July 26th Comic-Con Report:

This post will be continually updated.

At the Paramount panel:

Hot Rod

The three leads from Hot Rod introduced a clip from the film. It was a hysterical parody of a classic scene from Footloose taken way over the top. I have to admit it was pretty damned funny.

Stardust

Neil Gaiman was there to introduce a clip from the upcoming film. It was quite an extended clip showing Michelle Pfeiffer as the Witch turning two goats into men in order to help her staff an inn that she also creates in the clip to trap the young woman (Claire Danes) who is quite literally the star of the movie.

The effects were quite elaborate with everything being created from magic flames. It’s kind of hard coming into a scene like this without much context… one thing that I thought was kind of wierd, was that when the witch turned the goats into men, she decided to turn one of them into a young woman. Although this goat was a man for all of 30 seconds, it/he became amazingly fascinated with the female physique.

In regards to a Sandman movie, Neil stated that he’s rather see no movie made at all than a poor one.

Beowulf

He and Roger Avery then discussed Beowulf briefly. It was disclosed that it will be in 3D and I had no idea (unfortunately I wasn’t able to make the event yesterday where they showed 20 minutes of the film). They discussed how difficult it had been to turn the classic story into a coherent film.

As far as casting, far before production of the film was anywhere near to even happening, Neil said that they sat in a bar and discussed their fantasy cast for a movie, and in the end every single person they wanted ended up in the movie.

It will be the widest 3D release of a movie ever done, and will be viewable in 2D, 3D and IMAX 3D.

They did premiere a 2D version of the trailer on the big screen. The only phrase I can think of to describe the trailer is absolutely gorgeous.

Cloverfield

They showed the trailer again, which was great on a big screen with killer audio. J.J. Abrams said that he wanted a monster movie, a REAL monster movie – something to be our version of Godzilla (but NOT Godzilla). He did NOT give the title, but premiered a poster which showed the Statue of Liberty missing it’s head. That’s all for Cloverfield folks!

The Spiderwick Chronicles

This one is basically about fairies and goblins. All the different types of fairies that exist, including the not so nice ones. Big time special effects guy Phil Tippet was there to introduce some info on how they created the characters including your basic goblins, bull-goblins (which look like a freaking ugly frog/angler fish standing on two legs). The goal was to create creatures that look biologically real more than like fantasy creatures.

Iron Man

Jon Favreau did a very cute video presentation promising that is was early animation footage – it was footage of the old Iron Man cartoon from the 60’s. He ended up appearing in person. He then went ahead and showed some footage and all I can say is HOLY CRAP!

Click here for a full description of the Iron Man movie clip from the Comic-Con.

Indiana Jones

Steven Spielberg was onscreen live from the set, and he promised that this movie was for the fans. Harrison Ford was also there talking about being happy to be “back in the sweaty dirty clothes.”

Shia Lebouf and Ray Winston were there as well, wearing their costumes and sitting in director’s chairs and to finish things off, Karen Allen walked in, reprising her role as Marion.

Spielberg reiterated how this one is totally for the fans, and that he thinks about how the fans will like what he’s doing on every single scene he shoots.

Star Trek

Wriiters, producers and director J.J. Abrams were on hand to talk about the film. Abrams said that when he wrote a draft of the script he was really jealous of whoever would end up directing the film.

Casting: Despite rumours to the contrary Abrams said that they are trying desperately to fit William Shatner into the film. He just said they want to do it right on not just squeeze him into the movie.

Zachary Quinto of Heroes has been announced as the actor to play Spock in the film, although they’re still looking for someone to cast as Kirk. I think Quinto will make a FANTASTIC Spock.

They also confirmed that Leonard Nimoy will be reprising his role as Spock in the film. Nimoy is at the panel and he stated that it “was logical” for Quinto to play Spock and that he thought the script is wonderful and fabulous. I don’t take his opinion lightly as he directed a couple of the best Trek films to date.