Disney Surprises

So as a geek, this week is a pretty big week. It's up there with E3, the Oscars, all of the great things that geeks like me love, it's Comic-Con week. The official Comic-Con in San Diego, CA, is misleading in its name. While it was started for all intensive purposes as a comic book convention, it has spiraled into a con that features all things geek, from movies to TV Shows.

Nowadays it is more about the encroaching powers of Hollywood than anything, and every year, all of the major studios unveil all of their major blockbusters upon the audience to get fanboy feedback, and this year is no different, with Dreamworks and Disney already gone up to bat. While Dreamworks was, for the most part, forgettable (I do wanna learn more about D.J. Caruso's alien teen movie I Am Number Four), Disney managed to wow all with some cool new looks at Tron Legacy and a surprise announcement.

As Tron Legacy's December release looms nearer, more is being shown from the movie, lots of talk and whatnot. Supposedly 8 minutes of footage was screened, but all us folks who can't afford to go out to San Diego only got a new trailer, but this blockbuster has been shaping up as one to look out for, for quite some time and now I can almost taste it. But Disney didn't stop there. They teased us some more about the new Pirates movie, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, which is currently filming for a May 2011 release. Captain Jack Sparrow supposedly addressed the convention hall and gave tantalizing hints about zombies and mermaids, and who isn't happy that Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom are not coming back? Sounds fun, hopefully it can be the turn around for this franchise which grew stale once I realized the second one wasn't as good as the first, and the third wasn't even as good as the second.

But the biggest surprise was the arrival of director Guillermo Del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth), who just dropped out of The Hobbit two months ago, who announced that he is remaking The Haunted Mansion into a movie for Disney. The previous Eddie Murphy movie will obviously pale in comparison to Del Toro's gothic take, my only question is wheter Del Toro can refrain enough from his usual, frightening imagery to make a kid's movie? But we'll see in time. For now, enjoy the latest look at Tron Legacy and the movie's newest vehicle: a light-jet!?!