They're claiming that none of their films are ready yet, but is that the real reason 20th Century Fox has decided to pull out of next week's San Diego ComicCon? The studio was previously scheduled to hold a "star-and-filmmaker-studded panel" next Friday in the main hall, featuring exclusive first looks at films like Aliens vs Predator, Jumper, Babylon A.D. and Hitman. While practically every other major studio (Warner Bros., Paramount/Dreamworks, Lionsgate, New Line, Sony Pictures, Universal and Walt Disney) still have plans to appear, Fox has officially pulled out. Or have they? According to The LA Times, the studio was reconsidering that decision yesterday afternoon -- meanwhile, ComicCon organizers were scrambling to fill their much-coveted slot.

This hasn't been the greatest of weeks for Fox. Earlier, there was a whole big stink going on in Chicago over Fox's apparent snub of some film critics when it came to invites for advanced screenings of their films. From what I understand, The Chicago Film Critics Association has instituted a boycott against Fox releases. The boycott won't affect reviews; instead, they'll be staying away from additional coverage like features, interviews, etc ... Personally, I'm a bit peeved as well after finding out yesterday that the only Simpsons Movie screening happening in the New York City area (that I'm aware of) is taking place the night before the film will be released. And, as far as I can tell, the same goes for the rest of the country. So, while I usually like to have a day or so to sit with a film before I review it, I now have a few hours.

Whether or not this ComicCon pull out has anything to do with the aforementioned boycott -- I don't know. I do know, however, that Fox has become a major player when it comes to fighting movie piracy (they're one of the studios who wanted to ban advanced screenings in Canada), and so perhaps it's not a question of whether their footage is ready -- but, instead, has to do with them being afraid that same footage will be on YouTube within the hour. Oh, and I should note that Fox Atomic will still be attendance ... handing out raffles, or something. Yay! Raffles!

It's been awhile since we last spoke about our favorite Daniel Craig haters -- remember those folks who decided to spend an absurd amount of time protesting the decision to cast Daniel Craig as the next James Bond? Yes, these are the same people who went so far as to create a website called danielcraigisnotbond.com and bombard us with reasons as to why Craig was not a good choice for the role.

Well, after spending months boycotting the film, they're still going strong -- except, now, they're searching through hundreds of Casino Royale reviews and collecting every negative quote they can find in an attempt to ... do what, exactly? Stop us from seeing the film? After Happy Feet beat Bond at the box office this past weekend, they celebrated: "The Boycott triumphantly goes into its second weekend, how poorly will Casino Royale place this week?" Triumphantly? The film has grossed over $224 million worldwide in only two weeks -- as far as a boycott goes, I'd say they failed miserably. Not only did they fail, but they were stomped on, chewed up and spit out into the same garbage pale Daniel Craig uses to dispose of his "dirty tissues." Hey, but keep up the hard work.

In other Bond-related news, Daniel Craig is "supposedly" urging movie bosses to "modernize" Bond and include some full-frontal nudity, as well gay scenes that may or may not include 007. Here's the Craig quote currently floating around the internet: "Why not? I think in this day and age, fans would have accepted it. I mean, look at (British TV series) Doctor Who - that has had gay scenes in it and no one blinks an eye." Hmm, it appears someone likes their martini on the rocks ... not that there's anything wrong with that. Bond questioning his sexual preference? What do you think about that one?

On Friday, Archbishop Angelo Amato became the latest high-ranking Vatican official to speak out against Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code, going so far as to urge the Catholic faithful to boycott the movie version when it comes on later this month. According to Amato, both the book and movie are "stridently anti-Christian ... full of calumnies, offenses and historical and theological errors regarding Jesus, the Gospels and the Church." Interestingly, a large part of his anger seems to be directed towards members of the Catholic Church, and their passive response to Brown's book, and Ron Howard's film: Amato believes that, had The Da Vinci Code questioned fundamental tenants of Islam or Judaism, the "lies" therein "would have justly provoked a world uprising."

Whether there's any merit to those assertions or not, it seems unlikely that the Vatican's protests will have much effect on the film's box office, which will surely see a massive open starting May 17, when it begins to unroll across the globe (the US open is two days later).