Movies

While given everything that went on, having another go at Green Lantern seems like a surprising move, Warners really has no choice. They've made a huge investment in their superhero franchises, and with Harry Potter gone, they need another tentpole franchise. Batman gets rebooted after next year and Superman is a big question mark at this point, so throwing money and marketing partnerships at it until the Happy Meals stick seems to be the only way to go.

The Smurfs shocked everyone by tying the much hyped COWBOYS & ALIENS at the box office this weekend and we dig into Platinum's stock filings to see what's up at the company. Plus: Who is Ervin Rustemagic?

Star Wars Ruined Comic-Con!

HUGE SPOILERS Watch at our own risk -- it will be gone by dawn anyway. If you stick around to the very end of the CAPTAIN AMERICA credits, there's a teaser for ANOTHER movie. Can oyu guess what it is?

Seeing it in a few minutes! More thoughts later.

While not generally included in lists of comics book movies, OLDBOY most certainly is one -- the tale of twisted vengeance is based on a manga by Nobuaki Minegishi and Garon Tsuchiya (published in the US by Dark Horse.) Turned into an acclaimed film by South Korean director Chan-wook Park in 2003, it won the Grand Jury Prize at Cannes in 2004. Now Spike Lee will take a shot at making an American version to match the first filmed version. he's signed to direct the remake, his first film in three years, from a script by Mark Protosevich. Steven Spielberg and Will Smith were once attached to the film, but no longer. OLDBOY involves a man who wakes up in a room where is confined for 15 years. When he learns of his family's death via the TV in the room, he plans an escape and a grisly vengeance on those who imprisoned him.

A lengthy trailer for The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn has finally been released that actually shows faces and things. As you may recall, this film is a collaboration between Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson and has been fashioned using mocap technology -- and will be presented in 3D PLUSSES: Obviously a very smart lietrate script by Steve Moffat (Doctor Who), Edgar Wright (Scott Pilgrim) and Joe Cornish (many smart British things.) It's not too often you watch a trailer for an action movie and think "Wow, that is a well written script!" MINUSES: Jeepers did they shoot this in some kind of overcranked mode? It is so ssslllloooowwww. Everyone moves in poetic Malick-cam motion.

Correct us if we're wrong, but was no one excited about the new Conan movie until star Jason Momoa blew everyone away with his tough, tender, blood spewing, tragic Khal Drogo on Game of Thrones? And now eveyrone is like...JASON MOMOA SQEEEEEEEEEEE.

While Captain America's sugartastic ice cream and donut tie-ins have been causing a lot of comment -- and cavities -- here's a new comic book movie tie-in that is frighteningly hip: a lens/case pak for Hipstamatic, the trendy and addictive photo app for iPhones that produces instantly professional looking photos thanks to filters and levels. Director Jon Favreauannounced it on Twitter:

To find out that one of your regular drinking pals had quietly snuck off into the desert and directed a movie is always a surprise -- when it's Garth Ennis who did the sneaking it's a delightful surprise.

The Comic-Con film festival has become an increasingly important part of the show, with a variety of premieres in the fiction and non-fictin categories. Of note are screenings of comics-related documentaries Superheroes, Comic Books Go to War, My Comic Shop DocumentARy, and To Romero With Love. Complete list follows:

In for a penny in for a pound: Despite bad reviews, and a 66 percent decline at the box office this weekend, Warner Bros. is still planning a sequel to Green Lantern, THR reports. A WB spokesman admits that the studio was "somewhat disappointed” with the box office, but they still believe in it as a franchise.