Cinematical

What can I say about our first full day at San Diego Comic Con? First off, there are people everywhere -- I'm absolutely starving (because lines to get any sort of food are tremendous) and everywhere I look someone has fake blood on their body. It's the most surreal experience ever -- sort of like attending a Woodstock-like concert in Fantasyland. But I dig it, and we're trying to do as much as we can, see as much as we can, and bring it all back to you without absolutely losing our minds.

Below is a collection of costumes from the first day of San Diego Comic Con '08. (I don't think I have to tell you which one is my favorite ...)

More coming ... including word from Max Payne, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Red Sonja, Frank Darabont, Twilight and, well, more, more, more ...

Cinematical's Official Comic Con '08 Hub

Cinematical fought through the massive crowds tonight on the convention floor to bring you tons and tons of photos from the 2008 San Diego Comic Con Preview Night. While we didn't spot too many people dressed in costume (except for a group doing a Batman theme), there were some very, very cool toys, games, statues, posters and movie props. Among the larger attractions was Nite Owl's ship from Watchmen (pictured below -- see inside by clicking through the gallery), a huge Iron Monger statue (in gallery), James Bond's hot set of wheels (in gallery), a ginormous Star Wars exhibit, with Star Wars: The Clone Wars statues alongside dudes in Storm Trooper attire (pictured above), as well as monitors displaying the new video game, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (which looks hella cool).

Check out a few images from Preview Night below, then definitely make sure to head on over to the gallery to see what this year's San Diego Con is all about.

P.S. Masters of the Web panel tomorrow morning, 10am. Be there! Say hello! Make it look like I have friends!



Nite Owl's ship from Watchmen (more images from inside the thing down in the gallery).



Our friends in Batman gear!

Cinematical's Official Comic Con Hub

Walking around Preview Night here at San Diego Comic Con and, well, we kinda stumbled upon this poster (click image to enlarge) for X-Men Origins: Wolverine. The film wasn't supposed to have a major presence here at Con, so it's nice to at least see a poster for the flick, which hits theaters on May 1, 2009. We'll have a whole bunch of photos for you from Preview Night here at Con in just a little bit -- in the meantime, what do you think about this poster? Does it get you excited for the film? Starring Hugh Jackman, Liev Schreiber and Danny Huston, X-Men Origins: Wolverine will claw its way into theaters next summer.

For complete coverage of the 2008 San Diego International Comic Con, check out the official Cinematical Comic Con Hub.

Cinematical has officially arrived in beautiful, sunny San Diego! We somehow found a way to get our press badge before anyone else, and I'm here with our first 2008 San Diego Comic Con gallery -- featuring images of all the cool little goodies they gave me when I picked up my badge. Among the lot, there was an issue of Mad Magazine that tackles Botchmen (instead of Watchmen), trading cards, stuff on the new Batman LEGO video game and a massive events guide. They'll be letting us into the convention in just a few hours for preview night, so I'll slide in there and see if I can't bring back anything cool to show you. But before we get to the gallery, let me just say this: If you've never been to San Diego, get your ass over here because this town is gorgeous!

Last thing (and most importantly): Check out Cinematical's official Comic Con hub for all the latest and greatest from San Diego, as well as Moviefone's awesome Con hub. It just launched now and it's a little empty (and lonely), but we'll be filling her up soon enough.

Time to get our Con on fools! Be back later ...

In less than 24 hours, myself, Scott Weinberg and Elisabeth Rappe will be in San Diego, overdosing on all things geek for the next five days. That's because the 2008 San Diego Comic Con is upon us, and there are literally hundreds of different things to do. We'll be sitting on panels (catch yours truly on the Masters of the Web panel), attending panels, interviewing stars, hanging with Storm Troopers, playing with cool toys, going to screenings (Fanboys, Tropic Thunder, Mutant Chronicles, etc ...) and, well, getting our dance on at some of the coolest parties this side of the galaxy. It's intense. We're excited. And if you're not able to attend, then you best be checking out Cinematical all day long later this week as we'll be shoveling out tons and tons of content.

And speaking of content, here's a taste of what you can expect from your pals at Cinematical:

Panel Coverage:

Masters of the Web
When: Thursday, July 24th -- 10am.
Who: Robert Sanchez (IESB.net), Garth Franklin (Darkhorizons.com), Mike Sampson (Joblo.com), Erik Davis (Cinematical.com), John Campea (TheMovieBlog.com), Brad Miska (Bloody-Disgusting.com), Eric "Quint" Vespe (Aintitcool.com), Devin Faraci (CHUD.com), Paul Christensen (Movieweb.com), and Kellvin Chavez (Latinoreview.com). Moderated by directors Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor (Crank 2, The Game). Room 32AB

Watchmen
When: Friday, July 25th -- 11:55am
Who: Zack Snyder, Malin Akerman, Billy Crudup, Matthew Goode, Carla Gugino, Jackie Earle Haley, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Patrick Wilson



Much, much more after the jump ...

So last night I was twiddling my thumbs, watching a re-run of Design Star (shut up) and I suddenly remembered that our friends from Slashfilm had Kevin Smith as a guest on their podcast. Since we're in no way above pimping out something pretty awesome on another site, I'll let you know now that I truly enjoyed listening to Smith talk about how much he loved The Dark Knight -- and, essentially, just hearing these guys all geek out over the flick. (I think they just posted the full podcast for those of you who missed it.)

So anyway, at one point they were talking about the intense marketing for The Dark Knight, and how the hype had reached a ridiculous level just prior to the flick arriving in theaters. But then Smith brought up the point that the hype surrounding The Dark Knight was not even close to the hype surrounding Tim Burton's Batman back in 1989. I was still kinda young (12), but I do remember Batman being the first giant summer movie. And Kevin made a good point in that with The Dark Knight, most of the buzz was online and other folks didn't really know much about it until we got closer to release -- whereas Burton's Batman was everywhere. Of the things I remember, the Bat symbol was on everything -- I vaguely recall walking through the mall in Staten Island and seeing it on walls, on stands and, at one point, in cardboard box form all piled up in the center of the Macy's wing. The hype was out of control for that flick.

So, is Kevin Smith correct in saying the hype for Burton's Batman far exceeded the hype leading up to The Dark Knight? Sound off below ...

Now that SnagFilms has officially launched (see our announcement post), Cinematical will be featuring a different documentary every week from here on out. All docs are available to watch for free on SnagFilms.com, where you can also snag them and embed them on your own site (as seen above). This week, in honor of The Dark Knight being awesome, we'll be looking at ...

Confessions of a Superhero

Confessions follows several people who choose to spend their days dressed up in costume as characters on the sidewalks of Hollywood Boulevard. The film was directed by Matthew Ogens, and it first premiered back at the 2007 South by Southwest Film Festival where our own James Rocchi said the following: "... if you're looking for a solid look at the entry-level jobs in the dirty business of dreams -- where aspiring hopefuls cloak themselves in borrowed fame to eke out a few bucks -- Confessions of a Superhero never loses sight of pop culture or personal struggle, and sticks with you thanks to a careful mix of big images and small moments."

Feel free to watch Confessions of a Superhero by clicking on the box above, or in larger form over on the SnagFilms site. Watch it. Snag it. Spread it. And let us know what you think ...

Here's hoping this whole "Christian Bale arrested for assaulting his mother" thing will go away soon (or at least be explained more) because I was getting excited for Terminator: Salvation next summer. And after absolutely adoring The Dark Knight, I really don't want to have to dislike this dude. I'm a big Bale fan, and call me a traditionalist, but I'd like it if my favorite celebs didn't assault their family members. So we'll see ...

But in the meantime, McG is back talking up Terminator: Salvation over on the official production blog. And in all honesty, I'm really starting to come around on this flick. I have faith in McG, I'm loving what we've seen and read so far and I have total confidence in this film kicking lots of ass. That said, McG talked a bit about the way it's all being shot; he says, "We're shooting the film on color stock but are using a method inspired by the Oz process which was developed at Technicolor by Mike Zacharia and Bob Olson. Basically we are adding three times as much silver. It creates a surreal texture that is in keeping with the notion of the entire picture - feeling detached from the world we know today."

It all sounds very trippy, and I look forward to the stuff we're shown at Comic Con later this week. Cinematical will be at the panel, and we'll be speaking with McG and his cast ... so stay tuned ....

I'm sure you've all heard about the upcoming Ghostbusters video game (we've talked about it here and here), and how this was as close as we were going to get to a Ghostbusters III since, well, it was an all new story and all four Ghostbusters (Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, Dan Aykroyd and Ernie Hudson) were reprising their roles (in voice form) for the game. Not only that, but Annie Potts, William Atherton and Brian Doyle-Murray lent their voices too. Sadly, both Sigourney Weaver and Rick Moranis did not join the party. The script for the game was written by Ramis and Aykroyd (who wrote both Ghostbusters live-action movies), and, well, a lot of your favorite ghosts (like Slimer, Gozer, Stay Puft Marshmallow Man and Vigo) will make an appearance, along with a brand new enemy.

All that being said, the game's trailer can be seen up top -- and it features that totally retro '80s trailer voice with scenes from the live-action movies alongside those same scenes in the video game. Very cool stuff. The game itself (which I believe hits stores on October 14th) looks pretty damn cool, and if this is the only sequel we're going to get, then, well, I'm game. How about you?

[via Spout]

Love it! Cinematical just received this poster and a whole slew of photos from the upcoming flick Bitch Slap, which will definitely have a presence at this week's San Diego Comic Con. Described as "a post-modern, thinking man's throwback to the "B" Movie/Exploitation films of the 1950's - 70's as well as a loving, sly parody of the same," Bitch Slap stars folks like Kevin Sorbo, Michael Hurst, Lucy Lawless and Renee O'Connor, as well as Julia Voth, America Olivo and Erin Cummings.

Bitch Slap was inspired by films like Dragstrip Girls, Faster Pussycat, Kill, Kill and Kung Fu Nun, and a cool fun fact is that the very awesome Zoe Bell (Kill Bill 1 & 2, Grindhouse) did all the stunt work on the film. Check out the flick's official website for more information and a trailer, and definitely check out the totally rad photos in the gallery below with the synopsis after the jump. (Warning: Lots of cleavage in below gallery. Might be NSFW.) All three of the main girls will be at The Con along with the filmmakers, so we'll try to get you some more sweetness later this week.

Who's ready to get slapped?