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.

Ahhh, the benefits of a Jesuit education. Saint Louis University graduate James Gunn, writer of Scooby Doo, Slither, Dawn of the Dead and the upcoming Super (which we talked about here) has been making the rounds preparing for production on his self-proclaimed dark comedic take on a superhero. The film stars Rainn Wilson of The Office, Ellen Page, and Liv Tyler. On his personal blog, James wrote:

“Rainn and I have been working together on the project for a few months now – Rainn will be playing the lead role of Frank D’Arbo who dresses up as a superhero called the Crimson Bolt; he’s got no superpowers other than a pipe wrench.  Rainn and I both worked hard to get the best possible folks involved.  We were lucky to get Ted Hope to produce – he’s done such movies as Happiness, The Ice Storm, The Savages, American Splendor, and 21 Grams. This is not a wacky, over-the-top comedy.  Super is a dark, comedic, gritty, very unusual, and grounded film and I think Ted is just the guy to help us get it done right.”

However, when I spoke to him about Super, James Gunn was resistant to the idea that his film should be described as a deconstructionist superhero film alongside the likes of The Dark Knight, Watchmen or Kick-Ass:

“My movie Super is really not a superhero movie. It’s a movie about a human being, who is flawed, and it’s about having faith. And what exactly is faith? What exactly is insanity? That’s what it’s about. It’s an independent film, low-budget, and the actors that are doing it because they like the characters and they’re doing it for scale … it’s really not a superhero movie. That’s just sort of the icing on the cake.”

Gunn, who once aspired to be a rock musician, also revealed his style of forming a film to fit musical choices with composer Tyler Bates (Slither, Dawn of the Dead):

“Writing a pop song is really not that different from cutting a movie, especially the editing. Editing is really a musical thing, it’s about a rhythm and hitting the right beats [...] with Super, I’ve already got the music all picked out, and not only that but we’re writing the score now for the key romantic and action sequences. I can actually shoot the movie to the music, something that I learned from Sergio Leone and Ennio Morricone.”

He also fleshed out what we’ll be seeing in Ellen Page’s character of Libby:

“Certain characters sometimes steal the screenplay. With Super, the character of Libby, the character Ellen Page is playing, is a comic store clerk who figures out that Frank, played by Rainn Wilson, is going around the city dressed as a superhero, beating people up with a pipe wrench. She’s a sociopath, and she wants to be his sidekick, so she starts dressing up and following him around, basically inserting herself into his life. She’s really the best character in the movie … she was a character that just ‘happened.’”

The film Gunn described is certainly more thoughtful and personal than initial reports indicated, as the writer/director states that the script is one of the “very favorite things I’ve ever written.” I’m looking forward to seeing the final product when the film is released in 2010. Keep your eyes peeled for more info!

Rainn Wilson, Ellen Page and Liv Tyler have been cast in Super, the new project from writer/director James Gunn (Slither, PG Porn).

After Variety ran a piece on the news earlier, Gunn responded with more details on his personal blog, stating that he’s “never loved a screenplay more than Super and have been working on it for years.”

Rainn and I have been working together on the project for a few months now – Rainn will be playing the lead role of Frank D’Arbo who dresses up as a superhero called the Crimson Bolt; he’s got no superpowers other than a pipe wrench.  Rainn and I both worked hard to get the best possible folks involved.  We were lucky to get Ted Hope to produce – he’s done such movies as Happiness, The Ice Storm, The Savages, American Splendor, and 21 Grams. This is not a wacky, over-the-top comedy.  Super is a dark, comedic, gritty, very unusual, and grounded film and I think Ted is just the guy to help us get it done right.

He goes on to elaborate on Page and Tyler’s roles in the film:

Liv will be playing Sarah, Frank’s wife, who leaves him for a drug dealer, and Ellen will play the role of Libby, a young sociopath who dons a costume and forces herself into Frank’s life as his “kid sidekick.”

I think Gunn’s a very cool guy with a clear vision of what fans want from his films (Slither delivered on every horror front). I hope that Super is as distinct as Gunn hopes it will be. We’ve already witnessed the superhero deconstruction in films such as Watchmen, Hancock and the upcoming Kick-Ass.

More details as we get them. Keep your eyes peeled!

The DVD release for The Incredible Hulk is quickly approaching (it’s October 21 to be exact) and the buzz is building as to what’s available on the special 3-disc set . Well we have some tidbits for you all here at Atomic Popcorn. While this rework of The Hulk was much better than the Ang Lee interpretation, it still didn’t hit big at the box office? Any ideas on why? Well enjoy the behind the scenes.

Becoming the Hulk:
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Making of: Casting:
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As said above The Incredible Hulk, staring Ed Norton and Liv Tyler hits shelves on October 21st. Make sure to check out our Incredible Hulk page.

The summer of 2008 will be known as the starting point for something great. This will be the time we look back and see how Marvel Comics was able to take their properties and move them forward into one big movie universe. Some will say Spider-Man started it, but it didn’t start to merge till now, till Iron Man laid the groundwork of something large. The Incredible Hulk builds on this groundwork giving us a movie that fits in with the rest of the movie Marvel Universe but also is able to stand alone and deliver it’s own themes and ideas. For those of you that don’t know the background of the Hulk, here it is in song form. Catchy, isn’t it? One thing to keep in mind is, this isn’t the Ang Lee 2003 Hulk which was a very stylized movie based off of the comic book. Some liked it, some hated it. I was among those that liked it, even if the Hulk didn’t appear till almost an hour into the movie. This isn’t a continuation or sequel either. It’s a “reboot”, a do over if you would like. Marvel took a chance to re-image the Hulk’s world for the big screen and they delivered on this by getting Louis Leterrier on board to direct. He brings a real world feel to the movie that some thought was missing in the 2003 version. Plus he knows how to stage an action sequence and we get to see plenty of it in the 2008 Incredible Hulk. Here is a quick run down of the plot. Doctor Bruce Banner (Edward Norton) was belted by gamma rays and turned into the Hulk (Lou Ferrigno, providing the voice). During the accident, he injures long time girlfriend Betty Ross (Liv Tyler) and her father General Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross (William Hurt). Like the TV show, we see Bruce trying to find a cure to remove the Hulk from him. Like the comic book we see Bruce running from the United States military in hope of not being captured and used as a weapon.  Two great tastes that go great together. Assisting General Ross with his quest is Emil Blonsky (Tim Roth), on loan to the US from the UK. Blonsky is a warrior that lives for the fight, the adrenalin rush, the thrill of the hunt, and the capture of the prey. He’ll stop at nothing till Bruce Banner/the Hulk is captured. Bruce has help as well in the form of a mystery Mr Blue who is trying to come up with a cure. We later learn that Mr Blue is Professor Samuel Sterns (Tim Blake Nelson) and he has plans of his own for Bruce’s blood.

Unlike the previous outing, this movie picks up the action right away and we see the Hulk within the first 30 minutes of the movie. Between a roof top chase in South America, a fight between the Hulk and General Ross’ military forces, and a showdown in New York City we get to see tons of action. So in honor of this movie I am going to debut a new feature called “The Good, The Bad, and The Geeky.” The Good:

• Action and lots of action
• True to both the TV version and the comic version
• Bill Bixby is in the movie, keep your eye out
• Cameo appearances by Lou Ferrigno and Marvel Comics legend Stan Lee
• The HULK seen within the first 30 minutes is a plus
• William Hurt did a great job as General Ross; He was on-par with Sam Elliot’s version in the 2003 Hulk
• Ed Norton showed that he was a fan of the source material and respected both the TV and Comic fans with the script that he helped write