Every year at Comic-Con, there's at least one panel that you don't wanna miss. These panels start the buzz for big-budget genre movies, and that buzz can make or break a film long before it makes it to the big screen. In 2006, "Spider-Man 3" started the ball rolling, and in 2007, it sure as hell worked big time for "Iron Man."

[Pictured left: Actresses Carla Gugino, left, and Malin Akerman, right, pose for photographers after a panel discussion for the new movie "Watchmen" at the Comic-Con 2008 convention Friday, July 25, 2008 in San Diego. (AP Photo/Denis Poroy)]

This year, it's "Watchmen." That name may not mean anything to the masses, but for the Comic-Con crowd, Watchmen is the Holy Grail. When it was first released as a 12-issue maxi-series starting in 1986 (and re-released later as a bounded graphic novel), it broke new ground because of its dark, violent, realistic and more mature depiction of flawed superheroes that weren't so super after all. Co-creators -- writer Alan Moore and artist Dave Gibbons -- took readers through an alternate 1980s reality where Richard Nixon was still president and the doomsday clock was ticking against the backdrop of New York.

In short, it was the "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" of comics.  And now, director Zack Snyder is directing a big screen version for release in March of 2009 (ironically, 2 years to the day after Snyder's stylish epic "300," also based on a comics graphic novel, broke new ground).

If the comics read like an R-rated movie, then Snyder confirms that the film version will follow suit -- it's violent, disturbing, graphic, bloody and very R-rated.

And contrary to many special effects-laden superhero movies these days, most of the film was shot using real sets and not using green-screen.

By Scott MovieMantz

If Rose McGowan and Robert Rodriguez have indeed reached splitzville, as some tabloid rags recently "reported," you couldn't tell it from their P.D.A. at the San Diego Comic Con.

Both were in town to discuss their upcoming remake of "Red Sonja," the film about the red-haired heroine who first debuted in a Marvel comic.

McGowan leaves next week for five weeks of training to play the title role, and Rodriguez will direct.  The movie opens in late 2009.

by Scott Mantz

You may not know who WALL-E is now, but you sure will come June 27.

 

That’s when the next computer-animated bonanza from Disney-Pixar (“Finding Nemo,” “Toy Story”) hits theaters, and considering how well the first 8 have done – collectively grossing more than $4.3 billion worldwide – the ninth is bound to keep that cinematic gravy train chugging along just fine.

 

And for good reason – I got to meet WALL-E up close and personal when he dropped by the “Access Hollywood” offices, and what a cutie!  At first, he looked a little like the robot from “Short Circuit,” but then I realized he looked more like a cross between R2-D2 and E.T.