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!

Monsters vs. Aliens

A brand new featurette from DreamWorks for their upcoming animated Monsters vs. Aliens has been released. The video is a behind the scenes look at some of the monsters along with how they go about making a gorgeous animated feature like this.

Check out the 5 minutes of Monster goodness below. Don’t forget to tell us what you think.

Susan Murphy aka Ginormica (Reese Witherspoon), is a modern-day California girl who has the bad luck to be hit by a meteor on her wedding day and grows to be 49 feet, 11½ inches tall. Ginormica is taken to a secret government compound where she meets a ragtag group of monsters also rounded up over the years. As a last resort, under the guidance of General W.R. Monger (Kiefer Sutherland), on a desperate order from The President, the motley crew of Monsters is called into action to combat the aliens and save the world from imminent destruction!

Check out the Monsters vs. Aliens: Meet the Monsters featurette below.

Aside from Reese Witherspoon and Sutherland, other actors joining the film include Hugh Laurie (Dr. Cockroach, PhD), Seth Rogen (the jellylike B.O.B.), Will Arnett (the half-ape, half-fish – Missing Link), Stephen Colbert (the president), and finally, Rainn Wilson (the evil alien Gallaxhar).

The animated film is directed by Rob Letterman and Conrad Vernon, of Shark tale and Shrek 2 respectively.

Monsters vs. Aliens will hit the theaters on March 27, 2009.

Never give up hope. Never give up your dream. Never let anyone keep you down. Those are the first three things that came to me after I watched “The Rocker.” This comedy is about hope and keeping your dreams alive. Yes there is a naked drummer. And yes, there are some penis jokes. And yes, it does star that other guy from TV’s “The Office.” But deep down there is a message in this movie and I felt it.

Cleveland, 1986. The up and coming metal band Vesuvius is on the rise. They have a chance to go from local bar-room favorites to a major recording contract. The only catch is they have to can their drummer and take on the head of the record company’s nephew as the new drummer. Done. And just like that Robert “Fish” Fishman’s (Rainn Wilson) world comes crashing down. His vision of being a rock-and-roll legend have been shattered as his band moves on without him.

Twenty years later, Fish still has not gotten over his one time dream. Every time he hears the name Vesuvius mentioned it puts him into an angry rage. He has lost relationships and his job many times due to this repressed anger that will not go away.

Staying at his sister (Jane Lynch) and her husband Stan’s (Jeff Garlin) house, Fish is left to ponder what will happen to him and his boring life. Their house is in the shadows of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Fish can see the life he never had each and every time he looks at the building

His nephew Matt (Josh Gad) is in a bad called A.D.D. and they are set to play the Prom that weekend. However they have one problem…their drummer just got suspended from school so he isn’t allowed to play. The band needs a drummer and Matt just happens to know the guy. Enter Fish and his 20-year wait coming to an end.

The band A.D.D. is just what Fish needed to relive the life he never got to live. Fish, on the other hand, is what the band needed to jump start their career and get out of Cleveland. Fish teaches Curtis(Teddy Geiger) and Amelia (Emma Stone) along with Matt what it takes to be a rock band.

I enjoyed this movie. I went into it thinking that it would be so-so as I’m not a big Rainn Wilson fan. Yet I came out of the movie very happy that it wasn’t bad at all. There are laughs from the first minute up to the 80′s freeze frame ending. The pace was very good and with only one to two slow spots, I wasn’t worrying about the length of time. This is a great date night movie and when finished, you won’t feel as if you had spent all night at the movies

Last impressions – SEE THIS MOVIE – you won’t regret it.

“The Rocker” is rated PG-13 for drug and sexual references, nudity and language. Directed by Peter Cattaneo and has a run time of 102 minutes.

Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆