Christian Bale: He will not be at The Con. He's still travelling for Dark Knight, in Japan. And he probably doesn't want to answer questions anyway. Someone from Warners who was in his Hotel Dorchester Room when he had his altercation with his mother said it was not a big deal. He has not gotten along with his family for some time. And he has not been charged with anything by the London police.

UPDATE: Look for my report on the panel and talk with McG.

Joss Whedon isn't the only writer taking things into his own hands on the Internet these days. On the City of Ember train, screenwriter Caroline Thompson (Edward Scissorhands) told me about her new short film distribution website small & creepy films, which she launched two months ago with her partner, producer Steve Nicolaides.

The duo invested some of their own money in it, though it wasn't "arduous," Thompson said. "Having worked in this industry so long, and given so much away psychologically, I wasn't willing to give anything more away. I'd look all day on the Internet where there are so many interesting things to see. We lack gatekeepers for outsider art."

Their first production (in partnership with Chiller TV) is the 28 episode web series The Hills Are Alive, produced and co-written by Nicolaides and Thompson, which they shot on their ranch in Ojai over many years.

Their goal is to collect and show "weird, genuinely out-there stuff," said Thompson, whose friends at film fests are sending them material. Small and Creepy is also sponsoring a young animator, Evan York, who records people's dreams and animates them with a Sharpie. For now the site shows shorts. "People don't have the patience or bandwidth to do otherwise," Thompson said.

Her goal, not yet met: "I will make a cell phone feature," she said.

While many of the questioners in Hall H were fans, one perky babe started to build a fanbase of her own after approaching the mike several times. They're even following her on youtube. She's Leah d'Emilio from Mahalodaily.com and the reason she's doing the public access: PR. Traffic. The usual.

Our intrepid reporter takes on the cult of George Lucas.

[Posted by Erin Maxwell]

Spoiler: George Lucas is a great guy!

These and other startling facts were clearly established at the panel for the upcoming animated feature Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

Looking to score a few spoilers and watch a few cool clips, I snagged a place in Hall H. Usually, Hall H has a scary line that promises to eat away at my early 30s; alas, this one was a breeze.

Clone Wars supervising director Dave Filoni, producer Catherine Winder, co-writer and story editor Henry Gilroy and editor Jason Tucker were on hand at the sparsely attended event to chat about all things George. Meanwhile, the folks from LucasFilms got a chance to talk in depth about George, the new movie, George's genius, the new TV show, George's good looks, the trials and tribulations of bringing the toon to the big screen, George as an inspiration and George the legend.

Said Gilroy: "We needed to make something that would stand up to what came before. The bar was set really high. I worked on the comic adaptation of the movie and a few of the 'Star Wars' tales. If you are in that world all of the time, it starts to feel like home."

Said Tucker: "When I first met George, he said he had a lot of respect for the editing process. There is a part of him that is really open to new ideas. He gets very excited. At the end of the day, I learned more about clarity."

Said Filoni: "He was passing on what he knows."

Spoiler: George Lucas is a teacher to many.

Said Winder: "No one was clear how involved George would be. As the project developed, he was so excited by what we were creating and the unique look we were hoping to achieve."

Spoiler: George Lucas is a friend to all.

Said Winder: "When we got the material back, we reviewed it with George on the big screen. George got excited by what he saw. He asked me and Dave to turn it into a big-screen feature for the fans."

Spoiler: George Lucas loves fans. And is very excitable.

Winder added: "There is a lot to juggle with this project. I had to get into George's head. He wanted us to produce something that would blow people away. The first thing I had to do was find the creative team. I spent a lot of time search for the right people."

Said Filoni: "The Star Wars films inspired me creatively. You can tell a lot about a person by which Star Wars film they like… There have been arguements on whether or not a light saber can cut Superman."

Spoiler: The people who work for George Lucas love him like a father and think about him constantly.

Then the panel began to argue whether or not George Lucas had healing powers and if it was possible for him to see through brick walls. This was followed by a prayer thanking the heavens for sending us George Lucas and a hope that more episodes would soon be created as a method to help spread world peace. We then all held hands and sang the Ewok joy song from Return of the Jedi.

Okay. This is a lie. They showed a few more film clips and I had to leave because it was friggin' cold in there.

Number of times George was mentioned during the panel, on average: Once per minute.

This would have made a hell of a drinking game.

Comic-COn Photo Gallery: Star Wars - Clone Wars Panel

[Posted by Kristina Rettig]

Joss Whedon is a Comic-Con god, one who inspired fans to wait hours for a seat in the non-Whedonesque Stargate Atlantis panel — the better bum-rush the front as it ended. By the time the next long line outside Ballroom 20 was admitted, holdovers had taken up three-quarters of the room’s 4,400-person occupancy.

The fact that the panel began 10 minutes late didn’t seem to phase the fanboys and girls, some who wore T-shirts proclaiming, “Joss Whedon is my master now.”

While the panel was intended to feature Whedon’s latest project, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, fans preferred to focus on all matters Joss. Not that it mattered. Whedon and his Dr. Horrible stars Neil Patrick Harris and Nathan Fillion spent most of the time dodging questions in favor of keeping the party going, an approach that only seemed to further engage the crowd.

“You do kill a lot of chicks,” said Harris in response to a question regarding Whedon’s tendency to put a good storyline above his characters’ general happiness.

“I love happy endings. Some of you can remind me of some of them later,” Whedon replied.

As for his own unhappy endings, Whedon said, “I’m wiser than when I did Firefly. Anything that doesn’t get out, I can make on the internet now. ‘Dr. Horrible’ is about putting power into [fans’] hands.” This got an explosive response from Whedon fans who disagreed with the networks' opinions on shows such as Firefly and Angel.

By the time Whedon left Ballroom 20 to a standing ovation, the audience had learned the following:

1. “Cabin in the Woods” is in the works.
2. For now, the “Fray” series is not happening.
3. Xander will return in the Buffy comic.
4. The “Dr. Horrible” universe is expanding to include a part 4 (says writer Jed Whedon), a soundtrack (available in the next couple of weeks), a DVD (with a contest for 3-minute videos) and if you want a “Dr. Horrible” van remote, go here.

"We think we are making a character show with a mythology," said "Lost" creator Carlton Cuse. "The characters are the cake and the mythology is the frosting."

[Posted by Erin Maxwell]

"I just wanted to cram a show with as many things as I could that would make me smile, like doggies and pie," said Pushing Daisies creator Bryan Fuller.

Entertainment Weekly’s showrunners panel focused on programs that push the limits of TV viewing, with themes that don’t include a boy-girl romance or a gruff detective with keen insight into the human mind. Instead, we have a pie-loving character with the ability to resurrect the dead, a fembot sent to protect a future leader and a government agent whose prior experience is handling IT at an electronics retailer.

"The best thing to ever be uttered by a network would be, 'We have too many shows about time travel,' Fuller said. “That would be an achievement for everyone in this room."

Showrunners had to deal with writer's strike fallout over the past year, something that was especially difficult for first-year series working to build a fanbase.

“There was a period of time where the network was trying to figure out when to bring us back after the strike, but they didn't want to throw us under the American Idol bus,” said Fuller. “Pushing Daisies is picking up 10 months after the last episode. All of the characters kept the secrets they learned last season and now are ready to bust.”

Josh Schwartz of Chuck says his solution is to pretend they’re starting from scratch. “We are writing the first episode of the new season like a pilot," he said. “We come back with Chuck dangling off a roof and telling us what has happened.”

One of the strike’s key issues was the production of Web content. "It's a reality of the business that people just want more," said Josh Friedman, creator of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.

Lost creator Carlton Cuse described online content as an opportunity to expand the fiction. "Our reality games are fun because we get to tell a story we can't tell on the show,” he said. “It's for people committed to the mythology.”

Fuller said, "We were going to do a series of animated shorts on Pigby. But due to the strike, we got a lot of resistance."

Showrunners also said they initially faced the stigma of "genre shows,” since programming with heady sci-fi or fantasy themes had a history of being ignored or rejected by networks and/or audiences.

"We call the mythology the 'rabbit hole.' We can spend six hours talking about time travel and will end up not writing at all," said Friedman. "We went down the rabbit hole in a few episodes and it took us a while to get out."

“There is a fine line between mythology and mechanics. George Lucas drew it when he came up with midi-chlorians,” joked Fuller. "No matter what the genre elements, you will have to want to spend time with those characters for a while."

Comic-Con Photo Gallery: Lost Panel

Comic-Con Photo Gallery: Pushing Dasies Panel

Meanwhile, outside Comic-Con, a Wall Street Journal editorial claims that The Dark Knight is actually a clever way of praising the presidency of George W. Bush. One Variety editor says the writer may not know how right he is.

[Posted by David S. Cohen]

Is George W. Bush the Dark Knight?

That’s what mystery writer Andrew Klavan argues in a Wall Street Journal op-ed. He opines that The Dark Knight filmmakers are secret conservatives who must mask their real opinions by putting them in a comicbook movie.

But let’s unpack this a bit. One of the surreal aspects of the post-9/11 world is how much Osama bin Laden resembles a comicbook villain, complete with exotic costume and a fondness for monologues. In a Batman comic, he might have been The Sheik — and in the self-righteous pose he strikes as he plots the destruction of the United States, he is a cousin to R’as al Ghul, the villain Liam Neeson portrays in Batman Begins.

Al Ghul isn’t just a villain, though. He’s also Bruce Wayne’s mentor, the man who teaches him the courage and skills he uses to become the Batman. In fact, al Ghul calls him “my greatest student” and serves as a dark father figure for Bruce Wayne, who seems to be working out all kinds of father-son issues throughout the film.

In Batman Begins, Gotham is plagued with crime and corruption; Batman attacks the mob and saves the city from the Scarecrow and al Ghul’s WMD attack. Yet once Batman shows up, the Joker’s nihilistic terrorism is unleashed. The film ends with Lt. Jim Gordon warning Batman about escalation — that he’s inspiring not only the good people of Gotham, but also the criminals. This suggests Batman called the Joker into existence.

If Batman is George W., should we then conclude that the Batman Begins filmmakers think Bush’s methods inspired the Al-Qaeda and bin Laden? That’s more in line with anti-Bush arguments, including many made by Democrats over the years.

I don’t know anything about the politics of Christopher Nolan, Jonathan Nolan or David Goyer. But I think Klavan misses the point when he writes:

“The moment filmmakers take on the problem of Islamic terrorism in realistic films… The good guys become indistinguishable from the bad guys, and we end up denigrating the very heroes who defend us. Why should this be?

“The answers to these questions seem to me to be embedded in the story of The Dark Knight itself: Doing what's right is hard, and speaking the truth is dangerous. Many have been abhorred for it, some killed, one crucified.”

This brings to mind one of the most unsettling scenes in The Dark Knight, in which Batman beats up the Joker in the police interview room as the police look on, hoping to force him to reveal what he’s done with good guys Harvey Dent and Rachel Dawes.

My first reaction to the scene, which has been endlessly reproduced in publicity photos, was that it was a huge visual blunder. Batman looks cool and sinister at night, in the shadows; in the harsh light of the interview room, he looks ridiculous.

But then I thought more about the scene. As Batman confronts the Joker, the film cuts away to the police, the normal people, watching them from the other side of the one-way mirror — just as we, the audience, are watching Batman and the Joker through the movie screen.

This is also the scene in which the Joker taunts Batman: “What would I do without you? You complete me,” and warns, “To them, you’re just a freak. Like me.” Those words may come from the mouth of the villain, but the filmmaking suggests the Joker has, like a Shakespearean fool on PCP, hit on a harsh truth: Batman has more in common with his killer-clown foe than with the normal people he means to protect.

So should we conclude The Dark Knight argues that Bush and bin Laden are two sides of the same coin? If so, the Nolans actually come down somewhere to the left of Michael Moore.

In fairness to Goyer and the Nolans, I also think that The Dark Knight is the Act II of a three-act play. It’s a helluva second act, but I sure hope that in Act III they’re going to take a clearer point of view, rather than just asking provocative questions.

It will be interesting to see how much interest there is today in the remake of Robert Wise's 1951 sci-fi classic The Day The Earth Stood Still. One trend at Comic-Con is star managers pushing clients who are fans of a remakeable brand-name project. Erwin Stoff pitched Keanu Reeves for this one 15 years ago, and Rick Yorn pitched Benicio del Toro for Wolfman after seeing the poster in his house.

Stars always need tentpole movies. And Reeves seems to be a good fit for the alien Klaatu; he has an ethereal stillness to him that works in the footage we saw in Hall H Thursday. "'That guy can play the alien,'" Reeves joked to Stoff, who liked the idea of a movie that looks at the denizens of earth from an alien POV, Stoff said.

Director Scott Derrickson was also a fan of the original and actually met Wise when he was still a film student. Wise told him to do a horror film to show his stuff. And so he did, with The Exorcism of Emily Rose. "The original film was such a product of its time," said Derrickson. "The idea of updating it made sense. We're not dealing with a nuclear threat. The U.N. exists. The issues are different. The idea of an alien coming to earth who looks at human nature from an outsider perspective is an interesting take. In some ways it's about what it mean to be human."

"There was an objectifying and containment to him," said Reeves, who says this interpretation of the character is less "warm and fuzzy and human. I'm not that guy. He goes on a journey of seeing and looking and being affected by humans."

The relationship of Jennifer Connelly and her stepson (Happyness star Jaden Smith) shows Klaatu what humans are all about.

Derrickson completely reimagined the look of the alien technology as more organic and "ecological," he said. Wellywood's Weta Digital is beavering away on the elaborate VFX.

Comic-Con Photo Gallery: FOX (Includes The Day The Earth Stood Still)