The Robot Chicken panel at this year’s New York Comic Con was every bit like the show it was there to honor and discuss — that is to say, chock full of rapid-fire jokes, non sequiturs, cursing, and plenty of raunchiness.

While the panel stayed mum on many of next season’s secrets, they did say a large order for M.A.S.K. toys had been placed, and they were more than ready with sometimes candid, but always funny, responses to audience questions. When asked about the possibility of an Austin Powers 4, Robot Chicken creator Seth Green excitedly answered, to paraphrase, “Yeah, guys, I’ve been waiting to tell you — no.”

He then aimed a small jab at the actor behind the shagadelic spy, saying, “I think Mike Myers is still smarting from The Love Guru.

As talk turned to the creative process behind Robot Chicken, Breckin Meyer, writer and castmember, revealed that Green’s habit of laughing at an idea before flat-out rejecting it made him want to lunge over the table at him. The panelists also acted out some of their favorite rejected and cut sequences [...]

As you are all aware, we’re in the midst of the 2009 New York Comic Con. Today is a busy day with a lot going on; but for the moment, I’m here to share with you the occurrences of the Terminator Salvation panel.

The film’s director, McG, was the main man of course, and he covered many different areas of the project. Nothing breaking, but he did go into detail about the angle of the movie and when a certain question about Linda Hamilton‘s Sarah Connor character came up, let’s just say he gave a few hints about that. He also debuted some new footage, some of what which was not fully rendered yet, but was nevertheless met with much enthusiasm from the fans at the panel. Oh, and did anyone know that Michael Ironside is in this movie? Well he sure as hell is!

McG began by telling the story of how he went to Terminator‘s director James Cameron on the set of Avatar to basically get his blessing as well as see Sam Worthington, who’s also in Terminator Salvation. If you’re not familiar with this story, Cameron basically said that he wouldn’t give the movie his support, but he “…wasn’t going to shit on it either.” He didn’t feel there was any need for it, but what they were doing did sound interesting enough, so he wished it well. Cameron also went on to tell the story of how he went in to do Aliens behind Ridley Scott and everyone was asking who the hell James Cameron was — so this is all sort of poetic in a way.

Then was the story of how, in order to get him to sign on, Christian Bale made them fix the script until it was about the story and the characters and not the explosions (probably the best thing that could happen, as mindless explosions would have definitely doomed this venture). This brought about the hiring of Jonathan Nolan (The Dark Knight) to do some rewrites and fix it all up [...]

Watchmen artist and co-creator Dave Gibbons appeared at the Warner Bros. panel to debut the first 18 minutes of the upcoming Watchmen film to a packed crowd of eager fans today at New York Comic Con.

As if showing the beginning of the film wasn’t awesome enough, Gibbons also showed a bonus scene featuring the Rorschach character out of costume — an exclusive to New York Comic Con.

Gibbons praised the film’s director Zack Snyder for the accuracy of his adaptation, which holds true to the graphic novel despite a few minor details that were lost in translation.

Obviously, this might be considered SPOILER territory for some of you, so be warned about the scenes I’m about to describe, but first, here’s a snippet from Gibbons of the panel discussion…

“A lot of the background stuff that’s in the graphic novel is in the movie. But, I certainly think when it does eventually come out on DVD, probably everybody in this room including me, is going to have the remote control, stopping frame-by-frame trying to read the newspaper [in the background]… because just like we tried to do in the graphic novel, everything in the frame means something. There’s nothing that’s just filler in the background. Everything means something, so in that respect it’s just like the graphic novel.”

Read on for the description of the 18 minutes and the new scene [...]

A brand new viral website has been released for the upcoming comic adaptation The Surrogates, which is directed by Jonathan Mostow (Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, U-571).

The Surrogates is a comic series that shows us a world where people are able to create perfect, in-shape, attractive replicas of themselves called “surrogates” to go and do all of their day-to-day stuff and communicate with other people’s surrogates while they remain safe and securely at home. One day, surrogates start getting murdered and this sets in motion a cop named Agent Greer who sends out his replica to find out what’s going on before having to actually go out himself to try and figure it out; as well as trying to put an end to surrogates in general.

The movie will star Bruce Willis as Agent Greer, as well as Radha Mitchell as Agent Peters and Ving Rhames as The Prophet. The movie is set to release on September 25, 2009.

Click over for the viral website link! [...]

Norman Osborn has fought the Skrull menace on home turf and won a victory for all of humanity, or at least that’s how the media portrayed the events, according to creators at Marvel‘s Dark Reign panel yesterday at New York Comic Con.

After the Skrull Invasion, the citizens of the Marvel U looked to Osborn as a hero, allowing him to gain control of the initiative and form a Dark Illuminati. Osborn wants support as he vies for power and offers to help the shadow group, comprised of himself, Emma Frost, Dr. Doom, Namor, Loki, and The Hood.

“The media is a big part of Norman’s war,” said New Avengers scribe Brian Michael Bendis, who indicated that his control over the media’s image of him will be central the theme of Dark Reign — Marvel’s non-event following Secret Invasion that will take place in several different books. Unlike previous cross-over events, Dark Reign will not have a self-titled series at all [...]

It’s being reported that Orlando Bloom will be stepping into the world of science fiction for The Cross, which will be directed by Andrew Niccols (Lord of War).

The Cross will be set in the very near future and follows Bloom’s character as he attempts to do what no other has, and cross this incredibly mysterious border.

The movie also stars Vincent Cassel (Eastern Promises, Brotherhood of the Wolf) as a guard who is determined to stop Bloom from crossing, and Olga Kurylenko (Hitman, Quantum of Solace) as the “female lead” — or eye candy, if you will.

No word on what exactly this mysterious line is or where it goes — just that it’s going to get crossed, one way or another.

The movie is being multi-produced by different foreign studios; one being Bluewater Pictures in Sydney, Australia, another is Spangherabero Films in Paris, France, and the last is Opal Film Produktion in Berlin, Germany [...]

DC Comics debut a sneak peek today at their new MMO Role Playing Game, DC Universe Online at New York Comic Con 2009. The game will be released for Windows on the PC and Sony Playstation 3 and hasn’t even release an alpha version. Developers did, however, set up a demo that allowed fans to play with the game’s mechanics.

There seems to be a premium placed on speed and traveling, which differ depending on the character’s build. Characters also have more interaction with the world around them such as picking up passing cars and launch them across a city block.

The character creation mode wasn’t available to test, but users should be able to play as either a hero or villain and specialize in a specific power type as well as where they want to focus that power. While gamers won’t be able to play as Green Lantern or The Batman, they can make a character similar in nature [...]

Morning comic fans o’ doom,

It’s that time of year again. The comic convention season is upon us and Geeks of Doom is poised to attack it like a raid on Ironforge (Horde FTW!). We woke up bright and early, made the trek to the Jacob K. Javits center and just picked up our press badges for New York Comic Con (aka NYCC). Currently I’m in line (thanks Stephen) to be let on to the convention floor so that I can have my comic-o-phile senses assaulted by waves upon waves of all that is to behold.

This is the first Comic Con that we Geeks of Doom are theoretically “ready” for (heh, well that remains to be seen). We’ve got a whole crew of Doom Writers heading down for the weekend to cover the events from as many angles as a icosahedron. The pantheon of GoDs in attendance are (at last count) myself, Empress Eve, ScarletScribe, Meegatron, TechGOnzo, Jack Bauerstein83 & his trusty sidekick CamGirl. and Totally Bitchin’, I’m told there may be a special appearance by Missing Linc as well.

Jack & CamGirl will be roaming the exhibition floor doing impromptu video interviews and giving away tons of cool prizes to attendees. Keep an eye out for him if you’d like to get your chance to win some free DVDs, books, shirts, hats, stickers, and more. Definitely tune in and subscribe to the Geeks of Doom YouTube channel to see all of our video interviews and scenes from the floor. Also, if you have a question that you’d like Jack to ask someone on the floor, be it of a random person, artist/writer/celeb, etc.. email us or send it to @geeksofdoom on twitter and I can pretty much guarantee he will attempt to get it asked…

Ben 10 Alien Force Season One, Vol. 2
Created by Man of Action
Featuring the voices of Yuri Lowenthal, Ashley Johnson, Greg Cipes
Rated Y7
Warner Home Video
Release Date: January 13, 2009

Ben 10 Alien Force Vol. 2 continues the journey of teenage hero Ben Tennyson. Alongside his cousin Gwen, his former nemesis Kevin Levin, and with the help of his DNA changer the Omintrix , Ben is on a mission to find his Grandpa Max and kick some alien butt along the way. Created by Man of Action (aka comic writers and artists Joe Kelly, Duncan Rouleau, Joe Casey, and Steven T. Seagle), Vol. 2 contains four episodes from the first season of the popular cartoon.

There is really nothing new to say about this series that hasn’t already been said. Ben 10 is a by the books cartoon and that is not necessarily a bad thing. It actually reminds me a lot of the old cartoons of yesteryear. It is short and concise and overall, a satisfying experience. Most of the cartoon is hand drawn, a practice that seems to be becoming a lost art. It is also easy to follow for viewers who are just getting into Ben 10 but still able to touch upon pre-existing storylines from previous episodes to give a sense of continuity for long-time viewers [...]

While The Green Hornet works out all of their complications and figures out who’s going to direct, another Green project is moving right along — Green Lantern. It’s being reported that Martin Campbell is in negotiations with Warner Bros. to direct the film, which is based on the DC Comics title.

Campell seems to like returning to properties — he directed both The Mask of Zorro and GoldenEye in the 90s and then went on to direct The Legend of Zorro and Casino Royale recently, which is widely considered the best James Bond movie of all time. I guess this means he has a lot of loyalty to his work, which is always a big bonus to find.

This is yet another hero from way back, first appearing in 1940. Apparently back then everyone who made comics hated all colors except green.

Green Lantern consisted of many different men at different periods of time. All of them possessed a ring which gives them great powers, so long as they have the ability to control it. Lantern’s include Guy Gardner, Kyle Rayner, John Stewart (not that one), and Hal Jordan. [...]

We’re all now well-aware of all the absurdities that went on between Fox and Warner Brothers in their Watchmen lawsuit — Fox sued for rights they didn’t have but sorta had even though it was cheap; they went back and forth until Fox was dubbed as legally having the rights (technicality); then they figured out a way to settle their differences out of court and move forward with their lives (WB gave Fox a bunch of free money that they didn’t deserve). We all are also very much aware of the mad genius that is Watchmen co-creator Alan Moore and his unshakable refusal to have anything to do with a feature movie being made from his legendary graphic novel.

So… what if on March 6, 2009 when Watchmen is finally released to us, a giant black hole opened up and some evil parallel universe over-took our own where Fox was actually releasing the movie, and Alan Moore was as giddy about the movie as The Jonas Brothers after being asked to play the Playboy mansion [...]

Universal Studios has announced that they will be going forward with a feature live-action movie based on the popular board game, Candy Land.

The studio has hired Etan Cohen to the challenging duty of scripting a story to integrate into this ultra-sweet fantasy world we all know so well. Cohen has recently written the scripts for Madagascar 2 and Tropic Thunder, so when looking for someone to figure out a funny and family-friendly storyline, he seems to be a pretty smart choice.

Universal has also tapped Kevin Lima to direct the feature. Lima has plenty of family experience, having directed Disney’s Tarzan and most recently, Enchanted.

I’m not sure that I can think of any other board game that hits a nostalgia point like Candy Land does, so this is actually pretty exciting. Obviously the game wouldn’t be quite as fun today is it was in 1989, but I really think that if they do this right, it could be a pretty fun little fantasy movie; maybe like an edible Chronicles of Narnia! [...]

Last fall, I became intimately familiar with the trailer for Bangkok Dangerous. With an advertising wallet seemingly bigger than their budget for the film itself, the two-minute teaser was splashed all over television and the Internet for a month. In my case, it was attached to nearly every video on GameVideos.com, which I was required to use daily for my job. You probably know the trailer I mean, but if not you can check it out for yourself at the bottom of this review. It begins with an awkward voice-over from a Nicolas Cage who believes himself to be as bad-ass as his name implies. The narration ends and the action scene montage begins with the goofiest line imaginable: “My name is Joe. This is what I do.” If that doesn’t conjure up images of a cold-blooded assassin, well…yeah, it really doesn’t.

Despite the lukewarm first impression, the intro scene to the film, which also climaxes in the “My name is Joe” line, actually works rather well. There is a nice build-up as the camera cuts quickly and dramatically between Cage’s character in a belltower with a sniper rifle, his target in a building across from the tower, and his watch, counting down to the exact moment when he must fire the shot. The watch’s alarm goes off, the bell tolls, the shot is fired, and the target falls dead. And after all of that, we find out the assassin’s name. As unimaginative as his parents may have been, this introduction certainly raised my standards from my originally grim trailer-based expectations. Just not for long.

Bangkok Dangerous is not actually the story of a hard-edged killer, but rather that of such a killer realizing the error of his ways, a classic tale that is handled very clumsily here [...]

Amazon has launched a bunch of great DVD deals to coincide with Valentine’s Day, including The Princess Bride and Groundhog Day for only $4.99 each (inconceivable! … inconceivable! … inconceivable! …).

There’s three separate noteworthy Valentine’s Day sales running right now. Here’s where I’m supposed to tell you to pick up a rom-com and snuggle up with your honey for this celebration of love … there, I said it. For those of you who aren’t into the whole love and romance thing, there’s also a “Bloody Valentine” sale with some classic horror favorites and their sequels.

– Heart Pounding Romance Sale: Save up to 50% on Heart Pounding Romance Films like Overboard ($7.99), The Illusionist ($7.99), Say Anything ($7.99), Garden State ($7.99), as well as the aforementioned Princess Bride ($4.99), and more. Offer expires February 11, 2009.

Valentine’s Sale: Romantic DVDs: DVDs as low as $7.49, like 50 First Dates, Loverboy, 13 Going On 30 ($7.49), Sleepless In Seattle ($4.99), as well as the aforementioned Groundhog Day ($4.99), and more. Sale ends February 16.

My Bloody Valentine Sale Save up to 53% on horror DVDs likes Halloween ($6.99), Heathers ($6.99), Hellraiser ($6.99), Dawn of the Dead ($6.99), Children of the Corn ($6.99), and much more, including sequels. (Note, no end date was given for this sale at this time.)

You can check out more Valentine’s Day DVD sales in the Romance Store [...]

Another new glimpse at Guy Ritchie‘s Sherlock Holmes has hit the webs.

Most of the images that we’ve seen so far have been a look at actors and how they look in costume. This newest one shows Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey Jr.), Watson (Jude Law), and our first look at Rachel McAdams as Irene Adler. Judging by the pattern, all signs point toward the next image maybe showing the movie’s villain, Lord Blackwood, who is played by Mark Strong (Stardust), but who knows.

It’s good to keep getting images to check out for a movie, but I’m calling for Mr. Ritchie to find some sweet action shots or something to send out and tickle us in new ways. It would be most preferable to finally see a trailer though. Considering the movie’s release date, I have to imagine that’s not too far off now!

There isn’t any real detail on what exactly this particular movie’s plot will be, but if they want a franchise out of it, it’s likely we’ll see some kind of origin story with introductions and building of the characters [...]

In November, rumors arose that instead of killing the new He-Man movie, that they were talking to Kung Fu Panda co-director John Stevenson to helm the movie (Read: ‘Kung Fu Panda’ Director To Helm ‘He-Man’ Movie?). Today, this rumor became reality, as it was confirmed that Mr. Stevenson will indeed make his live-action debut with what’s been called Greyskull but is now apparently being called Masters of the Universe (I vote for the former).

John Stevenson only has the experience directing Kung Fu Panda, so along with this being his first live-action go, he’ll also only be handling his second feature. Fortunately, the man has a ton of experience in the art/animation departments of many well-known movies such as Shrek 1&2, Labyrinth, and The Dark Crystal.

As for the movie, it’s hard to tell what to expect. As we’ve mentioned before, the script review lead us all to believe that it was going to be a very cool, new look for He-Man in a Lord of the Rings-type world, but a lot can happen to a great script over the development period and it could end up just that good, or it could be a cheese-fest. The first draft (the one titled Greyskull) was written by Justin Marks, who also handled the scripts for the Hack/Slash adaptation and the new Street Fighter movie. [...]

Usually while enduring that unbearably long wait between the announcement of a movie and actually seeing a movie, we’re given many things to keep us wanting more; whether it be images, concept art, trailers, official sites, and everything else. Usually concept art comes toward the very beginning before the images and trailers, but today, some of it comes a little later and that’s just fine.

The concept art in question just so happens to come from a little movie called Terminator Salvation, so although we’ve seen other art, images galore, and multiple trailers already, it’s still worth seeing this collection of very cool pieces!

The collection of artwork is also accompanied by many various quotes. To see and read everything, make sure you head over to Wired to read the story, but if you click over and continue reading, you can check out a few of the more interesting quotes along with all of the very cool pictures. Some of these quotes have been around and some are newer but most give a very good idea of the approach to the movie and the passion of the people involved [...]

JCVD
Directed by Mabrouk El Mechri
Starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, Francois Damiens
Peace Arch Home Entertainment
Release date: April 28, 2009

Jean-Claude Van Damme movies remind me of a time when my friends and I would watch them way before we were old enough. Bloodsport and Kickboxer sparked a time where in our pre-adolescent state we would act out moments in our front rooms which included several painfully abandoned attempts to do the splits between two chairs and some pathetic round-house kicks to thin air.

There always seemed to be a formula that involved the bad guys getting the upper hand then Van Damme taking them down armed or not and there would usually be a shot of him doing the splits before the end credits rolled. Then along comes JCVD.

Jean-Claude Van Damme stars as a down on his luck version of himself. He is fighting a court battle over custody of his daughter, he can’t pay his lawyers fees, his agent can’t find him work, and as if that isn’t bad enough, Steven Seagal just pipped him to the starring role in the Purple Amulet. Then on a retreat to his homeland of Belgium his luck finally hits rock bottom [...]

If you haven’t heard yet, there’s this place called Hulu where you can enjoy lots of movies and TV shows for free. At the moment, you can head there and watch one of the all time classic sci-fi movies, Paul Verhoeven‘s RoboCop.

I’m running on the assumption that most everyone knows of or has seen Robocop, but for the Amish just joining us, the movie tells the story of a good cop who is gunned down by a gang of big time drug lords. Instead of moving on from there, a big time corporation decides to take his remains and try a new high-tech experiment where they fuse him into a super robot police officer called a RoboCop.

I recently re-watched this one and I must say, if it’s been a while, watch it again! The kind of graphic, anarchic tone that Verhoeven pulls off is something you never see directors pulling off anymore. It’s one hardcore flick and it still holds up just as strong today as it did back in 1987 [...]

It’s being reported that both Daniel Day-Lewis and Benicio Del Toro are in talks to star in Martin Scorsese‘s passion project, Silence. Scorsese has been keen on this project for around a decade and is apparently done thinking about it and is ready to make it happen.

Silence is based on the book of the same name by Shusaku Endo. It tells the fictional story of two priests who travel to Japan in 1638 upon hearing that their mentor has committed apostasy. When they arrive, they see that those associated with Christianity have been basically banished and anyone caught as having religious ties is forced to denounce their religion and their God by stepping on and desecrating the image of Christ; if they refuse, they’re hung upside down and cut so they bleed out until dead.

It’s also being reported that Gael Garcia Bernal is also in early talks to star in the movie. No word on who would play who. Bernal is one of the best actors out there who still isn’t a huge star. He’s offered up impressive performances in movies like Y Tu Mama Tambien, Babel, The Motorcycle Diaries, and The Science of Sleep [...]