The movie studios have almost taken over San Diego's Comic-Con completely. What used to be a comparatively small gathering of comic book collectors and enthusiasts has exploded into the movie marketing event of the year. The major studios see Comic-Con as an excellent opportunity to build positive buzz for genre movies with the fan base in the hopes that blogs and websites will spin the tales of the coveted film footage that is typically never seen again. That's where we come in. We went to Comic-Con in search of movies and got exactly what we wanted. We've taken all the movies that were marketing at Comic-Con and managed them down to a list of the top ten. These are the films that we think you should keep your eyes on because they show the most potential.
10. 10,000 B.C
Director - Roland Emmerich ("The Day After Tomorrow", "Godzilla" (1998), "Independence Day", "Stargate")
Writers - Roland Emmerich, Harald Kloser
Cast - Omar Sharif, Cliff Curtis, Steven Strait, Camilla Belle, Tim Barlow
Summary - A young mammoth hunter must travel through uncharted territory to ensure the survival of his tribe on the prehistoric earth.
Release Date - March 7, 2008
Trailer - http://www.apple.com/trailers/wb/10000bc/hd/
Official Site - http://www.10000bcmovie.com/
A saber-toothed tiger threatens an early human.
Why do we care? - Roland Emmerich may not be at the level of Michael Bay but he fetches his fair share of movie-fan scorn. Emmerich can and will drop the ball on storytelling but one thing he does know is spectacle. The question is will there be enough spectacle to make up for some of the storytelling flaws. We haven't had a big-budget prehistoric movie like this since I don't know when so it's an original setting and promises some big action. The problem is all we have to go on so far is the trailer which wasn't even new when they showed it at Comic-Con this year. Sure the trailer looks good but what does that even mean anymore? This movie has potential but it may turn out to be a great idea in the wrong hands.
The Good - Wooly mammoths and big special effects action scenes.
The Bad - Roland Emmerich likes to lace his movies with a sometimes not-very-subtle political message and has been known to produce flat-out trash.
View the Movies from Comic-Con Slideshow (20 images)
9. Beowulf
Director - Robert Zemeckis ("Cast Away", "What Lies Beneath", "Contact", "Back to the Future" Trilogy)
Writers - Neil Gaiman, Roger Avary
Cast - Ray Winstone, Angelina Jolie, Brendan Gleeson, Crispin Glover, Anthony Hopkins, John Malkovich, Robin Wright Penn
Summary - Based on the epic Anglo-Saxon heroic poem, Beowulf must defeat the monster Grendel and then deal with Grendel's vengeful mother before facing a dragon.
Release Date - November 16, 2007
Trailer - http://www.apple.com/trailers/paramount/beowulf/
Official Site - http://www.beowulfmovie.com/
The CGI Angelina Jolie as Grendel's Mother.
Why do we care? - You mean besides the fact that there may be a CGI representation of Angelina Jolie slithering around wet and naked for a portion of the movie? Well besides that "Beowulf" is classic fantasy storytelling. Zemeckis is using a technology to lay CGI over live performance which is reminiscent of what he did with "The Polar Express" but years ahead of how that looked. Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary are both accomplished writers and storytellers, and they've put together a remarkable cast for this project. They talked at Comic-Con about "Beowulf" being an "experience" rather than just a film. Zemeckis plans to release the film in multiple types of 3D and IMAX as well as on regular film and digital projection. If the visuals don't work though, they'll never suck you into the story.
The Good - Cutting edge CGI could give the movie a very unique look and marrying it with fantasy elements might make an extraordinarily beautiful piece of film. And who doesn't want to see Crispin Glover play Grendel.
The Bad - The CGI in the trailer still isn't quite there yet. The characters come off as spooky rather than convincing and the eyes can still appear a little bit dead.
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