Last year’s 2007 Comic-Con featured a massive Paramount Pictures panel, which did everything from give us a live broadcast from the set of Indiana Jones (where we found out Marion Ravenwood was in the picture), to introduce both Leonard Nimoy and Zachary Quinto as Spock in the new Trek film. However, Paramount’s only presence this year was a Tropic Thunder screening outside the Con, and some freebie Trek posters on the show floor. Where was the most cinematic representation of the Comic-Con audience to be found?

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Walden Media and Fox had two special retro Pullman cars set up chock full of gear and footage from the upcoming film City Of Ember, and packed some lucky press sardines inside to get a peek on the way down to Comic-Con. While the Amtrak train I took wasn’t quite as cool, I was able to catch up with director Gil Kenan and talk to him about the movie, his passion for sci-fi “without laser beams”, and what he’s added to the source material to aesthetically flesh out the novel’s “steampunk” world.

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When the trailer for Watchmen hit the web a few weeks ago, I was as pumped as anyone. I’ve always been a fan of comics, but when I finished reading Alan Moore’s opus for the first time, I closed the back cover, starred into space, and solemnly said, “This changes everything.” Seriously, it’s that good. And the trailer looks good, it appears to be a faithful adaptation of the source material.

The key word here is appears. The visuals are stunning, some sites even took the time to do shot by shot comparisons with the book. But I’m not worried at all about that, I’m more concerned with how the film will be edited. Like most comics/graphic novels, Watchmen is practically a story board waiting to be transformed into a film. But what made the book so revolutionary was not the art, it was the story, and the way the story was told. Watchmen is a dense web of complicated interconnected stories. Multiple generations of characters deal with epic personal, philosophical, and political struggles, all woven into one masterwork.

Watchmen, the book, excels at the graphic novel version of cross-cutting. Several pages contain nine panels that are set up like a checkerboard, alternating between two separate stories that intimately inform one another, albeit across expanses of space and time. On the one hand, this seems like source material for a final-scene-of-The Godfather level of powerhouse editing. But on the other hand, it could just be a huge mess.

After the jump, Snyder says why he feels up to the challenge…

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Watchmen artist Dave Gibbons seems to have no trouble riding the wave of popularity his work has received thanks to Watch-Mania here at Comic-Con. In a press conference immediately following the panel discussion where clips of the film were shown, Gibbons and the cast seemed awestruck after seeing many of the images for the first time. One figure is notably absent from the frenzy surrounding the forthcoming film, the graphic novel’s author Alan Moore.

When asked about the apparent schism between Moore and Hollywood, Gibbons said, “It is very simple. Alan doesn’t take the moral high ground on this at all. There’s been some implication that [Alan has said], ‘Hollywood is impure, you really shouldn’t go there, Dave.’ No, it’s nothing to do with that at all. The fact is that Alan has had some very bad experiences with Hollywood, and he doesn’t care to repeat them. Now Alan is not a man who does things in halves. You or I might go, ‘Oh, well, if they want to make a film, that’s alright.’ Alan said, ‘No, I don’t want my name on it, and I don’t want any income from it. I don’t want anything to do with it at all.’ So, consequently he asked me to ask the movie company to send him a piece of paper that he could sign that would make both of those things happen. Which I was happy to do. …That’s what he wanted. He was extremely happy, he said, ‘Now I’ve had the piece of paper signed, I don’t care, I’m indifferent.’ I do speak to him from time to time, and occasionally I’d start to talk about Watchmen, and he’d say, ‘Well, I’m pleased you’re enthusiastic Dave, but I can’t really share it.’”

If Watchmen turns out to be as good as it seems to be (or as good as its source material), it would be a shame for Moore to not be a part of its success. Gibbons went on to say, “My personal feeling, and this is my first real involvement with Hollywood, [is that] it’s bad timing, because I think this is the one where they are going to do Alan justice, where they are going to give his work the respect and the reverence it deserves. And so I think that’s unfortunate. He may well have a change of heart about it. He’s a man of principle, and I admire him for that.”

Previous Alan Moore graphic novels that have been adapted to the screen include From Hell, and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

photo: Kiefer Sutherland and Amy Smart

The press breakfast for Alexandre Aja’s new horror film Mirrors seemed a bit like an elaborate practical joke. Feed the press a tasty meal, give them access to Aja and stars Kiefer Sutherland and Amy Smart, then attempt to make them lose said meal by showing clips of Amy Smart ripping her own face off.

They showed five clips in all. The first was the opening scene of the film: a night watchmen in a ridiculously creepy department store is frantically trying to escape. From what, we do not know. Eventually several mirrors turn toward him, he begins to cry, and his sinister reflection then cuts its own throat, thereby cutting the real mans throat as well. The terrifying power of mirrors are revealed. Sutherland later explained that his character, a disgraced alcoholic former police officer, gets the night watchmen job after this initial death.

The other clips varied between character development scenes and spooks. Sutherland said his interest in the script came from the fact that it’s a character driven drama, as well as a supernatural slasher. He said, “Without any of the horror elements, it’s still a strong family drama.” It’s hard to say whether this will turn out to be a genuine quality of the film, or if it’s just lip service to avoid simply saying, “The movie is about mirrors killing people, enjoy your free breakfast, goodbye.”

After the jump, what keeps Aja going (hint: it’s gross)…

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Joss Whedon just confirmed here on his Comic-Con panel that he plans to do at least another episode of Dr. Horrible. His relevant quotes after the jump; more details once the panel wraps.

Updates: Below the jump, details on the Dr. Horrible DVD…

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FOX Studio really does it up at Comic-Con 2008 with Keanu, Jennifer Connelly (The Day the Earth Stood Still) Mark Wahlberg, Ludacris (Max Payne) and a surprise appearance by Hugh Jackman with footage “from his bag” of Wolverine.

Highlights:

- Surprise preview reel of Wolverine joins previews of The Day the Earth Stood Still and Max Payne.

- TDESS should really piss of conservatives with it’s heavy human vs. environment condemnation.

- Mark Wahlberg speaks Russian? (Of course, girls love it)

- Max Payne looks like “The Departed with 1,000 times more violence.”

- Wolverine will cut Liev Schreiber’s “goddam head off.”

Read the full liveblogging transcript below.
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Comic-Con begins this week, not with a bang, but a blaze. Sony’s eagerly awaited next installment in the train that is Judd Apatow continues barreling down the track with multiple word of mouth screenings of Pineapple Express this week, including one in San Diego during the massive weekend of the Con. It’s worth trying to get into one just for the Huey Lewis and the News song that rolls over the end credits.

I was lucky enough to see the flick last night, and it was excellent on all counts. It’s over the top, violent, and very funny. And while Danny McBride’s Red character threatens to outfunny both Seth Rogen and James Franco, it’s Franco who brings us back the loveable movie stoner that we’ve missed so much.

People have been smoking pot in movies for decades now, but where Knocked Up just gave us useless layabouts who light up all the time, there’s actually a long line of lovable movie stoners who have handed off the torch to Franco, and he continues their tradition in glorious fashion. Here’s to those who helped pave the road.

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This has to be the dream of millions of kids: lifesize replicas of superheroes and Star Wars characters, made out of Legos. Unfortunately, even the most advantaged kids wouldn’t be able to get their hands on the kit to build the Stormtrooper Jango Fett (sorry, I was tired) pictured above, nor the impressively-detailed Batman below the jump.

I talked to Vince Rubino of LEGO Americas last night at the Con, and he told me that LEGO couldn’t possibly sell such a kit directly to consumers, because they “don’t have the instructions” to put them together. There are apparently six LEGO builders in the entire world with the expertise to put such a thing together. Richie Riches and the parents who bankroll them can go to Lego.com, where there are bios and contact info for each of these “accredited Certified Professionals”, from whom one an commission a custom creation such as those documented above and below.

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You know a once-subcultural event has fatally passed over the point of capitalist no return when a U.S. government agency tries to get in on it. And so, in a far, far corner of the San Diego Convention Center, the U.S. Postal Service has set up a booth, in order to peddle wares to the ever-growing contingent of fanboy stamp collectors. I’m not kidding––Star Wars stamps are a huge deal. The gentleman I spoke to at the booth told me that when this series of stamps were released last year, they almost immediately sold out.

Whilst, technically, you could use a Luke or a Leia to mail your gas bill, due to the shortage of supply these 41 cent treasures are regularly selling for $12-15 on eBay. The booth also displays a number of comic and superhero themed stamps, including a box set of DC comic characters immortalized in postal currency.

There it is, the real thing, Marty McFly’s actual hover board from Back to the Future Part II. Or it’s one of them, at least. The woman staffing the Comic-Con booth full of drool-worthy Hollywood artifacts informed me that the prop department made several hover boards, of which this is only one of several originals. They’ve sold a few before. She seemed confident that the sale would land between the $30,000 to $50,000 estimated cost, if not exceed it.

Sure, it doesn’t actually work as a hover board (my eight-year-old self is still waiting on that one) but it’s still very real, in another way. Comic-Con is truly an adolescent hedonist’s feast, but almost everything is simulated in one way or another. From big-budget Hollywood remakes of classic comics to the scintillating tease of 2-D cleavage displayed on innumerable posters and comic covers, to cutesy bobble-head versions of even the most bad-ass super heroes, it actually came as a surprise to see something genuine. That thing is the real hover board, or at least the real fake one they used in the movie. Oh well.

After the jump, another unattainable Hollywood artifact…

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Remember how amazing Carrie Fisher looked in that metal bikini when she was chained to Jabba the Hutt in Return of the Jedi? Have you ever thought about the how she looks extra good because her body is in every conceivable way the total opposite of Jabba the Hutt’s body? That’s all I have to say about this photo.

When I found this manga-style Playboy bunny figure on the convention floor at Comic-Con, I had to ask myself, who would actually buy it? Then I realized the answer is someone not all that different than the type of person who would take a picture of it, i.e., me.

I’m not a toy collector, or at least I haven’t been for the past 15 years. So while I have no interest in spending inordinate amounts of money on toys you’re not supposed to play with, there is still something very intriguing about them. I think it might have something to do with the glass case. It’s like those plastic sleeves old comics come in, but times ten. And they’re always really well lit. And, I’ll admit, they’re just sexy.

More toys after the jump:

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We will shortly have a bunch of photos from tonight’s Comic-Con show floor preview on our Flickr stream. Stay tuned for a number of detailed posts on various things (Toy porn! Star Wars porn! Lego porn!  Vintage poster porn! Postal service porn! Hentai! A couple of things that aren’t porn at all!) that especially turned us on. Above: in a pretty typical example of Comic-Con commerce, a smart man finds a way to milk money from a stupid joke.