Comic-Con reports collected: TV & Movies

It’s said that Hollywood is taking over the Comic-Con, so let’s see what’s up in TV and movies from the convention floor.

Television

• At the Futurama panel, creator Matt Groening weighed in on the difficulties getting the original voice cast back in place.
• I’m taking this moment to point out a major error in Variety’s reporting of Doctor Who receiving the Guiness World Record. No, I’m not going to claim it should be Star Trek or anything. However, they give the creation credit to the late Verity Lambert. She was the first Executive Producer of the series. Sidney Newman created the series for the BBC.
• The Batman: The Brave and the Bold panel was chock full of interesting information. Julie Newmar, one of the Catwomans (Catwomen?) from the 60’s series will have a role in season 2, and they’re planing a musical episode.
• Craig Kyle is leaving Marvel’s Animation group to take part in the live-action version of Thor.
• The upcoming Super Hero Squad cartoon is going for laughs at the Marvel Universe’s expense. Like it hasn’t been a joke for years.
• The DC Animation Panel was dominated by Green Lantern, but there was also talk about the Batman: Arkham Asylum game and the upcoming Superman/Batman direct to DVD movie. Steve Ekstrom at Newsarama reviews the Green Lantern: First Flight movie shown at Comic-Con and available today at stores.
• Also announced were a set of shorts featuring the DC characters. I’m betting they’re going to be trial runs for future DC Animation movies.
• The Human Target panel doesn’t skirt the fact that they altered Chance’s gimmick of fully impersonating the target he’s replacing. He claims that he wants to ground the show in realism. Then why adapt the comic instead of creating your own names and characters? The original live-action series didn’t have a problem with it, and I thought it worked just fine. Still, CBR gives it an honest review.
• Marvel released trailers for the anime versions of Wolverine and Iron Man. As you know, I couldn’t care less about Wolverine (although the “Madhouse” version doesn’t appear to be anything like the Logan we know and I loathe), but Iron Man looked totally (and here is a word I seldom use) kick-ass! It looks like they’re going with the movie design rather than the comics. (Note the chestplate.)
• However, at the panel, we learn that Warren Ellis is doing the story. The same Warren Ellis who gave us the nightmare called Extremis and the would-have-been-disappointing-if-I-hadn’t-seen-it-coming G.I. Joe Resolute. There went my excitement. Oh, and we’re also getting Planet Hulk. Just keeps getting worse. Let’s move on.
• The trailer for season 2 of Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

Movies

• Toon Zone takes it’s own look at Green Lantern: First Flight, but the reason this article is here is the announcement of another Christmas Carol animated movie. Do we really need another one? Why not?
• From the Astro Boy panel: “We wanted to change Astro Boy and make him a bit more modern. That was my goal as well, altering him slightly and making Astro Boy my own.” That doesn’t seem to end well these days.
• I wanted to be excited about Tron: Legacy, the sequel to the awesome Tron movie, even if it does ignore the Tron 2.0 video game. However, at the Disney 3-D panel, we get this:

The director also showed the 3-D footage that was revealed last year, where Bridges’ Kevin Flynn is shown to now be a cold, dark character as he beats an opponent on the Light Cycles.

And that does not make me happy. I do like the preview at Access Hollywood (h/t Voice Actors in the News) visually, but why drain the fun out of the story?

• You know, when I think of the greats of horror (mind you, I’m not exactly a horror fan), Danny Devito really isn’t on that list. And yet, he’s starting a website dedicated to showing horror movie webcasts
• I hope I can see some of this “Avatar” footage James Cameron showed at Comic-Con. I remember when he was telling us about it at E3 to promote the game version. As a director, he tells some fascinating stories. As a speaker, he almost put me to sleep.
• Variety reporter Marc Graser comments on DC’s inability to make the same movie showing as Marvel.
• I have no interest in the horror film Legion, but that District 9 film sounds interesting. Sony Pictures previewed both at Comic-Con.
• Disney/Pixar is really getting into 3-D movie making. They’re planing to release the first two Toy Story movies in 3-D before the third installment is released.
• The Iron Man 2 panel. What more do I have to say?

And that’s all I have on that. Tomorrow, what Comic-Con should be about: the comics!