WonderCon: Complete Wrap-Up and Thoughts

I'm finally safely home and have caught up on numerous hours of sleep after being in San Francisco for a long weekend at WonderCon. Besides toting a shiny new Jim Lee designed Batman statue that I picked up, I've got some great memories that I'm taking home with me. WonderCon is one of the last big comic conventions before the summer season, and the Hollywood studios decided to show off some of their very best upcoming movies. Although I've already covered a few of the panels, specifically Wanted, Get Smart, Wall-E, Iron Man, and X-Files 2, as a wrap-up I wanted to give all of my final thoughts on the movies that were previewed at this year's con. It's a brief yet comprehensive look at some of the more exciting films due out in the next few months.

WonderCon: First X-Files 2 Footage Plus Duchovny and Anderson

I've been to two San Diego Comic-Con's, two WonderCon's, and countless more conventions, but I've never seen a crowd this excited ever. The X-Files fans packed Hall A at the Moscone Center in San Francisco yesterday to see not only the first glimpse of footage from X-Files 2, but to hear David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, director Chris Carter, and writer Frank Spotnitz talk about the movie. First things first, the footage, which is what excited fans the most, has hit the internet and can be watched via YouTube below. Whether you're a big X-Files fan or just hoping for an awesome thriller this summer, you won't want to miss this very short teaser trailer.

WonderCon: Jon Favreau Debuts New Iron Man Footage and More!!

I finally have my report from Paramount's Iron Man panel at WonderCon from Saturday and it's one hell of exciting experience to recall. This is already a bit late (it originally took place on Saturday evening), but with a day packed full of nothing but Hollywood panels and parties, it's hard to keep on schedule. Whereas I gushed earlier about Pixar's Wall-E being the best movie of 2008, after what we were shown at WonderCon, I'm thinking that Iron Man could easily be the best comic book movie of 2008, even over The Dark Knight. That's definitely not an easy thing to say at all, but it's becoming more and more apparent that Jon Favreau was born to direct Iron Man, Robert Downey Jr. was born to become Tony Stark, and I was born to enjoy the hell out of the Iron Man movie this May.

WonderCon: Pixar's Wall-E Presentation - Incredible!

One half Disney's panel today at WonderCon in San Francisco was a presentation focused on Pixar's Wall-E (the other half was Prince Caspian). Now everyone knows that I'm truly excited for this movie, as it combines my love for sci-fi and my love for Pixar, and that can only mean great things. However, after this presentation today, I'm completely sold - Wall-E is going to be the best movie of 2008. Not only looking at the passion that the director is bringing to it, but also looking at the footage we saw, I know it already. I laughed, I cried (I'm serious), and I smiled, and by the end of the Disney panel, I was in love with Wall-E. Finding Nemo director Andrew Stanton stopped by to talk about his inspirations and the filmmaking process to a crowd of comic book fanatics.

WonderCon: Warner Brothers' Get Smart Panel

Another highlight from WonderCon this year was the panel and presentation for Warner Brothers' upcoming summer comedy Get Smart. Appearing live in San Francisco today were the director Pete Segal and stars Anne Hathaway and Steve Carell. Not only did they deliver one hell of a hilarious Q&A, but the new trailer that debuted for the audience looked fantastic and played to enormous applause and cheers. Not only is this going to be a huge summer hit, but Carell perfectly embodies a contemporary Agent Maxwell Smart.

WonderCon: Wanted Definitely a 'Hard R' Based on Footage

Coming live from WonderCon in San Francisco, we've been shown a glimpse of the first real footage from the upcoming comic book flick Wanted and it's pretty intense. After watching the first teaser trailer, we weren't sure whether to expect a PG-13 comic book flick or something more extreme. After watching this full five minutes of footage here today at WonderCon, I can confirm that it is definitely going to be a hard R. Not only did James McAvoy drop about six F-bombs in that five minutes, but the violence is quite excessive (although no dead bodies were to be seen). Director Timur Bekmambetov is an incredibly visual director and it certainly showed in the over-the-top footage we saw.

Full WonderCon 2008 Schedule Announced

WonderCon is the lil' baby brother of Comic-Con. It's put on by the same company but hosted in San Francisco at a convention center that's about 10x smaller. FS.net will again heading out to San Fran to enjoy the festivities of WonderCon in just a few weeks. The complete schedule of presentations has been officially announced and the line-up this year is vastly more impressive than last year - from Forgetting Sarah Marshall to The X-Files 2 to Iron Man to Wall-E. If you're interested to know what we'll be covering for the site or happen to be in San Fran heading to WonderCon, below are the most interesting panels and presentations that you won't want to miss.

New WonderCon Spider-Man 3 Trailer Details!

It was an unfortunate let down out here in San Francisco at WonderCon, as the Spider-Man 3 panel consisted of one measly 2 minute trailer and no celebrity appearences at all. However, it did have a few new scenes and a bit of exciting new footage, which we have details of here!

No Live Blogging - Reports Coming Soon

Unfortunately the convention center in San Francisco does NOT have wifi available and we will NOT be live blogging any of the panels today. I am writing a couple of updates in the panels and will post them live as soon as I can. I have limited wifi access and have to head far out of the ballroom in order to write any posts. It's an unfortunate delay, but I'll keep you updated with details once the panel kicks off.

WonderCon Live Blogging Coming Tomorrow (Saturday)

FirstShowing.net will be making its way to San Francisco, California for the smaller version of Comic-Con called WonderCon and will be providing our signature, exclusive live coverage of some of the more popular panels. We won't be live blogging all of it, but we will be attending all of the panels and covering information on all of them. However, the live blogging will only be for the TMNT, 300, Resident Evil: Extinction, and most importantly, Spider-Man 3 panels. Read on for times and more information.

World War Z - The Zombie Wars Movie

You've probably never heard of this book, but you should definitely take an interest. It's written by Max Brooks, Mel Brooks' son, who also wrote "The Zombie Survival Guide". Without going too much into detail about World War Z, it's another faux zombie tale subtitled "An Oral History of the Zombie War" that's set in the aftermath of a war fought between humanity and a legion of flesh-eating zombies.

In another update from the New York Comic-Con last weekend via IGN, "Babylon 5" creator J. Michael Straczynski announced that he is writing the screenplay adaptation of the book for Paramount. The novel's rights were picked up last year by none other than Brad Pitt's production company Plan B (that's previously produced Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The Departed), with a possibility of having him star.

Endless Updates on Stephen King's The Dark Tower

If you're interested in Marvel's "Dark Tower" comic book series from legendary novelist Stephen King, or just interested in the possibility of having J.J. Abrams (who was just confirmed as the director on Star Trek XI) work on a film adaptation of it, then it's your best bet to read either of these reports from the New York Comic-Con where King spoke at Cinematical (full transcript) or Ain't It Cool News. Apparently King has spoken with J.J. Abrams about the project, and is confident in and trusts Abrams, which is very rare for Stephen King. He said that when Abrams first approached him, his response was, "I'll tell you what… you can option the books and see what you can do with it." There's also an update from Ain't It Cool News coming in just a few days on The Dark Tower, so stay tuned for those details and much more, including what this movie and comic book is even be about.

Kevin Smith's Back-to-Back Filming Schedule

The New York Comic-Con is currently underway this weekend, and one of the reports trickling in from it is from the great Kevin Smith, who gave a talk at the con. In the report on Cinematical, Smith stated that he will be shooting back-to-back films, one being a comedy, one a horror (which has been previously mentioned). No details on the plot or script or anything about either of them, but he did say that the comedy "had to be shot in the winter." He'll likely be shooting that one sometime in the upcoming winter and the horror afterwards, with the comedy arriving first. Sounds like some more great movies from Smith on the way, on top of directing a new TV pilot - exciting!