1. Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore (Warner Brothers, 3,705 Theaters, 82 Minutes, Rated PG): The conceit behind this franchise is that dogs and cats have been waging a secret war behind their master’s backs for years. Not just chasing each other around the neighborhood, but actually hi-tech war with hi-tech weaponry and so on.

Depending on your point of view, that concept could be either delightfully silly or painfully stupid. If you believe the former, then this week is for you because the silliness has been amped up a few levels.

The dogs and cats put their differences aside when faced with a common threat–a hairless feline that goes by the name of Kitty Galore. Kitty wants to conquer the world, something that will be bad for both cats and dogs.

If you think of this movie as silly fun, give it a try. If not, then don’t. But you kids will probably giggle at it all the same.

2. Charlie St. Cloud (Universal. 2,720 Theaters, 99 Minutes, Rated PG-13): When you are most famous for a Disney musical such as High School Musical trilogy and your second most famous work is Hairspray, like Zac Efron is, then trying to carve out a real, lasting, non-musical movie career will be hard.

But is having your next film be Ordinary People meets Ghost meets Nicolas Sparks-esque romance the right choice? I guess we’ll find out this week.

Efron plays a young man who lost his brother to a drunk driver. He keeps his brother’s spirit alive by playing catch with his ghost. A woman enters his life and might possibly be able to draw him out of his seclusion. But will he lose her too?

I’m not a big fan of films that mix the heartwarming with the morbid, but who knows if I am alone in this one or not. It all depends on whether or not Efron’s fans will like this genre I guess.

3. Dinner for Schmucks (Paramount/Dreamworks, 2,911 Theaters, 110 Minutes, Rated PG-13): In my opinion, Steve Carell and Paul Rudd, either separately or together, can do no wrong. I haven’t yet seen a role from either them that they haven’t been the best part of.

And this film seems to play to their strengths–Carell as a socially awkward guy who is a nice guy at heart and Rudd as slightly smarmy smart-Alec who is a nice guy at heart and reveals himself as such by the final reel.

Remade from the 1998 French film, Le Diner de Cons, it features Rudd as a budding young executive who hopes for promotion will be improved is he brings the weirdest, most socially maladjusted person to his boss’ weekly dinner party. Carell’s character, an IRS employee who makes art out of taxidermied animals, fits the bill.

After much speculation as to what he may direct now that he has left the director’s chair for The Hobbit, it is looking that Guillermo Del Toro has chosen his next project – his long in gestation adaptation of H. P. Lovecraft’s classic horror novella At The Mountains Of Madness.

Deadline is reporting that Del Toro will be shooting the film in 3D for Universal Pictures. James Cameron has signed on to serve as a producer. Don Murphy and Susan Montford have been tied to the project as producers for years as Del Toro has tried to get a studio interested in greenlighting the project. The project was first developed at Dreamworks in 2004. Warner Brothers came close in 2006, but then backed off. Universal became involved when Del Toro signed with the studio in 2007 to direct Hellboy II.

Pre-production should start on the film in the next couple of weeks as Del Toro gives the script a polish. Cameras should roll next summer.

Lovecraft’s classic story chronicles an expedition to the Antarctic that uncovers an ancient city with secrets that relate to the very origins of mankind. And even though it is millennia old, the mysterious city is not as abandoned as one would think. For fans of Lovecraft’s work, the novella helps ties together several other short stories involving elder beings who have visited Earth and influenced its history into a cohesive mythology.

If you’re unfamiliar with the novella, and shame on you if you are, you can read it here.

One of the big moments of last weekend’s Sand Diego Comic Con was the screening of a five minute trailer for attendees of Marvel Studios upcoming Thor. Normally these things tend to show up online in some form of video camera-recorded bootleg versions. Overnight, though, the Thor footage materialized and it looks like it has come from an actual copy of what was presented has appeared and is making its way around the internet. I doubt that this is an official release, and it might disappear from some places, but the toothpaste is out of the tube and Marvel won’t be able to get it back in there.

I have to say that I really like what we’re seeing here. The trailer gives us a good sense of the film’s story and Thor’s character arc, hinting at how it will marry the grandeur of Asgard, home of the Norse gods, to its more Earth-bound components. Kenneth Branagh’s done some good work here, if this is anything to judge by. And clocking in at five minutes, it is a lot longer than any actual trailer that Marvel Studios may release in the near future.

In the meantime, enjoy while you can.

Unlike some studios with their San Diego Comic Con wares, Warner Brothers has seen fit to release the teaser trailer they showcased at the event for director Zack Snyder’s upcoming fantasy film Sucker Punch.

Described by Snyder as “Alice In Wonderland with machine guns,” the film is set in 1950s and features a young woman who retreats into a fantasy world as a way of planning an escape from the asylum where she is incarcerated by her evil stepfather before a scheduled lobotomy.

The film stars Emma Browning, Jon Hamm, Vanessa Hudgens, Abby Corning, Jena Malone, Carla Gugino and Michael Jai White. It hits theaters on March 25, 2011.

Sunday is usually the off day for comic book conventions. It’s the least attended day, it’s usually when convention organizers have their “kid’s day” and also typically when comic book dealers slash their prices so they do not have to haul out all of their stock and take it back home.

For San Diego Comic-Con, it means for the most part that the movie news whithers up and blows away. Not a lot of movie news, but there were several things of interest.

ITEM!: While any video of the Captain America: The First Avenger panel on You Tube seems to stop before they come to the part where the footage is shown (or is fake), Bleeding Cool has a transcript of the clip. This is how it goes:  

 I was surprised to see a scene from Captain America: The First Avenger played at the panel earlier today seeing as they’ve only been filming for five days so I thought I send  report to you. At least we know what they’ve been shooting and what the general look of the movie will be. I’ve typed up my memory of what they’ve shown because it reveals some real surprises about this movie and how they are tying the movies together.

The scene starts inside a castle in Norway during the second World War. The nazis smash their way in and storm through the hole, absolutely filling the room. There were two guys inside and one of them was killed, the nazis get the other guy and drag him through the castle. He’s an older guy and obviously scared.

The nazis instruct this survivor to open a big sarcophagus and he is about to try when they are interrupted. Appearing first in shadow is Hugo Weaving. As he steps forward we see he isn’t the Red Skull yet. He’s dressed in an SS uniform. A real sharp dressed man.

The old survivor seems to know who Hugo Weaving is. Weaving says he based his voice on Wenrern Herzog and I could kinda hear this when he said “It took me a long time to find this place”.

Weaving pushes the top off of the sarchophagus with super strength. Inside is a skeleton just as you’d expect. The twist is – it’s holding the cosmic cube. At least it looked like the cosmic cube. What else could it be?

Here’s the most interesting bit: Weaving calls this cube “the jewel of Odin’s treasure room”. Then he realizes it isn’t and it’s just a fake, so he smashes it. He now looks at a door way in the wall. Carved on this is Yggdrasil, the “world tree” from Norse myth and, of course, Thor.

Somehow, Weaving knows how to open a secret panel in the door so he does and finds the real cosmic cube. It glows blue.

The old man warns Weaving that this cube is not for normal men, to which Weaving said “Exactly!” with a big, evil grin and the clip ended.

Overall, it was looking pretty good. Especially for just one week’s work.

They also showed a trailer made out of old War clips and a costume test and that ended with Chris Evans throwing his shield. It went by too quickly to judge really but the costume looked just like the concept art.

My name is Bruce.

ITEM!: Marvel also revealed Cap’s Shield to attendees:

And also, in a possible spoiler for all the Marvel movies to come, Thanos’ favorite handgear, the Infinity Gauntlet:

What is the Infinity Gauntlet you may ask? Well, I’d tell you, but Kevin Melrose at Spinoff Online has already done it already, so I’ll let him tell you:

Created by Jim Starlin, Thanos is a Death-obsessed Eternal bent on genocide and galactic conquest. The Infinity Gems — initially called the Soul Gems — are six immensely powerful stones, each granting its bearer with mastery over one aspect of the universe: Mind, Reality, Time, Space, Soul and Power. Combined on the Infinity Gauntlet, they make the user omnipotent.

Does this mean Thanos will be the big bad guy in the Marvel films? Not necessarily. But it’s possible.

ITEM!: Warner Brothers, not to be out done by Marvel, brought along a prop from their Green Lantern film. They showed us…um..the corpse of Abin Sur.

I am of two minds about this. I’m not really comfortable with something being billed as a corpse being displayed at Comic-Con. I know, I’ve worked at a haunted house and this thing is a probably just a rubber sculpture. And you can probably by whole skeletons just a few rows over. But this “corpse” is based on a real actor–who was probably signing autographs in another area of the building. That’s kind of creepy.

On the other hand, I love the strategically placed drop cloth. Because when government scientists do autopsies on aliens who crash land on Earth, they always respect their modesty.

We hate having to report bad news here, so it is with a heavy heart that we tell you that British pop tarts the Spice Girls have denied that they are working on a followup film to their film Spice World.

So any unanswered questions you may have from the first film will continue to remain a mystery for now.

The group had a hit in 1997 with the film Spice World, a movie that many viewed as a post-feminist Hard Day’s Night. Released at the height of the band’s popularity, it managed to gross an estimated $75 million in worldwide box office receipts.

The film featured Roger Moore, Meatloaf, Elvis Costello, George Wendt, Elton John, Bob Geldof and Jennifer Saunders in supporting and cameo roles.

Emma “Baby Spice” Bunton broke the news via her twitter feed -

Shockingly, it turns out that the normally rock solid British tabloid press got their facts when they reported that the pop group was working with producer Judy Craymer on a film version of their currently in development stage musical. While the quintet are currently collaborating with Craymer, who originated the idea for the musical Mamma Mia! which featured the songs of 1970s pop group ABBA, on a show entitled Viva Forever! which will feature their own music, there is no plans in discussion about translating the as yet unstaged show to film.

Yeah, the first couple of days after San Diego Comic Con are always kind of slow.

Via NME.

A very busy day at the Comic-Con. A lot of “first looks” and a very ugly incident. Let’s get that out of the way first.

ITEM!: There has been, as far as I can remember, no major act of violence at Comic-Con. That changed Saturday. Reports say that an argument of taking up seats during panels in Hall H resulted in one fan being stabbed in the eye with a pen and one man leaving the facility in handcuffs.

Comic Book Resources has as good a run down on the developing situation as you are going to get, including a statement from the San Diego Police on the matter.  Apparently, the fight broke out at the end of the Resident Evil: Afterlife panel when the attacker confronted the attackee, saying that if he was there for a later panel, that he should leave.

The situation is a developing one. It will probably be days before we know all the facts and even longer before we know how this will effect San Diego Comic Con and reflect on comic fans.

My knee-jerk reaction? It’s a wonder that this didn’t happen sooner. The SDCC policy of letting people stay through one of more panels so they can have the seat they want leads to the people camping out over night just to get a prime seat. There is a certain cache built up around this practice, almost as if it was a selling point for the con. But it also results in the fair share of disgruntlement and anger amongst fans. Granted, no one would ever go as far as stabbing another person, and that behavior in never acceptible under any circumstances, but there were signs of resentment yet SDCC seemingly put no effort into finding an acceptable alternate plan.

ITEM!: The logo from the Green Lantern movie was unveiled.

ITEM!: Destroyer robot from Thor revealed on convention floor.

ITEM!: First image from Cowboys & Aliens unveiled.

ITEM!: Logo for The Avengers film released.

ITEM!: As per CBR’s live blogging from the Marvel panel, they showed some brief clips from the first eight days of shooting on Captain America: The First Avenger. They also made mention that Frank Castle, a.k.a. The Punisher, is now back under the auspices of Marvel Studios, so expect yet another revamp of that franchise (I, for one, liked the last go round). And at the end of the panel, to the surprise of no one who has internet access, they brought out the cast of The Avengers film,  introducing Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye, Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner, and Joss Whedon as the director. The one piece of information that everyone was waiting for (okay, maybe just me) was who would be playing Ant-Man, but this didn’t get answered at the panel.

UPDATE: According to Bleeding Cool, Whedon was quoted as saying that Ant-Man wasn’t in his The Avengers movie.

Last March, Legendary Pictures announced that they had acquired the rights to Toho Studio’s iconic character Godzilla with the eye towards making a new American version of the classic giant monster tale. Yesterday, Legendary unveiled some promotional art for the proposed film at San Diego Comic Con. The image is one that appears on t-shirts that Legendary was handing out at their panel. (Click on it for a much bigger view.)

What’s most reassuring is thatthe image demonstrates that they have learned the lessons from the previous attempt to Americanize the character and have not strayed from his original design. I like the destruction that we see the big-G causing and the hint of atomic breath brewing inside. People who got the t-shirts were invited to stop by the Legendary booth on the main convention floor where a web camera would film them with superimposed atomic breath shooting out of Godzilla’s mouth.

Unfortunately, there is still no news as to any creative talent that may be attached to the film.

Via Monster Island News.

Kevin Smith has announced who will be playing the villain in his upcoming low-budget horror film Red State which is targeted to begin filming next month. Veteran actor Fred Phelps will be playing what Smith has described as a “Fred Phelps-like” figure who will be chasing after a group of teens after the two somehow meet and not exactly hit it off.

Smith has previously stated that he wanted the cast to be completely unknown, as “I don’t want to cast anybody that anybody knows because that takes you right out of the flick.”

For those who have managed to stay unaware of Phelps, he is the head of the extremely fundamentalist Westboro Baptist Church. With barely a couple of dozen members, the group has earned national media attention for protesting the funerals of military men killed in the line of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan under the belief that their deaths are God’s punishment on the United States for violating various passages cherry-picked from the Bible. As I am vehemently opposed to everything that they stand for, I will not be providing a link to their hate-filled website.

I wouldn’t exactly call Parks an unknown. For a certain segment of cinema-goers, those specifically who are Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez fans, will remember the actor from his appearances in From Dusk Till Dawn, Kill Bill and Grindhouse as Texas Ranger Earl McGraw. (And yes, that means all those films exist in the same cinematic universe. Wrap your head around that one for a while.) But Parks’s resume stretches all the way back to some television work in the early 1960s.

Personally, I think he is a great choice. His work in Tarantino’s and Rodriguez’s films always exuded a menace kept in careful check, a calm consideration that could be shattered without warning. I expect that Smith will still go with unknowns for the balance of the cast though.

Another day, another load of updates from SDCC. Some of them have actually been confirmed.

ITEM!: Nathan Fillion has been confirmed as Ant-Man! By Joss Whedon! For five minutes! But it was a joke! Ha-ha!

Personal note to Rich Johnston: I know that part and parcel of being a gossip columnist is that not everything you report pans out or is true. But when you  rush info onto your site before completely understanding the information, you might have people like my wife and I doing happy dances for no good reason. You owe me a beer, supposing that you ever remember who I am.

ITEM!: Whedon did confirm Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye, which really wasn’t a secret. And apparently Marvel has finished the last minute race to cast Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner in time for tonight’s panel. We have more about these here.   

ITEM!: Marvel also displayed the helmets of Thor, Odin and Loki from their up coming Thor film.

Pretty snazzy. Not that far from the comic books (what, were you expecting the feathered skull cap from the early days of Thor?) and should look great on screen.

ITEM!: Comic writer Grant Morrison will be making the leap to the big screen. He has been tapped to pen Sinatoro, an indie film for ZDONK Productions.

Here is how the press release describes the film:

The film tells the story of Sinatoro, a man with no past and no memories; the sole survivor of a car crash in the middle of a desolate American desert road. When he encounters the beautiful daughter of a cult leader, she convinces him to help defeat the forces of evil, which have overrun her town. His journey pits him against the world’s most dangerous gangster and allies him with a deranged astronaut, a drunken cowboy, and an army of hobos. As Sinatoro travels through an American landscape made of pop culture nightmares, he struggles to understand who he is and why everyone is out to get him. 

Yeah, that sounds like Grant Morrison. Look for it if it ever comes to a theater near. If not, look for it on Netflix. In quasi-related, non-Comic Con news, Neil Gaiman announced on his blog that he has finished the first draft of the screenplay adaptation of his novel Anansi Boys. Morrison might be further along, but I’d imagine more people will see Gaiman’s.

ITEM!: Will Eisner’s classic A Contract With God has been optioned for a movie.

ITEM!: Sam Worthington has confirmed he is cast as Dan Dare for Warner Brothers.

ITEM!: There is what is being called a new “trailer” for the CGI animated comic adaptation, The Goon.

Personally, I think it’s more of a extended test shot than a trailer, but what do I know.

Join us tomorrow as we have news from today’s proceedings, including a look at the Destroyer from Thor, a look at the logo for the Green Lantern film, and what ever comes out of the Warner’s and Marvel panels.