Cinematical

Welcome back to The Geek Beat, readers. Last week we did the "what if Marvel fielded a baseball team" game, and this week we were scheduled to do part two of that column -- the All-Star Villains. A few readers made some very astute guesses, but you'll have to wait one more week to learn my starting nine, because this week's column is dedicated to a full-on, all-out wrap-up of the crazy week that was Comic-Con 2006. Geek movie news aplenty was pouring out of San Diego these past few days, and we're going to sum it all up in case you missed out on any of the action. If you read this and know of some fantastic bit of movie-related news which I overlooked, click on the comments and let us know. We'll make it a team effort. Ready? Here it goes:

Day 1

• Lots of interesting news from a comic book perspective, including some great panels with DC and Marvel, but precious little movie news hit from the big two. Mostly, everyone was just gearing up. Marvel does, however, completely destroy DC in a softball game.
• The agent for Doug Jones, the guy who played Abe Sapien in fan favorite Hellboy, said to expect a major casting announcement from Doug. Popular rumor expected this to be a deal to play the Silver Surfer in Fantastic Four 2. Which, by the way, still has no official title despite what you've been hearing.
• Rosario Dawson is very excited for Sin City 2, and is planning to bring her own comic series, Occult Crimes Taskforce to the big screen.

Day 2

• Disney reminded us all they've been doing the comic thing for 75 years or so. Everybody reminded Disney people haven't read their comics for the last 65 of those years.
• Halo's new movie will be accompanied by a comic book series thanks to Marvel comics.
• Louis Leterrier is going to direct a new, rebooted big screen version of the Incredible Hulk, which will be part of Marvel's new war chest. Let's hope it takes this time, because the war chest can't afford too many failures. Story here, Leterrier's thoughts here.
• It isn't technically a Comic-Con announcement, but the geek world rocked with a seemingly substantial rumor declaring Heath Ledger to be the Joker in the upcoming Batman sequel.
• An official trailer for the CGI Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is released to coincide with the Comic-Con happenings. It looks pretty. Director/writer Kevin Monrue has quite a bit to say about this film; SuperheroHype has good coverage of his comments. The story will take place in a rough time line after the second live-action movie, and it'll feature plenty of inside jokes from the comics and cartoon. Casey Jones and April are around, as is Shredder, although he is not the main villain. In what turns out to be an ominous move, Monrue announced Japanese actor Mako as the voice of Splinter. Mako died later in the week.
• Doug Jones didn't want to talk about Silver Surfer.

Day 3 (with some bleed over from Day 2)

• In an unexpected bit of news, Nic Cage and his son (Weston) will be writing a five issue mini-series comic for Virgin.
• Tobey Maguire told USA Today there aren't any plans for more Spider-Man movies, and the trilogy is a pretty nice wrap in his mind. But he also admitted this doesn't mean the possibility is closed.
• Avi Arad shared some Ghost Rider footage.
• DC dishes dirt on the classic Superman DVDs.
• Bryan Singer reassured everyone he's still totally interested in more Superman movies. Whether or not Warner is interested seems to depend on Returns hitting the magical $200 million in domestic box office receipts.
• Guillermo Del Toro said he really digs the new Hellboy 2 script, but he hasn't found a studio that'll take it on yet. Don't worry, he is still looking.
• Tony Stark (Iron Man) will get an animated TV show before Jon Favreau finishes his movie. True Believers rejoice.
• The Snakes on a Plane people had their very own panel. During said panel, the loudspeaker suddenly crackled and blared "I'm sick of these M*F*ing snakes!" and onto the stage walked Samuel L. Jackson. You've gotta love that.

Day 4 (and Beyond)

• Okay, my time line gets buggy here. Some of this news is from Day 3, I imagine. It's all still good news, I promise.
• Lots of Marvel news. Abomination is officially the Hulk villain. Tim Story is stoked for Fantastic Four 2, but he wants your help in naming it. Iron Man will fight Mandarin in his movie. Ant-Man is on the way, check out IGN for some details. Coming Soon snagged some Ghost Rider audio.
• Mako died, only days after his part in TMNT was announced.
• A pretty sexy Iron Man poster is floating around, but Fav warned us it isn't the final look for Stark's project.
• Warner Brothers and DC are teaming up to bring us a number of direct-to-DVD DC movies. Yay!

Okay, there are some of the many highlights from the week. There is a lot more good info out there, so don't stop reading. In addition to our own, I strongly suggest the following for exceptional, extensive readings on this year's Con: Comic Book Resources, Netscape (part of our happy family), and SuperheroHype. Enjoy!