Source: YouTube

So apparently the sleeper at Comic-Con was Matthew Vaughn’s adaptation of Mark Millar’s comic KICK ASS, which had just begun it’s run when the film was optioned. Through some weird collaboration, the two parties were able to create an ultra-violent world where all those comic book fantasies have very real-life consequences. While not a fan of the slow paced comic, the film is an incredible surprise. This is not Stardust; it might not even be Layer Cake. The clips below are remarkably intense, and the film’s dark humor and unwillingness to play by the rules is a breath of fresh air. And dare I say, this is the best role Nicolas Cage has played in years — YEARS! He’s having so much fun, how can you seriously expect the audience not to? Check out the clips. Great stuff.

AWESOME YES?! Chloe Moretz is about to become everyone’s favorite badass, so it’s a shame this isn’t coming out this Winter or Spring; a December 2010 release date seems kind of odd for a film like this. Kick Ass is directed by Matthew Vaughn from a script by Vaughn and Jane Goldman (Stardust). It stars Aaron Johnson as Kick Ass, Nicolas Cage as Big Daddy, Chloe Moretz as Hit Girl, Mark Strong as Frank D’Amico, and Christopher Mintz-Plasse as Red Mist.

Source: EyeSuckInk

Everyone scrambled to get up this cool logo from Zack Snyder’s Sucker Punch, which was printed on t-shirts given away at SDCC. I tried to wait, because I know how anal the concept artist, Alex Pardee, is about his finished product — I mean, the guy sleeps four hours a day. Well he didn’t let me down. Today, he unveiled an official version of the image seen on the tee. Check it out below.

Pardee has been working on an animated feature for two years now called Chadam, which is in development at Warner Brothers where Snyder released Watchmen so I’m sure that’s how their partnership started. Described as Alice In Wonderland with machine guns, the story follows a young girl institutionalized by her wicked stepfather. Retreating to an alternative reality as a coping strategy, she envisions a plan which will help her escape from the facility. Sucker Punch stars Jena Malone, Vanessa Hudgens, Emily Browning, Abbie Cornish, and Jamie Chung.

Snyder is currently working on the animated feature, Guardians Of Ga’Hoole to be released in 2010.

Source: Official Site

We’re clearly rolling into the start of a large marketing push. Here’s a glimpse at Zoe Saldana’s character in the upcoming James Cameron epic, Avatar. This will most likely be another poster to follow the one of Sam Worthington’s avatar. Hopefully, this is the start of a series as I’d love to see Sigourney Weaver’s avatar next, or perhaps a poster for each creature on Pandora or the locations themselves. GODDAMNIT I NEED TO SEE THIS NOW!

Source: Comic Book Movie

Here’s a few pretty crap quality pictures from the Iron Man 2 footage that was recently shown at SDCC. None of Black Widow or Justin Hammer. Mostly just Whiplash, Tony Stark and the back of Nick Fury’s head, and a hazy shot of War Machine.

Response to the footage has been extremely positive maintaining that the humor and characters have been kept intact. Jon Favreau’s becoming a really great director so I’m really excited to see him up the ante this time with more action.

Source: Warrenellis.com

Probably the busiest comic book writer ever, Warren Ellis was at Comic-Con this past weekend. His tweets in between his signings (“Stop watching me tweet!”, “Slashfilm are telling people I’m mean.”) were hilarious. Apparently in all the mega-movie chaos this past weekend (and because most of his stuff was for the Marvel Anime deal), Ellis didn’t bother to mention that he’s working on an “untitled Arthurian movie.”

That Arthurian movie just happens to be a new Excalibur project. Is it a remake of the original film or something entirely new? Details are skim at the moment as Ellis is only in the treatment phase right now. The film is being produced by Gianni Nunnari who previously optioned Ellis’ graphic novel Ocean, alongside Oliver Kramer and Craig Flores of Hollywood Gang Productions. I’d actually like to see the story of a young Arthur becoming King and building Camelot.

I’m not gonna say anything about the following viral videos. If you saw the fifth season’s finale, The Incident, these clips will guide you into some pretty interesting territory. If you haven’t seen it, don’t watch them. They will only confuse you more.

LOST is absolutely my favorite show of all time. It’s critical adherence to excellence, their willingness to accept blame whenever they cut corners, and their dedication to their fanbase is above and beyond any show like it (except perhaps Buffy The Vampire Slayer). I mean, I have a Dharma tattoo for godsakes. So imagine how crestfallen and heartbroken I was not being able to attend their last year at the Con. Seriously, I’m one of those sleeping on the street all night people. So enough about me and my gushing over-praise of LOST, and onto the full panel in its entirety. Ahead of time, most of the pre-taped footage and skits are edited out of the piece, but I’ve managed to track down quite a few of them.

Present at the panel were executive producers Carlton Cuse & Damon Lindelof, castmembers Jorge Garcia, Michael Emerson, Josh Holloway, and Nestor Carbonell. It’s pretty entertaining, as always, and doesn’t touch on much of what we can expect in it’s final season. However, they did show some VERY interesting viral clips that hint at what may have happened after Juliet, pissed at losing the hottest guy on the island, hit a nuke with a very big rock several times. By the way, Juliet is confirmed to be seen in the final season as will twitchy-physicist, Daniel Farady. As are “several castmembers we haven’t seen since the first season.” Um. AWESOME!

Source: Apple

Probably the only movie I’m anticipating even more than James Cameron’s Avatar is Spike Jonze’s adaptation of the Maurice Sendak classic Where The Wild Things Are. Apple has posted a short piece in which Maurice Sendak talks about his great work, and his collaboration with Jonze. It’s a sweet, interesting little look at the dynamic between the two and there’s a few new shots tucked away in the short “interview.” With Avatar, Tron: Legacy, District 9, Alice In Wonderland, and Iron Man 2 taking up much of the post-Con conversation one film this film got a bit lost in the shuffle. However, reviews for the ten minutes of footage shown at Comic-Con have been extremely positive.

I didn’t actually read the book until last year, so I’m still a little fuzzy on why it was so popular and why it was so praised. I get it, but I don’t understand it? Anyway, whatever. What’s hard to love about a story where a little boy runs away to an island made of monsters where he is king? That story in Spike Jonze’s hands (who is probably closer to Peter Pan in spirit than Michael Jackson was ever able to force) is exactly why I’m excited. Working from a script by Jonze and novelist Dave Eggers, the story of young Max and his adventure in the land of the Wild Things is fleshed out into one of extraordinary wonder.

Source: First Showing

I’m excited. At the very least the rest of this year, and next year especially will erase the horrid memory that was Summer Blockbusters 09. Sigourney Weaver stated at Comic-Con that the reason James Cameron was such a great director was because no one cares more than he does. From what I gather that appears to be true as his passion for this film is oozing and seething through every laborious conversation about the story, the technology, the moon Pandora (it’s not a planet, though it resembles one), the years and years it took to get to this moment.

Well, just to prove how commited Cameron is to making sure your asses are rightly sitting in IMAX seats he has partnered with the theater to bring the public 15 MINUTES of footage in 3D absolutely free. If you can’t make it or can’t find an IMAX in your area, don’t worry because on the same day the trailer for Avatar will drop in all formats so you can just download it in HD.

AVATAR opens in theaters everywhere December 18, 2009. Note: Above artwork altered by me.

Wow. It’s like Disney heard me. There aren’t even words to describe how brilliant this teaser for Tron: Legacy looks (which means that Avatar will probably destroy my retinas and leave me shaking in awe & wonder). This footage was discovered at the Flynn Lives site after entering a series of codes, and premiered at last year’s San Diego Comic-Con. While not actual footage from the film, this exciting test reel was used to sell the film. Check it out below, or download at the above link in HD and be blown away by so much awesome.

Finally, Facebook is good for something. After the pretty crap quality trailer that leaked Thursday, we now have a high definition look at Alice In Wonderland, Tim Burton’s latest remake of demented children’s tales. I personally think this looks perfect for Burton, but Depp seems to be channeling a lot of the silly characters he’s been playing lately (Jack Sparrow, Willy Wonka) and I’d personally like to see something a lot darker for this.

The film will be released March 5th 2010, and will use a technique combining live action, motion capture technology, and stop motion. Mia Wasikowska will play the role of Alice, alongside Johnny Depp as The Mad Hatter, Helena Bonham Carter as The Red Queen, and Anne Hathaway as The White Queen. The script was written by Linda Wolverton (Beauty And The Beast, The Lion King)

Source: IGN

IGN and Myspace have respectively debuted a poster and our first image of Jackie Earle Haley as burned child murderer, Freddy Krueger. Personally, I think Haley looks great but that was never the issue. My issue is with Platinum Dunes and their lack of any kind of intelligent plot. Their movies are MTV videos with gore, nothing more. Tits and blood at the basest level.  But anyway, check it out. It’s still pretty cool stuff.

A Nightmare On Elm Street, based on the Wes Craven original, is being directed by music video director Samuel Bayer from a script by Wesley Strick (Cape Fear). Rooney Mara (Dare, Youth In Revolt) will take on the role of Nancy Thompson, previously inhabited by Heather Langenkamp. The cast also includes Thomas Dekker (Heroes, Terminator: SCC), Kellan Lutz (Accepted, Twilight), Katie Cassidy (Supernatural, Harper’s Island), Connie Britton (24, Friday Night Lights) and Clancy Brown (Carnivale, LOST) .

Behold the title treatment for the upcoming Tron: Legacy. At today’s Disney panel at the San Diego Comic-Con, Jeff Bridges spoke briefly stating that it was the story of a son’s search for his father. “The first TRON… when we made that in ’81 there was no internet. Cell phones were these big things you carried around in a suitcase! So what you saw was so new and fresh… I can guarantee you’ll get the same kind of pop with this one!”

A bunch of images of concept art from yesterday’s panel have gone up, as well as video of an a recreation of Flynn’s Arcade, (with working Space Paranoids arcade games) and an exciting reveal of the new Lightcycle, aswell as  hint of the new score Daft Punk is producing for the film. Alas, Disney are still proving to be douchebags and refusing to release that test footage they showed last year in higher quality. It’s all over Youtube, though. If you haven’t yet, I suggest you seek it out.

Here’s hoping Disney will stop being selfish dicks and release some of this awesome concept art in higher resolution. (I mean, seriously. Why make concept art and not show anyone?) Former commercial director Joseph Kosinski is directing the feature which brings back Jeff Bridges as genius game designer Kevin Flynn, Garrett Hedlund as his son Sean, and a cast that includes Bruce Boxleitner, Olivia Wilde, Beau Garrett, Karl Urban and John Hurt. The film also includes a younger version of the Jeff Bridges character (via CGI) as his Computer World alter ego, CLU, who has now gone rogue and is remaking the computer world in the imagine of what he believes to be “right.”

The search for the director of Robert Rodriguez’s reboot of the Predator franchise is finally over. After a couple of weeks, director Nimrod Antal (Kontroll, Armored) has come out the victor. In an exclusive conversation between Rodriguez and Ain’t It Cool honcho, Harry Knowles, Rodriguez talked at great length about the project. And I think you’ll be pretty pleased.

ON ANTAL
First of all, on a personal level I found him to be an outstanding presence, a great communicator full of ideas, and upon meeting him you can immediately understand how he is able to wrangle cast and crew and get the best out of everyone. I always loved Kontroll, where he proved himself to be a very resourceful and original filmmaker. When I saw Armored, I could tell he’s also great with action and has a keen eye for casting. He reminded me of Quentin with how he was able to work with a group of very strong, singular actor talents and make it look effortless. I know he’ll be able to get the most out of what we want to be an outstanding cast.

ON STORY
I can’t go too much into the story right now, because we’re still writing. But it still involves a very intense group of people stranded on a Predator planet discovering unspeakable horrors (that are not always from outside their group). So like the original movie, the title does have a double meaning. Aliens was a different take on the Alien idea, and an original movie in it’s own right, and that’s what we want to do with this. As to how this movie will be viewed, one of the guys at Fox told me “No one is ever going to talk about AVP again after this film, I will stake my life on it.” And he’s a really nice guy, so I don’t want to see him dead. Now that lives are at stake, it’s no longer a job it’s a mission. Failure is not an option. We really want to go with a character driven action movie, because that’s what we all remember about the original Predator, and we want to take it even further with this.

ON LOCATION
Any stagework will be done here, and to take advantage of the new Texas incentive program, we’ll need to shoot at least 60% of the movie in Texas. So sorry, Harry, you’re gonna be tripping over predators this fall.

I am FREAKING OUT about this movie right now! Goddamn immersive scriptment. James Cameron should write novels; but anyway Avatar is coming to Comic-Con, if you didn’t already know, and in anticipation of it’s arrival in Hall-H in just a few short weeks a banner has gone up promoting James Cameron’s arrival at the convention. As far as I know, this is the first official shot of a Na’vi and while it isn’t much notice the insane amount of detail in the  subtle features. that bring her skin to life.

Note: I commented on the following picture at a website, and was subsequently lambasted by posters for being “over-enthused” over effects that are simply as “good” as WETA’s previous creation, Gollum, to which I say FUCK THAT.

“Let’s take a second and absorb what we’re seeing here. That’s a Na’vi creature. That’s a WETA creation. That is not a woman in makeup and prosthetics, and it is fleeting to say that it’s as good as a  six year old film. WETA has grown since then, and since King Kong. And while all of you are bitching about whether or not this is the final poster or what font they’re using, none of you are taking the time to appreciate what you’re seeing. That’s a completely digital creation.  Look at the creases in the skin, the dimples and wrinkles across the lip, the folds and contours of the eyelid, that wet gloss over her eyes that are distinctly human. It’s so easy to say it’s only okay, because it’s such a subtle effect. Such an incredible achievement, Rob Zemeckis will shit his pants come December. This isn’t just “good”, this is remarkable.”

So yes, I shit my geek pants. But I’m pretty sure you will too.