Between Jon Favreau Tweeting the making of and USA Today and Entertainment Weekly covering promotional bases in more-traditional ways, we may actually be sick of Iron Man 2 by the time it’s done shooting, let alone by the time it opens next summer. Okay, that’s not at all true, but isn’t it still a bit premature for EW to feature the Iron Man sequel on its magazine cover already? Even with Comic-Con around the corner?

Well, the mag and the production might at least be a little more careful about what is being let out of the figurative poly bag so early in the game. After all, on the day that Paramount releases the first official (and initially blurry) look at Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow the online discussions shouldn’t be focused on Mickey Rourke’s cockatoo. Never mind that not all the reactions to Rourke’s quote in EW aren’t negatively the sort of preemptive backlash studios fear, the distraction from the big sell alone should be cause for slight alarm.

Personally, I’m more excited about the bird than the chick, anyway, seeing as how awesome Rourke was with a little dog sidekick in Once Upon a Time in Mexico. Let’s see the rest of the blogosphere’s reactions to Rourke’s new pet after the jump:

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Two halfsie holiday weeks in one Week in Review! From the final days of recession gluttony to the cold dawn of 2009, we learned about charismatic Nazis, twisted nativities,Revolutionary Road, The Spirit, Chernenko-sploitation, and the most misunderstood movies of the past twelve months. Happy Everything!!!

For Your Consideration: 5 Alternates for Best Song Oscar

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button Review

Revolutionary Road Review

5 Most Offensive Uses of Special Effects

I.O.U.S.A. on YouTube, and Interview with Patrick Creadon

Jessica Biel is a Naughty Elf

Alternative Nativity: Five Movies about Life, Death, and Babie

Tom Cruise in VALKYRIE: A 5 Point Program To Becoming a Nazi

Home for The Holidays: Sexy (And Family-Friendly!) Cinema Suggestions

The Spirit Review

The Most Misunderstood Films of 2008

Eight Films Built Around a Nazi Fetish

Lynn Shelton: The Media Diet

Street Fighter: Legend of Chun-Li Trailer.

CARGO 200 Director Alexei Balabanov, Interview

Big, Stupid Hollywood Films We’re Looking Forward to in 2009

Is MSNBC Redefining Documentary?

Andy Warhol meets Steven Spielberg

New Year Wishes For 2009 From Lauren Wissot

Oscars: Best Picture Underdogs

The Spirit and the Graveyard of Failed Superheroes

FilmCouch #102: Best of 2008, Wholphin 7

CARGO 200 Review

Kathy Griffin’s New Years miracle

Our Favorite Jeffrey Wells Moments in 2008

The Spirit drove straight into Tanksville last weekend, earning only $6.5 million dollars. But before we can claim that we saw it coming and gloat over its still-warm corpse, it might just be a sign that old-school comic book / radio / serial heroes just can’t make it with today’s audiences. Why is it that Batman and Superman can rake in hundreds of millions of dollars, but heroes that are arguably just as interesting end up tanking at the box office?

Producers have tried to revive the nostalgic exploits of the cadre of “The” named heroes of yesteryear ranging from The Lone Ranger to The Shadow, but each time the box office take has been far less than the studios had hoped for, and the grand plans for a franchise of movies, action figure tie-ins, and a breakfast cereal get canceled. Below is a list of the high-profile attempts to revive old heroes that have fallen flat on their masked faces.

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Frank Miller’s film adaptation of Will Eisner’s The Spirit is an elaborately stylized train wreck. It would be easy to see only the glaring dissonances, such as childish one-liners sharing the screen with a scene in which a man is bludgeoned with a severed head, and write off the film entirely. But this wouldn’t do it the justice it deserves. The Spirit is a kind of “what if?” that populates the daydreams of only the most committed comic book nerds, which by some miracle has actually been made into a film. It’s a film that exists to answer an outlandish hypothetical question: what if two of the greatest comic artists of all time, Will Eisner and Frank Miller, teamed up to make a movie?!? Fortunately for Mr. Eisner, he didn’t live to see the result

The plot of the film is really unremarkable, and serves only to deliver the more considered stylistic elements. One of the big questions the film needs to answer, but doesn’t, is whether or not it’s a comedy. And what does “comic” mean here?

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• Tom Cruise is potentially re-teaming with Valkyrie screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie on up to three projects, including another WWII flick that would put Cruise in the pilot seat again, Flying Tigers. Cruise is likely happy with the initial reception of Valkyrie, though sticking with McQuarrie for so long may keep him from diverse roles. The other two projects include the espionage drama The Tourist and the adaptation of the 60s TV show The Champions, which deals with super-powered spies.
• Frank Miller is re-teaming with Odd Lot Entertainment for a dark Buck Rogers movie that he’ll write and direct. The announcement comes just in time, before an onslaught of bad reviews of The Spirit join Variety’s pan.
• Stephen Chow will no longer direct but will still co-star in The Green Hornet. Apparently his creative differences don’t extend to his onscreen role of Kato. Maybe this is co-scribe and star Seth Rogen’s chance to try directing?
• Clearly wise to how The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is beating Australia in the kudos department, Baz Luhrman is taking on his own F. Scott Fitzgerald adaptation: The Great Gatsby.
• Jim Carrey will beat Will Smith at the box office this weekend, simply because his film, Yes Man, is a comedy. In other theatrical release news, the four-hour version of Che has been so popular that IFC is keeping it in cinemas another two weekends before separating it into two films.

We talked about Frank Miller’s highly anticipated film adaptation of Will Eisner’s long running comic book The Spirit back at Comic-Con when the scenes failed to impress us. In fact, they felt like they were straight out of Sin City Redux. It’s been a few months since we were underwhelmed; have the filmmakers changed anything? Not based on the clip we were sent this week. Despite being a self-proclaimed fan of Will Eisner, Frank Miller is managing to stomp the life out of every facet that made The Spirit a compelling comic. Check out the video after the break, and find out why we’re not happy.

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Finally the infamous toilet scene from The Spirit, shown last month at Comic-Con, has been leaked online. And it’s just as bad as I imagined. Actually, it’s worse. Our own Kevin Kelly, who liveblogged the clip, described the setting as “extremely muddy and watery,” but I’d go so far as to say that stuff looks like shit. Considering the fact that a toilet is involved, I’m sure it is indeed shit, literally. I don’t think there’s been so much excrement in a movie since Trainspotting.

Now that I’ve seen the clip, I have to believe the makers of The Spirit actually mean for it to be humorous, but I wonder if those on stage (writer-director Frank Miller, producer Deborah Del Prete and actors Gabriel Macht, Samuel L. Jackson and Jaime King) realize that the audience is laughing at the scene, not with it. OK, maybe some of the panel attendees seem to actually be enjoying the footage, but I definitely hear some awkward reactions in there, as well.

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Thus concludes our coverage of the 2008 Comic-Con International. If you missed anything, here it all is:

• Porn on the floor
• Jabba the Hutt
• Hoverboard for sale
• LEGO Batman
• Star Wars stamps
• Guy Ritchie’s comic book
• Pineapple Express and a brief history of stoner films
• Max Payne/Wolverine
• Twilight
• Red Sonja
• Nerd Barbies
• Tron 2
• Scream Like a Girl, hosted by Kevin Smith
• RocknRolla panel
• Guy Ritchie press conference
• Fanboys
• Watchmen
• The Wolfman
• Dr. Horrible (including sequel info)
• The Spirit
• Keifer Sutherland and Mirrors
• Judd Apatow, Kevin Smith, Zach Snyder, Frank Miller
• Watchmen: Dave Gibbons on Alan Moore
• Terminator Salvation
• Disney/Pixar
• Heath Ledger, the bobblehead
• Mummy 3, Death Race, Land of the Lost, Drag Me To Hell, Evil Dead
• Pineapple Express, Underworld, Quarantine
• Harold and Kumar
• Wes Craven and David Boyer
• Nightmare on Elm Street Part 209
• Hamlet 2
• Terminator Salvation press conference
• Troma at Comic-Con, Toxie in Iraq
• Interview with Gil Kenan, director of City of Ember
• Girls at Comic-Con
• Tropic Thunder
• Where was Star Trek?

One of several sponsored by Entertainment Weekly, this panel brings together four filmmakers who will be flogging their upcoming wares on other panels here this weekend: Judd Apatow (producer of Pineapple Express), Kevin Smith (Zach and Miri Make a Porno), Zach Snyder (The Watchmen) and Frank Miller (The Spirit).

According to the guide, it’ll be an evening devoted to “a free-wheeling conversation on the movie business, their upcoming projects, and what it means—to them—to be a geek.” But mostly, people are probably just anxious to get a seat for Kevin Smith’s annual stand-up comedy session, which begins in the same room immediately after, although if Frank Miller is yet aware of the drubbing The Spirit panel is getting online, things might get interesting…

Highlights:

–Judd Apatow is a) getting laid tonight, and b) has the studios by “a little bit of one ball.” But Kevin Smith, as his inspiration, can call him “bitch.”

–Kevin Smith admits to having gained weight since last year and laments that soon it will be so bad, “they’ll have to remove a wall of Comic-Con to get me out.” But he also insists he will be ready to die once he’s seen Watchmen, so that might not be an issue.

–Frank Miller is a cranky old man who doesn’t understand Google. But he’s pro web video!

–Zach Snyder gives details on the progress (or lack thereof) on a Watchmen video game, and explains why games based on movies are “not marketing, it can’t be an afterthought.”

Full transcript after the jump.

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Just when we thought it couldn’t get any worse for The Spirit than that last trailer, the film’s Comic-Con panel seemed to verify that it’s going to be a disaster. Writer-director Frank Miller, producer Deborah Del Prete and actors Gabriel Macht, Samuel L. Jackson and Jaime King led us through the literal mud:

Highlights:

- The Spirit is claimed not to be campy, but it does apparently have toilet humor

- It’s set in a film noir-era “nevertime” yet there are cell phones

- Will Eisner probably would have disagreed with some of the scenes

- Get ready for one of the worst “underwater” scenes you’ve ever witnessed

- Jackson has a lot of toys of himself, but his favorite is Mace Windu

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Even though some of last year’s Comic-Con secrets were leaked to the web ahead of time, the 2007 SDCC was a huge deal as far as revelations go. Whether it was the unveiling of Karen Allen’s involvement in Indiana Jones and the Then-Still-Not-Subtitled Fourth Installment or cast updates for Watchmen and Star Trek or a bit of clarification on what the hell that Cloverfield movie was, Comic-Con 2007 left us super excited and highly anticipatory for the next year of movie releases.

But after a quick glance, the 2008 convention doesn’t seem like it will have as many big announcements. There should be plenty of new footage shown from movies like Watchmen (making its second Comic-Con round) and The Spirit (hopefully there’s some better looking stuff than the most recent trailer gave us), but what secrets are set to be let out of the bag?

Here’s 10 things I hope they reveal over the next few days:

1. Arnold Schwarzenegger is back in Terminator Salvation - If this really happens, I’ll be flabbergasted. But a guy can hope, at least for official word on a cameo. And there’s no better place than Comic-Con for a confirmation to happen. Well, I guess if Warner Bros. could keep it a secret until the movie opens next May, then that would actually be better. But that’s impossible nowadays.
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Kevin Smith has a sort of Clerks-does-Letterman interview style. He uses it mercilessly on some Hollywood women who love to make pain: Gale Ann Hurd (producer Terminator, Terminator 2), Lucy Lawless (Xena, Battlestar Galactica), Jaime King (The Spirit, Sin City), and Pia Guerra (Y: The Last Man).

Highlights:

- Lucy Lawless has more sex than Kevin Smith (obviously)

- A 16 year-old palm reader warned Lucy of Jay Leno

- Jaime King is named after The Bionic Woman

- Zach and Miri opens on Halloween

Liveblogging transcript after the jump

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After seeing the sleek teaser trailer for The Spirit, Frank Miller’s adaptation of the classic Will Eisner comics, it’s hard to believe that this new leaked trailer (originally posted on Film School Rejects, where it may still be available) is for the same movie. It begins with an arty, perfume-ad sort of misdirected marketing angle and then evolves into a goofy mix between the campy Batman series/movies, Sin City, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow and Brenda Starr (remember that piece of crap?).

And I’m not alone in thinking it now looks pretty terrible. Bloggers and commenters around the web are mostly critical of Samuel L. Jackson’s look. Personally, I think Gabriel Macht, as the lead, looks about as lame as Billy Zane in The Phantom (is it possible domino masks are never cool on an actor?). For a roundup of what others are saying, since you probably can no longer see the clip out yourself, check out some links after the jump.

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• Lionsgate has moved up the release of Frank Miller’s The Spirit, from January 2009 to Christmas Day. It’s a huge, and not entirely explicable, show of confidence for the comic book movie, which will now compete against family holiday films and Oscar bait instead of having a January graveyard weekend to itself.
• Ellen Page will prove her range by strapping on a corset to play the title role in a BBC Films adaptation of Jane Eyre.
• Sony Classics has acquired Atom Egoyan’s Adoration, which will premiere in competition later this month at Cannes. The film stars Rachel Blanchard, who also appeared in Egoyan’s last Cannes entry, the widely-reviled Where the Truth Lies.