Welcome back to AP’s Comic-Con coverage. Here’s the highlights from Day Two of the San Diego Comic-Con.

Nicholas Cage made an appearance for his new film Drive Angry 3D. Patrick Lussier directed the movie, which looks to be a classic, violent revenge tale. Cage is one of my favorite actors and always looks for slightly different roles and this looks no different. Check out this short trailer:

Firstshowing.net has a great write-up of the awesome Tron: Legacy viral that took place over the past couple days in San Diego.

Robert Rodriguez’s Machete has had a big presence at this year’s Comic-Con. A new red-band trailer debuted, but even better was the Taco Truck. Stars Danny Trejo and Michelle Rodriguez were on the streets of San Diego handing out taco’s from a branded trailer. Now that’s a good marketing ploy.

Jackass 3D premiered some footage that apparently was ridiculously disgusting. If you are a fan of the series, you should stay tuned for more information, but this doesn’t interest me at all.

Another interesting film also debuted a trailer yesterday. Goon, produced by David Fincher and starring Clancy Brown and Paul Giamatti, looks like a pretty awesome animated film. Based on a comic series by Eric Powell, the story follows The Goon and his sidekick Franky as they battle the supernatural. I had never heard of this before, but check out this great clip/trailer:

During the Burn Notice panel, USA Network head Jeff Watchel announced that they were moving forward with a prequel movie starring Bruce Campbell. The film will focus on Sam Axe’s last mission as a Navy SEAL and is a very interesting move for the series. I didn’t expect such great news from this panel. In response Campbell said, “USA finally got their shit together.”

Frank Darabont showed off a first glimpse at his television series The Walking Dead. Produced for AMC, the series reportedly has an extremely high production value and should look amazing. I don’t know about you, but I think a zombie TV show should be one of the coolest things on TV. Make sure you watch this coming fall when the series debuts in October.

In contrast to the great reaction to The Walking Dead, Steven Spielberg’s new TV series, Falling Skies, was not as well-received. The series follows Noah Wyle and Moon Bloodgood as everyday people who are affected by an alien invasion. There are always high expectations for any project Spielberg is involved with, but the reaction has been lukewarm. Devindra Hardawar from /Film was not impressed. The footage isn’t available online so I can’t judge that, but this show looks to me like same-old, same-old. There’s nothing really new about it and I’m not looking forward to it.

Guillermo Del Toro is a very busy man nowadays. After day one’s surprise announcement that he would be writing and producing Disney’s The Haunted Mansion, the filmmaker debuted footage from another one of his horror projects, Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark. Based on the 1973 TV movie, the film follows a young girl as she encounters various creatures after moving into a haunted house with her family. The footage screened at the panel got a great reaction, and we should be able to see the trailer in the next few weeks. And for those of you worried about the film being watered down, Del Toro had this to say, “We are not taking anything away from the original, and we are not fucking chickening out… we wrote and originally shot the movie for PG-13, and could do that without compromising the scares…But we were given a badge of honor. The MPAA came back and gave it a non-negotiable R for ‘pervasive scariness’.” So there you go, horror fans.

MTV Movies Blog was able to talk to Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman who are now writing the sequel to J.J. Abrams’ fantastic Star Trek reboot. While they were very quiet about plot details, they stated that each and every crewmember would get more screentime in the sequel, saying, “Now the whole family is there and you want to focus on them first. Before you worry too much about new characters, make sure you have them taken care of.”

Last but definitely not least is James Gunn’s Super. The movie stars Rainn Wilson as a man who dons a superhero costume in order to avenge his wife’s (Liv Tyler) murder. Ellen Page and Nathan Fillon co-star. I can’t wait to see this movie, which sounds like a low-budget, rawer version of Kick Ass with Dwight from The Office.

So that’s it for Day Two. The Marvel panel is starting in just a few minutes, so stay tuned for some big news.

Forgive me for the title — no, the inevitable Transformers 3 will (most definitely) have nothing to do with The Nightmare on Elm Street.

Nor will it have anything to do with J.J. Abram’s buddies Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, who scripted Star Trek and worked on the first two Transformers films, but won’t be returning for Michael Bay’s third rampage.

Orci has direct contact with /Film on their forums, and he previously noted that it was “Time for fresh blood … the main reason we would move on is because we risk getting stale and comfortable. If you only sing one song for too long, you miss the opportunity to sing news songs. We’ll see.”

Now, the third film, slated for a release in Summer 2011, will be scripted by Ehren Kruger, who also worked on Revenge of the Fallen, as well as Blood and Chocolate and Reindeer Games. While this might seem like a serious downgrade from Orci and Kurtzman, I think it’s important to remember that Transformers 2 suffered from the same problem that hindered Spiderman 3: overcomplication.

Perhaps reducing the amount of writers on deck will lead to a more refined, streamlined, explosion-ridden experience than the last outing. Whatever the case, we’ll know soon — Optimus Prime will be rolling out again in two short years.

Screenwriters Alex Kurtzman and Robert Orci along with Dreamworks aim to get their hands on Xombie. The material originated from a Flash animated series created by James Farr which blossomed into several issues of comics. The story revolves around a monster named Dirge who protects a little girl so she can reunite with her family. The series gained internet cult status starting in 2003 when the animated series first made its wave online, expanding now to a negotiable movie deal.

Kurtzman and Orci are both in talks to produce with Will Beall penning the script. Beall is currently writing the novel adaptation of his own book LA Rex. The dynamic duo which is Kurtzman and Orci currently are working on the script of Jon Farveau’s Cowboys and Aliens along with producing it.

The two popular script writers have conjured up a fair number of popular movies. From J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek to Michael Bay’s Transformers, the two are constantly in demand. In order to view the duo’s latest work, go to your local stores on November 17th and pick up Star Trek on DVD and Blu-Ray.

What we have here is essentially confirmation from Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman (screenwriters of Transformers and Star Trek) that the much awaited Star Trek sequel will not be mindless as Revenge of the Fallen was, and will likely have more depth than the first outing of the series.

In other words, the writers are confirming that they’re putting what should go into any good piece of writing into Star Trek 2. This could also be interpreted as they’re putting effort into their work.

Regardless, any Trek news is good news. Read on:

“It needs to tell a story that has connection to what is familiar and what is relevant. It also needs to tell it in a spectacular way that hides the machinery and in a primarily entertaining and hopefully moving story. There needs to be relevance, yes, and that doesn’t mean it should be pretentious. If there are simple truths — truths connected to what we live — that elevates any story — that’s true with any story.”

He continues:

“We’ve literally had two meetings now. We haven’t decided anything but we’re starting to circle around some ideas. We got a lot of fan response from the first one and a considerable amount of critical response and one of the things we heard was, ‘Make sure the next one deals with modern-day issues.’ We’re trying to keep it as up-to-date and as reflective of what’s going on today as possible. So that’s one thing, to make it reflect the things that we are all dealing with today.”

Well, Kurtzman/Orci … get crackin’! What are you waiting for?!

According to a brief interview conducted by Collider, J.J. Abrams  is excited for Star Trek 2. But will the director be back to direct the sequel to one of the summers biggest (and best) movies, Star Trek?

“It’s about that kind of feeling, like ‘oh my god, I can’t wait to do that!’ I won’t be walking away from Trek in any way in the next film. I feel too lucky to be a part of this thing to say goodbye to it,” Abrams said while on the red carpet at the Saturn Awards.

Flash lens.

No official word on whether the Cloverfield director will return to the Enterprise either in the director’s chair or purely in a producing role.

While plot details are obviously unknown, the Fanboy Nation has sounded off on their desire for a return of Trek’s favorite baddie: Kahn. Star Trek writers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orcimay have openly speculated that they may go a different route where “…the unknown and nature itself is somehow the adversary or the villain model.”

The duo, who also penned the critical dirge Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, hinted on creating a loose trilogy much like Wrath of Kahn, Search for Spock and The Voyage Home.

Star Trek 12?

For all of those Trekkies out there who are craving (or dreading) the latest installment on one of the biggest science fiction stories of the past few decades have another movie after the J.J.Abrams one to look forward to. Paramount fills up their squad with writers Alex Kurtzman (Transformers 2), Damon Lindelof (Lost) and Roberto Orci (Star Trek) to start penning the overall twelfth installment of the Star Trek movie franchise. The guesstimate of the film’s release date for the sequel is summer 2011.

Star Trek, the newest installment, centers around the young James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) and his crew on the USS Enterprise as they fight against Nero (Eric Bana), a Romulan from the future who threatens the United Federation of Planets. Previously it was set to release on Christmas day of 2008 but was pushed back to the start of the summer movie season to rake in a bigger audience. Directed by J. J. Abrams (Cloverfield), the latest Trek adventure bows in theatres and IMAX on May 8th.