"I'm most excited that it's brought people into comics." -- Dave Gibbons, when asked what his favorite part of this Watchmen journey has been.

Last night, Cinematical was lucky enough to attend a private screening of Watchmen footage hosted by director Zack Snyder and Watchmen co-illustrator Dave Gibbons. There was a reception before and after (where they served this really great sushi), and in a separate room off to the side they set up a sort of Watchmen museum, with costumes worn in the film, as well as drawings, set design stuff, character posters -- the works.

Once inside the theater, Snyder introduced the first twelve minutes of the film by giving us a little background on his past with comics (started reading Heavy Metal as a kid, and was immediately turned off when he read other graphic novels because there wasn't enough "f**king or dying"). His work on Watchmen began while they were still finishing up 300, and originally they wanted to update Watchmen to the War on Terror. Eventually, though, Snyder chipped away and convinced the studio to remain faithful to the source material, which meant a film that took place in 1985, included the Vietnam War, Richard Nixon and all the scary realities which make the graphic novel so intriguing to read.

My thoughts on the footage and notes from the post-screening Q&A after the jump ...

The reason everyone loves Guillermo del Toro can, I think, be summed up in this new Hobbit related quote. "Believe me, I am jumping up-and-down inside this fat body!"

Yes, del Toro teased us all with Hobbit talk when he appeared at the Director's Guild of America recently and spilled all kinds of information regarding Middle Earth and his adaptation of Frankenstein. ComingSoon has the whole delicious thing, but I'll post my favorite bit -- his research into the mind of J.R.R. Tolkien: "I find you have to discipline yourself to write in the morning, and then watch and read in the afternoons stuff that seems relevant, even in a tangential way. For example, reading or watching World War I documentaries or books that I think inform The Hobbit, strangely enough, because I believe it is a book born out of Tolkien's generation's experience with World War I and the disappointment of being in that field and seeing all those values kind of collapse. I think it's a turning point that you need to familiarize yourself with."

And naturally, he sounds most excited about tackling Smaug. "Essentially, Smaug represents so many things: greed, pride ... he's 'the Magnificent,' after all. The way his shadow is cast in the narrative you cannot then show it and have it be one thing, he has to be the embodiment of all those things. He's one of the few dragons that will have enormous scenes with lines. He has some of the most beautiful dialogues in those scenes! The design, I'm pretty sure that will be the last design we will sign off on, and the first design we have attempted. It is certainly a matter of turning every stone before figuring out what he looks like, because what he looks like will tell you what he is."

Click image above to enlarge

Cinematical has just received this exclusive poster for the film Special, starring Michael Rapaport as a lonely meter maid who has a psychotic reaction to his medication and becomes convinced he's some sort of superhero. Back when Cinematical's Jette Kernion reviewed Special at the Austin Film Festival, she called it "different" and "attention-grabbing" -- adding that "Rapaport is riveting to watch as Les, as he transforms from a mild-mannered, easily duped meter maid to a self-identified superhero determined to help fight crime, and even further to his final state at the movie's climax."

As we told you last week, Special is part of Magnet's Six-Shooter Series, featuring six of the more talked-about genre flicks from the past year or so (Let the Right One In, Timecrimes, Donkey Punch, Eden Log, Big Man Japan) -- all of which are heading our way courtesy of Magnet Releasing. Special will hit theaters on November 21, but will be available On Demand beginning November 7.

When Cinematical reader Geoff M. sent us a note about a life-size Yoda cake he created for his son's fourth birthday, we simply had to see it because a) any dad who's down for a Star Wars-themed birthday party certainly meets movie geek standards, and b) any dad who'd actually take on the task of building a life-size Yoda cake for his kid is all sorts of awesome in our book. (This also brought back memories of my own childhood; when I was young my parents would spend crazy money building custom superhero birthday cakes (Incredible Hulk, Batman, Spider-Man) for yours truly. That eventually stopped, however, and it was Carvel ice cream cakes from then on out.)

Anyway, inspired by Ace of Cakes (groovy TV show if you've never watched) and an enormous amount of love for his little one, Geoff set out to make his own 100% edible life-size Yoda cake. And over on his site, he provides step-by-step instructions and photos (a couple of which you can see below) in case you at home would like to do the same. See, my only issue with this is that after all that work, I wouldn't be able to ruin the thing by eating it. Oh well ... I'm sure it tasted heavenly. The Force was strong with this one.



If you have or know of something cool, groovy, nifty, shiny, brilliant and Fan Made, feel free to shoot an email to leads AT cinematical DOT com.

The geek cred of Jeff Bridges has skyrocketed this year. I can't really think of a time when he wasn't adored by film fans, but he's got a special place with the fanboys these days thanks to his turn as Obadiah Stane in Iron Man. I was present for the Tron 2/Tr2n (do I really have to spell it that way?) footage at ComicCon this year -- and it was one of those moments that will forever hold a place in nerd legend; the first glimpse of Bridges' face caused the walls of Hall H to shake with howls of glee. And that was just a teaser filmed purely for the convention -- heaven knows what emotions the actual trailer will prompt.

The Guardian had the chance to sit down with Bridges, who happily chatted about revisiting his Tron role -- and the uncertain possibility of having to don a "neon mankini" again. ("Ah, the G-string. You've got to love it. I'm wearing one now!") But despite the potential for skimpy underthings, Bridges felt the chance of doing a new Tron movie was too good to pass up. "[It's] another unique, wild experience that was too good to turn down. Engaging in that world again feels just like it did all that time ago. Basically, I'm still a child, I love being childlike, and here was another chance to play with these crazy toys. And the cutting-edge technology makes it exciting. Doing the teaser trailer for Comic-Con, I had my first experience of motion capture. And that's turning the industry on its head. It's amazing being part of that."

So last week, the official theme song for Quantum of Solace -- y'know, that new James Bond flick -- was formally released online, and above is the music video for Jack White and Alicia Keys' "Another Way to Die." This managed to slip past us, probably because we were all still drooling over Erik's chance to comandeer an Aston friggin' Martin (no, no, 'jealous' isn't quite the word...), and now that it's out, opinions are becoming considerably divided.

On his personal blog, Bond devotee David Cornelius of eFilmCritic.com said "it's, um, not good. Really, really not good. The Coke commercial focused on the catchy hook, which was good. But the rest of the song? Not good. We're talking "Die Another Day" not good. Argh."

Devindra Hardawar of /Film feels a little less harsh about it: "It's not a terrible song (see Madonna's for Die Another Day for a good example of that), but it certainly doesn't feel like anything new for the series. It seems as if it tries to do way too much, and the song ends up feeling overstuffed in the process."

Left in the apparent, admitted minority is Devin Faraci over at CHUD.com, who likes the song, if not the video.

As for me, I dig the thing, though it's stuck stubbornly in my head over the past couple of days, but I rarely think that's a bad thing. What say you guys? Is "Another Way to Die" worthy of our favorite double-0 agent? Or would you rather they had just adopted "Something of Boris" instead?

Here's the setting: You just arrived home after saving a country from an evil mastermind hell-bent on taking over their supply of chewing gum and using it to create mayhem. During that time, however, you missed your Cinematical and all the stuff that happened during the week. Well, you showed up at just the right time -- may we now present [drum roll please] ... Cinematical's Stuff That Happened This Week!

Fanboy Stuff
Kenneth Branagh is Directing Thor
Transformers 2 is Shooting in IMAX
Eagle Eye Writer Wants to Make a Blade Runner 2?
Zack Snyder Talks 300 Sequel
But Then Jon Favreau Talks Iron Man Sequel
Check Out Early Art for Pixar's The Incredibles
Star Wars Steampunk and Reservoir Dogs = Hella Cool!
Are They Rebooting Daredevil?

Exclusive Stuff
Bolt Poster Premiere
Pray the Devil Back to Hell Poster Premiere
Clip from Bill Maher's Religulous

Stuff to Talk About
Will Smith vs Will Smith
Five People Who Should Star in PG Porn
Who's More Uncomfortable with Onscreen Nudity?
Which Upcoming Marvel Film Shows the Most Promise?
How Saw V Could Actually Be Good
Is Roku's Netflix Player Tempting You Yet
When Talking Animals Attack
Horror Remakes That Don't Suck

Reviews and Stuff
How to Lose Friends and Alienate People
Beverly Hills Chihuahua
Religulous
Rachel Getting Married
Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist
Flash of Genius
Appaloosa
An American Carol
Indie Spotlight: New Releases for Oct. 3

More stuff after the jump ...

Early last month, Variety published a rather scathing look at 20th Century Fox's summer receipts and mentioned the studio was digging through its collection of superheroes with an eye on getting some of that blockbuster mojo back. It wasn't surprising to see more X-Men spin-offs and sequels being talked about -- but what did raise a few eyebrows was the inclusion of Daredevil. The Man with No Fear had a pretty disastrous debut in 2003, and his girlfriend/nemesis Elektra fared even worse.

IESB caught up with Fox's co-chairman, Tom Rothman, and pressed him on the subject of revisiting Daredevil. It's more than a passing fancy in the trades -- Fox is thinking "very seriously" of a reboot. Says Rothman: "I think that the thing the Hulk showed, although it did what it did, is that it is possible that if you really do it right the audience will give you a second chance. That it is possible. And I think that you see that when they did Batman Begins, the first Nolan movie, that you can have made some mistakes along the way or movies that the audience wasn't that crazy about and then given the proper amount of time and the right creative vision behind it, you can, to use your word, reboot."