By Steven Zeitchik

Of all the notable things at a whirlwind few days spent at Comic-Con– even more notable than the Star Troopers giving out free hugs — was just how widely divergent the film fare on offer was.

There was plenty of live-blogging and tidbits from the many THR staffers at Comic-con — you can catch all of it here — but the two biggest Con-ish hits of this summer came from Warners (”Dark Knight”) and Pixar (”Wall-E”), so we thought we’d take a look at what the two studios unveiled this year down San Diego way. (A third ‘08 biggie, Marvel, which rang up cherries across with “Iron Man” last year, didn’t present because it doesn’t have an ‘09 movie.)

As it turns out, both Warners and Pixar sought to make big splashes, but we’re going to have to call it a split decision — Pixar’s “Up” deserves a thumb in the same direction, while Warners’ “Terminator Salvation” could have used a little help from someone, anyone, even Skynet cyborgs. If only someone from the future had visited the planning meeting.

The action pic, a prequel which looks at the robot wars circa 2018 instead of a decade later, has always seemed a bit like a chancy bet, a reboot on a franchise that has only barely begun to power down. Saturday’s presentation didn’t do enough to dispel the doubts. Director McG gave it his grating best, with a call to a Japanside Christian Bale and an attempt to stir the crowd into dueling chants (and the most interesting bit of the whole panel, a little hint that Arnold may make a cameo).

But he also spent a lot of time talking about the variances between the T600, the T800 and the model in this movie as though the suit was the atomic bomb and McG was Robert Oppenheimer. And the footage itself, while loud and slick, had few things to distinguish itself from so many other action movies. Basically it looked like explosions and men in robot suits. Of course it’s hard to get the mythology and narrative surprises into a panel of screaming fans. But here’s hoping a trip to see Mcg’s movie in the theater doesn’t make us want to go back in time to catch the original.

Next came “Up,” which couldn’t have had a more different feel — a unique film and effective presentation that showed how Pixar increasingly is less an animated studio than a studio making sophisticated adult fare that just happens to be animated. “Ratatouille” may have elevated the creativity by taking on adult themes like the subjectivity of taste, and “Wall-E” may have delighted critics because of its sweeping social commentary. But “Up,” Pete Docter’s film about a septuagenarian widower who ties balloons to his home to float away to a lost Venezuelan city instead of heading meekly to an old-age home, looks even stronger because it doesn’t rely on themes to provide its adult shape. It simply functions like a finely-textured, whimsical take on one man’s life, layering on melancholy in a manner pretty atypical to a studio animated feature (it actually has more in common with indie darlings like “Triplets of Belleville” and this fall’s “Waltz with Bashir”).

Docter, who helmed previous Pixar entry “Monsters, Inc.” said he wanted to move away from established animated conventions — the film, after all, does have a geriatric main character. “Our hope is we keep you guessing…(so) you don’t know where we going,” he said.

Less critically beloved on the Disney side likely will be “Bolt”–the movie about a cartoon dog who has lived his whole life as the star of a superhero show and so now believes he has powers in real life.

The show-within-a-movie came off as terrifically convincing, action scenes as tense and lifelike as “The Incredibles.” Beyond those early moments, though, was the actual movie, and it was conventional, uninspiring stuff: animals leaving the nest to discover who they really are, wisecracking hamster sidekicks who of course give the protagonist animal a reason _to really believe_ in himself. Woof.

By Steven Zeitchik

We’ll admit right off the bat we were underwhelmed by the X-Files sequel/reboot (with apologies to the tagline, we wanted to believe) that Fox unspooled at the Chinese Wednesday night. The movie is faithful to the original, but that isn’t necessarily a good thing — despite some reveals about the Mulder-Scully relationship, it doesn’t advance in a terribly exciting way the mythology of the show, nor does it feel like a fully-formed creation in its own right. Mostly, it had the feel of an episode, one with a lot of medical-thriller tropes. (Then again, given that the budget was said to be as low as $25-30 mil, it doesn’t have to do “Dark Knight” numbers this weekend to earn its money back.)

But the movie is notable for another reason: it comes out the same exact day as the news breaks that the Twilight Zone could be getting a brand-spanking new treatment — and courtesy of Leo DiCaprio, no less. It’s still very early days (”the Time Element” to Serling’s full-fledged “Twilight Zone” for the hopelessly hardcore out there). But basically, DiCaprio’s production co Appian Way and Warners are putting out the word to top-level creators inviting their feature pitches based on the show. They’re hoping for some top talent to come up with ideas based on one or more episodes that could be turned into a pic (it’s only for the episodes written by Serling, which is what Warners owns, though that comprises the lion’s share of the shows). It’s not even in development.

Still, the idea of trying another turn at the ill-fated 1983 movie — that of Vic Morrow’s death and/or so-called curse – and this time with one arc instead of four discrete episodes, seems like a perfect idea. Movies from the 1980’s are coming back (see under: Red Dawn and Fame). TV shows are coming to the bigscreen (see under: Sex and the City). Paranormal TV shows are coming back, assuming the X-files does at least sme business. So why not take another shot with the house that Rod built? The show has influenced hundreds of filmmakers already (Michael Brandt is
making the “Countdown” episode for Summit) and it’s already one of the most highly-tested brands out there among a surprisingly wide age demo.

Or maybe we just want to believe.

By Borys Kit

Comic-Con — The first full day of Comic-Con featured the usual: screaming fans, studio pushes and … Tron?

Pretty much right after Disney unveiled its "Escape to Witch Mountain sequel, the studio slipped in some footage of a potential reboot of the 80’s fx title (only this time it’s called Tr2n).

After the Witch footage, the Disney castle logo came up and soon enough, a race on those light cycles was under way/ Essentially, it was a redone version of a well-known sequence from the 1982 pic. The scene, from director Joseph Kosinski, is actually test footage to see how feasible a remake. The topper was the reveal of one of the drivers: none other than Jeff Bridges, who could be to be reprising his role from the original.

The footage blew many away. "That was a sweet surprise, said one industry exec. "It’s not very often that you get to see something that you don’t know about."

By Borys Kit

Comic-Con — Comic-Con had its first taste of pandemonium (though there were soon many others — see our Comic-Con page here for full coverage) when Hugh Jackman showed up at the tail end of Fox’s presentation. While there were whispers that some kind of "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" aspect would make an appearance, to the majority of the 6,500-person hall it was still a surprise, and they went berserk.

"I know what you’re thinking," Jackman said. "This guy is way too tall to play Wolverine." a reference to fan reaction almost a decade ago when it was announced he would be playing the diminutive X-Men character.

Jackman said he wanted to be here "because without you guys I wouldn’t have a career." and then he did something actors, and Hollywood types in general, don’t do very often: He thanked a comic creator.

Jackman singled out "Wolverine" co-creator Len Wein, who stood up to cheers, and then waded into the crowd to shake the writer’s hands. "From that hand came the character that gave me my career," he said.

Then he showed a made-for-Comic-Con trailer that killed. The crowd went wild when characters like Gambit and Deadpool were seen for a split second.

Jackman’s appearance was brief but had Fox’s desired effect: to win over skeptics and satiate fans.

"I am no longer suspect or angry about the movie," said one girl.

The ax that began to swing last month now falls at Par and Par Vantage, as the company lays off 60 on Thursday. As THR’s Jay A. Fernandez

reports, staffers come from the consolidated marketing, distribution and physical production departments, as those divisions from the spec unit have been rolled into the parent.

An internal memo says that  "we analyzed areas of redundancies and today, we announced we would be eliminating about 60 positions across the company," adding, "the goal is to be strategic and disciplined about how we manage the business for the long term, and to take into account the dynamic nature of the challenging marketplace."

By Steven Zeitchik

“Captain Blood,” the story of a doctor convicted of treason who escapes to become a pirate, is one of those movies we imagine studio execs look at each other every few years and say ‘why has no one ever remade that?’ The Errol Flynn classic has all the elements of a modern tentpole — a wronged man, Jack Sparrow-esque adventure on the high seas, etc — to make it a summer blockbuster, but plenty of prestige elements to give it a run among older and/or specialty filmgoers. (The 1935 version was actually nominated for Best Picture).

And yet in the more than seventy years since the latest rendition came out, no movie has ever gotten off the ground. That hasn’t been for Warners’ lack of trying. Frank Darabont was one of several to take a stab at it when wrote a script thirteen years ago, at the height of his “Shawshank” fame.

Now the project finally appears to have some momentum. Warners has attached a producer, Bill Gerber, and a director, Philip Noyce. We’ll see how Noyce handles the swashbuckler; he’s one of those directors who can go action, as he did with “Dead Calm” or “Catch a Fire,” or arthouse, as he did with “The Quiet American.” Casting remains a question — do you take an action hero who could wave a sword with authority or make a more nuanced, Downey-esque choice? And it’s worth noting that writers haven’t been attached yet. But they will apparently be working off Darabont’s scrip. It may not be long before there is some blood.

By Steven Zeitchik

Our early, eager, enthusiastic response in Cannes to “Synecdoche, NY,” Charlie Kaufman’s dementedly brilliant and heartbreaking directorial debut, is apparently shared by those arbiters of arthouse cool, Sony Pictures Classics.

The unit, which along with IFC has been the distribution savior at festivals this year, is close to picking up “Synecdoche” for U.S. distribution. The film’s epic and surreal look at one man’s life — his artistic achievements and personal struggles — offered some of the most moving scenes we’ve seen on a film-festival screen in a long time. It’s a vexing movie in the third act, no doubt, as the film continuously packs reality into a larger fiction into a larger reality in a way that would make a Matrushka doll jealous. But that somehow doesn’t detract from the payoff as, against a wrenchingly beautiful score,  a man slowly gives in to the end of his life while the suggestion of a global calamity is dangled mystically around him.

It’s tempting to explain the delay in the acquisition — the film screened two months ago — as a sign of tough times in the finished-film market. But the truth is, this one’s a commercial riddle that might have been a difficult sell in the best of times. For every astonishing artistic aspect there’s a commercial challenge.  Even the title, a play on both the upstate New York town and a word describing parts of a whole contain this artistic/marketing contradiction– it’s ambitious and playful but seems to trip over the tongue of the most Ivy-educated.

How will “Synecdoche” play when the movie finally opens? It’s hard to say. “Eternal Sunshine” was initially thought a tricky sell but went on to earn almost $50 million and become an oddball masterpiece. There are still certainly some who will embrace and flog for it. Then again this is weirder, longer and doesn’t have Jim Carrey, who was pretty marketable back then . And times are different — arthouse audiences these days (at least these summer days) are going to see “The Dark Knight” and “Iron Man” as much as the Spikes (Jonze and Lee).

SPC has been right before about a market potential for a difficult movie — they’ve had a half dozen foreign-films in the last two years earn at least $5 million. Here’s hoping they’re successful with this one from the land of Kaufman.

By Georg Szalai

We’ve been wondering how Marvel, which is taking a pass on 2009 releases to concentrate on 2010, is going to cram in all its movies — “Iron Man 2,” “Thor” and Ant Man” in the spring/summer of that, the second year of the Barack Obama administration. After all, the studio already has “Iron Man 2″ and “Thor” set (in April and June, but still). Can it really pull off a third tentpole in a three-month span?

Edgar Wright, currently penning the potential (ant) man out, offered a little hint of how it might work this past weekend at the Montreal Just for Laughs comedy fest: as a holiday release. Marvel execs are <a href="http://login.vnuemedia.com/hr/login/login_subscribe.jsp?id=8TmyLbuzoVM845YR4%2F5pPjGzy2Lw8ombPzuzXnEUX%2BTYhiBUr%2BAjtBw0g3nszyvF1iUnHJl7l938%0AUWKysObP9v%2Fmq6BvVLjtB5TBZLpGchQg932muBrETOmeN0L37u3DKIys7L6U0gs7i69tSOHY5J6U%0AXxup164Zhfw2IvQMIBiZjrixgvN0wJ4hV07Tl9S%2FqW0IVW%2FPvhB3utrcc%2FV2vmH5wULMyiZKC%2FNr%0A8P8uLgMZ5n%2BXCk5Uqmjq%2FBORb3HCKivmMMHwJWx%2BssE34pvYCq4QEvC9rcv1ha8ycaDtnnKVN6qH%0Ar1jK3qNiJRuet8o3CdHFSNHC2mnydlxL9A4JqU0%2B6ATGObQn4%2FCdlEVwtso%3D
“>on the record as saying they tend to prefer the warm months for their releases. But “Ant Man” is a bit of a different breed — the lesser-know character who can turn into an ant and also control insects with his mind plays more tongue-in-cheek than some of the company’s other properties.

Wright said he’s in the middle of a second draft on the script, and of course is set for another graphic novel adaptation, “Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World,” for Marc Platt and Universal ahead of “Ant Man” But don’t be surprised to turn on the light during Christmas of 2010 and find a head peeking back from behind a few antennae.