So, San Diego Comic-Con is once again upon us, and they are not waiting until the convention hits the big days of Friday and Saturday to give us breaking news and inside scoop. Here is some of the news to come out of Thursday.

ITEM!: We have already mentioned the debut of the new Tron: Legacy trailer. It will be interesting to see how this film will fare now that the technology in real life has caught up to what was on the screen.

ITEM!: TheOne-Ring.net panel gave us news supposedly from Peter jackson’s mouth–The Hobbit will not be shot in 3-D. That is, of course, if the film ever gets made and if Peter Jackson has anything to do with it.

ITEM!: At the Entertainment Weekly: The Visionaries panel focusing on him and J.J. Abrams, Joss Whedon confirmed he was directing The Avengers.  ”That is not an official thing. But I’m making that an official thing: I’m directing the Avengers,” said Whedon. It’s so charming that Marvel thought they’d get some buzz and excitement out of news that was pretty much common knowledge.

ITEM!: Guillermo Del Toro announced that he is going to “reimagine” The Haunted Mansion for a new film. Glad to see that Disney is jumping aboard the whole “if at first you don’t succeed, try again” trend in films. Although, if there is a director who can get the most out of a kid-friendly horror property (no pun intended), it’s Del Toro.

More news from Friday either later today or tomorrow.

1. Alice In Wonderland (Disney, 3,728 Theaters, 108 Minutes, Rated PG):I am a big Tim Burton fan. And if there ever was a film that would be in the director’s wheelhouse, it would be this one. It is one of history’s best trippy/weird stories and Burton is all about the trippy/weird. But I still have some doubts about it.

What I do like about this one is that it is an sequel (well, technically, a second sequel) to the original story. This gives Burton a little more wiggle room to be creative, as he is not beholden to do a faithful adaptation of the text.

However, the film seems much more like it should be “Mad Hatter in Wonderland”. Johnny Depp is one of the world’s biggest stars and his involvement would have to be enlarged, but I don’t recall the Mad Hatter being THAT big of a part in any of the books. The trailer makes it out that he is a constant companion to Alice, and fights by her side.

And then there’s the whole 3-D thing. I find the 3-D trend irksome and really annoying. Fortunately, there will be theaters showing the film in non-3D format (at least two in my immediate vicinity) but I am not a fan of where this trend is going.

But I cannot see how this film could be boring. Burton’s take should be inventive and exciting, and there should be enough in the film to make it interesting.

2. Brooklyn’s Finest (Overture Films, 1,936 Theaters, 133 Minutes, Rated R): Or, in other words, Training Day 2.

Well, no, of course this film isn’t a sequel to the 2001 film also directed by Antoine Fuqua and also starring Ethan Hawke. But it sure seems like it, doesn’t it? Same gritty crime story. Good guys acting like bad guys and vice versa.

The plot revolves around three cops whose separate paths connect in conjunction with a horrible crime.

I am most interested in this movie for two reasons. One, to see if Richard Gere’s over the top Brooklynese accent is better in the film than it was in the trailers. And two, to see how Wesley Snipes fares in his return to the big screen after his recent tax-related legal troubles. 

Spider-Man has a new boss and it’s Mickey Mouse!

In a move that has both the film and comics genre geek press buzzing, the Walt Disney Company announced today that they will be acquiring Marvel Enterprises, which includes Marvel Comics and Marvel Studios, for a staggering $4 billion. The deal brings to Disney Marvel’s 5,000+ characters including Captain America, Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four into their corporate hierarchy. It was news that caught everyone by surprise and immediately discussion on the deal filled the electronic ether. Not to mention the inevitable jokes that immediately began to fly. (“Coming soon- Xavier’s Academy Musical!”, “Matt Murdock is The Shaggy D.A. He’s his own seeing-eye dog!”)

(And FBOL Comic Book Movie editor William Gatevackes rightly points out that the two biggest comics publishers are now owned by the two major animation houses in film history.)

Of course, amidst all the surprise, a number of questions lurk. Will the family-oriented Disney allow some of the more adult-targeted comics to continue? Probably. What of the Disney properties that are currently licensed out to other comics publishers, such as Boom Studio’s Muppet and PIXAR-related titles? No word yet. What about Marvel’s licensing deal that allows Spider-Man and the Hulk to roam Disney theme-park rival Universal Studios Orlando? That will stay in place for the foreseeable future.

But what changes are we going to see on the movie side of things? Probably not much in the short and even medium term.

The most pressing question that seems to have been generated by today’s announcement is what will become of Marvel’s deal with Paramount Studios to distribute the superhero films that Marvel Studios are producing?According to Marvel Studios honcho Kevin Feige, the agreement which will see Paramount distribute Iron Man 2 next summer, Thor and Captain America in 2011, The Avengers in 2012 and a possible Iron Man 3 will stay in place, at least until all those films have been released. It is doubtful that Marvel would re-up the agreement with Paramount when they can utilize Disney’s own distribution and formidable advertising networks.

As for studio interference, I think Disney will leave well enough alone. Paramount’s deal kept them hands off on the production side of things, and that has allowed Feige to build Marvel Studios’ plan for interconnecting films.While Marvel might not have the string of hits that recently acquired PIXAR Studios has been granted, if the cross-film build-up towards 2012′s The Avengers continues not just with fans but on the year-end balance sheets, then expect Disney to grant Marvel the same autonomy that they have granted PIXAR.

But what of Marvel’s myriad deals that have licensed out many of their characters to other film companies? Currently, 20th Century Fox has the X-Men, Daredevil and Fantastic Four characters, while Sony has rights to Spider-Man and his supporting cast. While Fox has bungled both the potential for long-running Daredevil and Fantastic Four franchises, they seem to be quite happy with the box-office number on their X-Men films. This summer’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine has done over $363 million in worldwide ticket sales, which is enough for the studio to have several more films in development, including a direct sequel to Wolverine and numerous spinoffs. Sony isn’t about to give up their Spider-Man franchise without a fight. The first three films have brought the studio nearly $3 billion dollars and they have plans in place for another three films.

But the answer to how long these two studios can milk their respective franchises lies in their individual contracts with Marvel. These deals were originally struck in the late-1990s, when Marvel was in financial straights and looking for fast infusions of cash. The deals they made then might not have been in their best long-term interest. It is unknown what the terms of the deals are. Were the characters licensed for just a specific amount of time with the rights reverting back to Marvel at that span’s end, whether or not any films have been made? What mechanisms are in place in regards to the option to extend the licensing? If films do get made, are the options to extend the deal automatically activated or do the studios have to meet to hash out an extension?

While on one hand, I can see where it would be tempting for Marvel to just sit back and collect whatever percentages they’re entitled while letting Twentieth Century Fox and Sony take all the financial risks in making these films. On the other hand, I can see the desire to have the characters back under their own corporate umbrella. And I have to confess that the fanboy in me relishes the idea of all of those characters having the potential to interact in Marvel Studio’s burgeoning cinematic universe. With the might of Disney behind them, Marvel Studios just might be able to crowbar back those characters for themselves.

Of course, there is the opportunity for working with other companies under the Disney corporate umbrella- specifically, PIXAR Studios. PIXAR head stated today that he has already met with Marvel execs last week and that the discussion got “pretty excited, pretty fast.” Given that even the worse of PIXAR’s film is still head and shoulders above what any other animation studio is churning out, it is tantalizing to think what these two groups can do when combined.

Of course, all this is speculation, and Disney could do something as surprising and seemingly out of left field as today’s announcement was. Then again, when it acquired PIXAR in 2006, Disney remained hands off and even brought several of its execs into their own corporate hierarchy. While the various components of Marvel Entertainment Group might not have the same levels of financial success that PIXAR had before their acquisition, I don’t think Disney would have forked over $4 billion for a company that was a fixer-upper.

Last March, 20th Century Fox announced plans to strip DVDs and Blu-Ray discs being sold to the rental market (Blockbuster, Netflix and the like) of all special features content, in the belief that this will drive consumers towards purchasing the more fully loaded retail editions. Now, it looks as if Disney is gearing up for a similar move with their home video product.

AfterDawn is reporting that starting with the June releases of Morning Light, Confessions Of A Shopaholic and Jonas Brothers: The Concert Experience, the Mouse House will be making barebone editions available to rental company purchasers, while retail outlets will be able to purchase discs with “value-added material.”

There are a few differences with Disney’s program versus Fox’s. Whereas both versions of a Fox title carry the same price point, Disney is making the stripped down editions of their releases cheaper than the special features packed ones. Disney is also allowing rental companies to buy the more complete version of each release if they desire. Fox is not allowing that option.

I’m not sure that this strategy will have the long term gains that Fox and Disney may be hoping for. Blockbuster and other rental outlets rely on the revenue from selling older, previously-viewed DVDs. This secondary sale is perfectly within all copyright laws, and it gives stores a way to get rid of that wall full of Mama Mia! discs long after the demand for them dwindles down to a couple of rentals a week. Many consumers wait for these “previously viewed” sales in order to pick up titles at a substantial discount from what they would pay for a new disc at a retail store.

But by supplying rental outlets barebones releases, the studios seem to be banking that consumers will want only the “fully-loaded” editions and will flock to a retailer like Kmart or Best Buy to purchase. They may be right, and their retail sales may see a bit of a boast. But if rental chains start to see a decline in their “previously-viewed” DVD sales, they may be more reticent to order them from the studio when the title is first released. The situation becomes one of robbing Peter to pay Paul, at the risk of alienating their rental unit purchasing clients.