If you haven’t heard about a movie called Battle: Los Angeles, fear not: not a lot of people knew much about it going into Comic Con this year. During the panel for the movie, however, many quickly became more acquainted with it.

The real-life Battle of Los Angeles took place in 1942, a few months after the surprise Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor forced the United States to enter World War II. In the late hours of February 24, a light appeared in the skies over L.A. and many thought that it might be the Japanese making another attack. It was eventually realized that no one was attacking them, but some conspiracy theorist went on to call it an encounter with a UFO spacecraft. It was later determined to all be a big case of “war nerves,” and that the “aircraft” was actually just a weather balloon…as most UFOs are dubbed.

Battle: Los Angeles is a movie that takes that situation and turns into an actual alien invasion on Los Angeles. The film will be presented in real-time from the perspectives of the Marines as the encounter and battle unfold. [...]

The cast of CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory were on hand to answer questions from uber geek-turned writer Wil Wheaton at the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con.

The real surprise came as Wheaton announced that Barenaked Ladies would be performing the show’s theme song along with over 4,000 in attendance who read from a lyric sheet passed out just prior to the panel starting.

I’ve managed to upload a video of the performance, but the rest of the panel will have to wait until I find better Internet. Check it the performance here below [...]

Yesterday during the Visionaries Panel at San Diego Comic Con ’10, which featured two of the most popular names in geekdom today, Joss Whedon and J.J. Abrams, Whedon confirmed that he was in fact directing The Avengers for Marvel. But that was just a small-but-crucial part of the panel worth specific mention, and I’m here to recap the rest of the panel here and now!

On Abrams’ side of things, the big topic that he spoke about was he inspired by and collaborated with secret Steven Spielberg movie, Super 8. Along with discussing their big upcoming projects, the duo also discuss big current issues like 3D, where it’s good and not good, and what they’re doing that may or may not use it. They also get into internet-based content, TV shows, and briefly touch on previous and much-loved works like Lost, Dollhouse, Star Trek, and so on.

Keep on reading for the full recap. Be warned: this is incredibly long, but let’s be fair, we all could listen to/read anything these two want to discuss about entertainment. [...]

Well as we all know 2010 San Diego Comic-Con is going on and one of the biggest movies of the summer Scott Pilgrim vs. The World had its panel yesterday in Hall H; the Geeks of Doom crew was there and had some cool things to report, along with tons of pictures, which you can see here below.

This was one of the best and most talked about panels at Comic-Con. The panel started with a video clip about the movie with footage and interviews with director Edgar Wright and actor Michael Cera and the rest of the cast.

Wright was the first to come out on stage and one of the first things he said was “It’s hard to follow Stallone,” referring to the fact that Stallone and the cast of The Expendables were the previous panel.

First out was Scott Pilgrim creator Bryan Lee O’Malley and they talked about how O’Malley never believed that his book would be this big. Wright further added that the movie would be released in “fabulous 2-D.” [...]

Tron: Legacy may be the first exception to the slew of recent big budget films released in 3D to yield a larger profit margin for studios.

The Disney feature was filmed using a newer generation of the Fusion Camera System developed by James Cameron for Avatar — meaning the 3D elements were done during the filming and not in post-production like Tim Burton’s Alice In Wonderland, Clash of the Titans, and several others.

“The look of Tron is unique. That’s one of the strongest things about it,” said producer and director of the original Tron Steven Lisberger during a press conference at 2010 San Diego Comic-Con [...]

It’s no secret that Pixar Animation is the best thing going for The Walt Disney Company these days. The studio behind Toy Story, Finding Nemo, and Wall-E has yet to make a bad movie in their sixteen-year run, making it very obvious that these people know more about great filmmaking than most others combined.

Unsurprisingly, Disney has begun to utilize this asset of theirs when it comes to delivering good non-Pixar films. It began with Tron: Legacy when Pixar was brought in to help with some re-shoots, and now Disney is bringing them back in to help with another upcoming project: The Greatest Muppet Movie Ever Made.

What we know about the movie so far is that it’s written by friends and Forgetting Sarah Marshall team Jason Segel and Nick Stoller, and that Flight of the Conchords co-creator James Bobin is directing. The movie is expected to revolve around the Muppets fighting to save their beloved theater. [...]

Greetings all!

The Geeks of Doom crew is here in San Diego, CA, for the 2010 Comic-Con, and it’s been a blast so far. Crazy, exhausting, overwhelming, but also amazing and fun.

Below is a video blog that Dave3, Guy Jen, and Henchman21 did on Wednesday night about their reactions to the Con’s Preview Night (I was working the camera).

You can check out all the photos we took from the event here.

Yesterday, we posted a bunch of stories from the convention, so keep it here at Geeks of Doom because we’ll have much, much more for you all weekend long! [...]

Being familiar with the Warren Ellis original property, I was curious going into the panel for Summit Entertainment’s Red to see how far the tone of the film was going to change from the dark, violent graphic novel to the lighter blackly comic adaptation.

Moderator Eric Mora, Editor in chief of IGN Movies, introduced original Red comic creator Warren Ellis, artist Cully Hammer, producer Lorenzo Di Bonaventura, and actors Karl Urban, Mary-Louise Parker, Helen Mirren, and Bruce Willis to the panel.

Bruce Willis praised the work of his co-stars, Mirren noted that with her and Morgan Freeman that they had both “the Queen and God” in the film, as she sported a Harvey Pekar memorial sweater. Warren Ellis noted that his motivation for allowing his property to be adapted was “lots of money… I could buy most of you now.” He wanted the producers to roll with the film in whatever direction they wanted [...]

Digital comics company Panelfly has partnered with former executives at Sony, AOL, and Hulu to form new digital media company SYN — and NOT a partnership with companies themselves. Founder and CEO of SYN Kirt Mcmaster e-mailed us to correct the information reported earlier from the Digital Comics Now panel at San Diego Comic-Con 2010.

Panelfly will dissolve into SYN, which aims to produce for movies, television shows, animation, and much more in addition to comic books, according to McMaster, who gave us the following statement: “[SYN is] focused on the ‘fantastic’ that will redefine this space across all platforms — with a focus on supermobile extending into the digital home experience.” [...]

The first trailer for Lionsgate’s Saw VII has been released online via IGN. The movie has made plenty of news lately with the announcement that original star Carey Elwes would be returning as Dr. Gordon and also word that the new movie would be called Saw VII at all, but Saw 3D: The Traps Come Alive. Judging by the trailer, they may have even dropped the silly title and settled on Saw 3D, though “The Traps Come Alive” does make an appearance.

The trailer is your typical Saw trailer: lots of scary images of people stuck in diabolical traps that will likely end their lives in messy fashion set to the sounds of some terrifying Jigsaw killer voice over. If that’s not enough to grab your attention then you’re probably not big on Saw to begin with and are not reading this sentence right now.

Solve our very own evil trap to get over to the other side and see the trailer for Saw 3D now! (Hint: clicking “continue” should do the trick; we’re lazy) [...]

As far as a prequel/sequel to Zack Snyder‘s stylistic epic 300 goes, we’ve3 always known that he was up for doing it and it all rested in what graphic novel creator Frank Miller came up with first. Well, Miller has completed his work on the upcoming Dark Horse title and it must be pretty gosh-darn great.

Speaking to the LA Times, Snyder confirmed “We closed the writing deal on Xerxes. We started writing about a week ago, so we’re doing it. It’s happening.” But while the writing deal is done and work has begun on the script, the movie AND Snyder as a director isn’t yet a guarantee…though he clearly wants it to be. The director goes on to say “It’s really going to depend on what the studio wants to do and what we do when we finish; I don’t have a directing deal in place but we are writing it, so call it intent. If there was a crime they could probably convict me.” [...]

Panelfly has formed a partnership with Sony, AOL, and Hulu to produce a new digital comics reader software called Syn, according to CEO Wade Slitkin, who made the announcement during the “Digital Comics Now” panel at the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con.

A Syn iPad app was said to be released soon, featuring the Panelfly skeletal software. This will replace the Panelfly name and become the main product for the company.

This is the first “cross-platform” partnership made with a digital comics company and details have yet to be released. However, the temporary holding page, synner.net, states a 2011 release and offer e-mail notifications when new details become available [...]

Back in April the bombshell news making rounds was that none other than god of geek Joss Whedon would be bringing all that Marvel Studios had built together by directing The Avengers.

At the time, this seemed like a done deal even though Whedon was technically only in “final negotiations” for the job. After this many seemed to think it wasn’t as done as it first sounded, leaving us all to wonder whether Joss was really the man for the job.

Today during the Visionaries panel featuring Whedon and Star Trek director J.J. Abrams, Whedon decided to add a little finality to it all. The man behind Firefly, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Dollhouse came out and said It’s not an official thing, I think because Marvel couldn’t afford a press release. So can we make that an official thing? I’m directing The Avengers.”

If that wasn’t enough, Whedon went on to share his take on such an juggernaut of a film. He admits he’s only still in the outlining stages of development, but that he has a clear vision — helped greatly by the fact that most of the parts are already cast. [...]

The first image from Paramount Pictures’ Jackass 3D has been released online via Yahoo! and it appears that the fellas are back to their old craziness.

We found out last November that a new Jackass was on the way and that it would be in 3D. Usually this is annoying because everything is put out using the novelty, but something about the Jackass gang and their stunts shooting out at us in the theater sounds like a lot of fun. It also makes us fear what we might see; it is recommended that you don’t eat much before seeing this movie.

Click on over to the other side to check out the image now!

This first image is a pre-Comic Con reveal picture, which means that some more goodies may be shown off as the convention rolls on. As you can see, it shows Johnny Knoxville in his Sunday best riding a waverunner out of someone’s pool, off a ramp, and right toward the 3D camera. [...]

The Walt Disney Pictures panel today at the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con was full of surprises. Aside from their scheduled Tron Legacy panel, there was also a surprise appearance by Guillermo del Toro, who revealed that he’s going to do a Haunted Mansion reboot for Disney.

Another surprise came in the form of a video message from Captain Jack Sparrow (played by Johnny Depp) regarding the upcoming fourth Pirates film, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, which is set for theatrical release in Disney Real 3D on May 20, 2011.

Read description of the Captain Jack’s video message here below [...]

As a longtime fan of the original 1982 Tron, I was extremely excited to welcome a return to the Tron universe with Disney’s Tron Legacy panel at the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con. Moderator Patton Oswalt greeted attendees with a rousing “Welcome, Furries!” and reminded us that this is the third year Tron Legacy has been at Comic-Con, and joked that the plan is to show Tron Legacy in 5 minute increments at Comic-Con for the next 25 years. The footage started with a mini-documentary highlighting the cultural impact of Tron over the course of the last 27 years (including, incredulously, Tron on ice!).

Patton then introduced the panel: Director Joe Kosinski, producer Sean Bailey, original Tron creator Steven Lisberger, and stars Garrett Hedlund, Olivia Wilde, Michael Sheen, and original Tron stars Bruce Boxleitner and Jeff Bridges. Kosinski talked about his personal nostalgia with the original film, and the daunting challenge of producing a sequel.

Tron Legacy was shot with the 3D camera system James Cameron created for Avatar and the suits are really illuminated from within, as opposed to the hand-painted post-produced FX of the original [...]

At the Walt Disney Pictures panel in Hall H at the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con, moderator Patton Oswalt introduced a very brief teaser for what is to be a Haunted Mansion reboot, which simply showed The Hatbox Ghost character from the famous Disney theme park ride with the voiceover from the ride.

After the teaser, Oswalt asked the crowd who they thought would be the director for such a reimagining. To everyone’s surprise, that person is the one and only Guillermo del Toro, who make a surprise appearance at the panel.

Del Toro said that his reimagining of The Haunted Mansion will be live-action and in 3D, and will not be a comedy. He joked that he was not be answering any of Eddie Murphy’s calls, making it clear that his film won’t be like the one Murphy starred in in 2003 that failed to hit with audiences.

The director, who expressed that his love of the popular theme park ride began at age 3 when he first went to Disneyland the same year the ride opened there, said that his film will be scary but fun, though mostly scary, stressing that children who see the movie will be frightened [...]

The first Hall H panel of the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con was for DreamWorks’ animated feature MegaMind.

HitFix’s Drew McWeeney introduced Will Ferrell, who came out festooned in blue facepaint with a huge dome helmet as the titular character. He introduced Tina Fey (who came out uncostumed) and they introduced Jonah Hill and the director, Tom McGrath. Brad Pitt made a non-appearance as a cardboard standee.

Check out the images from the panel here below.

They played five minutes of the film in Real 3D, which featured Ferrell’s MegaMind character, a villain whose mission is to defeat his nemesis, MetroMan, a hero voiced by Brad Pitt. The twist occurs when he actually does defeat MetroMan and has to figure out what to do next, now that the city is his [...]

So I got up the other morning and started enjoying my first cup of coffee of the day while I check the internets and I came across one of the most ridiculous statements I have ever heard in my life.

It came from a quote from Eric Hirshberg, the new CEO of Activision, who is the publisher the Call of Duty games.

Are you ready for it?

You have to be sure, because it made me really mad.

“The Call of Duty franchise is a force of nature. I think it is the closest thing this generation has to a Star Wars,” he said. “I think it’s unique and bigger than any musical act or any movie franchise in that capacity.” [...]

Tonight was Preview Night at the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con, and yes, the Geeks of Doom crew was there in full-force.

Below are a bunch of photos we took from the convention floor.

Of note was the Marvel booth, a massive area for sure, half taken up by a recreation of Odin’s Throne in Asgard from their upcoming film Thor (see the Thor movie still of Odin’s Throne HERE).

There’s also a few shots of the Legendary Pictures booth, which showed off some costumes and props from The Dark Knight and Inception, as well as The Hangover (the pic from the latter film is truly a must-see).

A show-stopper at the Con was definitely the areas set up for The Walking Dead TV show, coming soon to AMC, which had a house filled with bloodied corpses in it. Pretty cool [...]