2011 Comic-Con

With comic book flicks dominating our movie culture, San Diego's Comic-Con is no longer merely a geekfest but a giant pop culture showplace. Besides the bevy of chicks found in our BabeWatch section, here's some of the highlights:

Adam West, Burt Ward & Jule Newmar had a reunion of sorts on a special Batman panel:

http://tv.yahoo.com/blog/comiccon-adam-west-burt-ward-and-julie-newmar-reunite-for-batman-panel--3350

A preview of Frank Miller's upcoming Holy Terror, the comic in the vein of WWII progaganda featuring a superhero battling Al Qaeda. It will be on sale after the 10th anniversary of 9/11:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/al-qaeda/8658858/New-comic-superhero-to-take-on-al-Qaeda.html
Steven Spielberg showed up, and with Peter Jackson of Lord of the Rings fame, promoting this winter's The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn. Spielberg also hinted another Jurassic Park movie may be in the works:

http://www.movieweb.com/comic-con/2011/news/sdcc-2011-steven-spielberg-and-peter-jackson-unveil-the-adventures-of-tintin-secret-of-the-unicorn

Mark Hamill of Luke Skywalter and The Joker fame will play a bad guy in the upcoming final season of Chuck:

http://www.cinemablend.com/television/Comic-Con-2011-Mark-Hamill-Play-Villain-Chuck-33710.html

Speaking of The Joker, mental health experts had a panel titled "Detecting Deviants in the Dark Night: Profiling Gotham City’s Serial Killers." Of particular note was Joker, unsurprisingly, with one participant noting that he is not psychotic, but rather psychopathic:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/21/batman-villains-psychoanalyzed_n_901913.html

"I felt like TV was getting too smart!" So says Mike Judge, the mastermind behind King of the Hill, Office Space and Idiocracy, about the reason behind the upcoming return of his most famous work of art, Beavis & Butthead:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2017900/Beavis-Butthead-set-return-creator-Mike-Judge-jokes-television-getting-smart.html

A cool promo for the holiday season's upcoming Kinect Star Wars for the Xbox 360, which will include a podracing campaign:

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/gamehunters/post/2011/07/kinect-star-wars-will-bring-podracing-to-living-rooms-/1

A red carpet movie premiere of Cowboys & Aliens, featuring the badass talents of Harrison Ford (who still has it) and Daniel Craig, with an assist from Olivia Wilde. When dudes playing Indiana Jones and James Bond get together, great things tend to follow:

http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/b254126_sneak_peek_daniel_craig_harrison_ford.html

Dual Spocks for Abrams' Star Trek

http://tv.yahoo.com/heroes/show/39435/news/urn:newsml:tv.eonline.com:20070726:3a6f8f14_fb894eee_bc46_2598412ea62a__ER

Dual Spocks for Abrams' Star Trek
By Natalie Finn
7-26-7

Four Vulcan ears are always better than two.

J.J. Abrams, creator of Lost and Alias and the auteur who will be reviving the Star Trek franchise next year, said Thursday that his take on the sci-fi classic will feature dual Mr. Spocks, the younger of the two to be played by Heroes villain Zachary Quinto, as reported earlier this week by E! Online's TV blog.

And serving as young Spock's older and wiser incarnation will be none other than Leonard Nimoy, who was on hand when the good news was announced during Paramount Pictures' panel at Comic-Con, aka fanboy heaven, in San Diego.

"People have been asking me why I'm doing this movie, and I think the answer is obvious—we have a great director, a wonderful script, and a wonderful young actor playing Spock, so…it was logical," said the 76-year-old Nimoy, to everybody's proudly dorky delight.

Per the closely guarded script penned by Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, Quinto will star as Spock in his pre-Wrath of Khan days. Nimoy, meanwhile, will have a meaty cameo.

When asked how much of his take on the half-Vulcan Enterprise veteran will be inspired by Nimoy, Quinto, was last seen opening skulls and getting skewered as the power-hungry Sylar on Heroes, said: "Well, as much as he'd like it to be, since he's working on the film, which is an honor."

But, "I certainly intend to bring my own spin to it, and working with these guys, I'm sure I'll find it," he added.

Abrams' addition to the canon, which is slated for a Christmas Day 2008 release, couldn't be coming at a better time, at least for Trekkers, considering there hasn't been a new addition to the cinematic series in more than five years, and because, for the first time in what seems like forever, there is no first-run Star Trek spinoff series on the air right now.

While the last cinematic permutation of the series was 2002's Star Trek: Nemesis, Nimoy hasn't played big-screen Spock since 1991's Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.

Shooting on the new film—which, taking a cue from Casino Royale and Batman Begins, will bring us back to where it all began for Spock and pal James T. Kirk—is expected to kick off in November.

Abrams, who promised that he'd return to Comic-Con next year with more scoop, said that the role of young Kirk has not yet been cast and that they're trying to find a way to get William Shatner involved.

And…Star Trek isn't the only long-dormant franchise that's injecting some old blood and playing host to a familiar face.

Director Steven Spielberg also revealed (via video feed) Thursday at Comic-Con that Karen Allen, Harrison Ford's love interest from Raiders of the Lost Ark, will appear in the upcoming fourth Indiana Jones movie

Joined (on tape) by cast members Ford (in full Indy gear), Shia LeBeouf and Ray Winstone, Spielberg delighted fans with the news that the spunky Marion Ravenwood was primed for a comeback.

No additional footage from the as-yet untitled film was presented, but the audience sounded psyched enough, allowing the all-star crew behind the ambitious endeavor to rest on their laurels for just a little longer.

"I'm here on the set of Indiana Jones and the…and that's the title of our film," Spielberg joked.

Fans were treated to clips from the upcoming Iron Man film, directed by Jon Favreau and starring Robert Downey Jr. as the metal-enhanced superhero, as well as to the trailer for Robert Zemeckis' take on the medieval epic Beowulf, featuring Winstone and Angelina Jolie.