San Diego Comic-Con is many things to many people, but for director Guillermo del Toro, it looks very much like Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures are turning the Con into a Pacific Rim coming out party.  The monster-loving director's next feature doesn't arrive in theaters until next summer, and has been pretty secretive up until now, but in preparation for the Pacific Rim panel in Hall H on Saturday, Warner Bros. has been revealing little nuggets from the movie.  Today, for example, we have another still showing Charlie Hunnam and Rinko Kikuchi in the Jaeger piloting gear.

It doesn't matter that there's still just over a year until Pacific Rim hits theaters.  Guillermo del Toro, the lovable and loquacious director behind Pan's Labyrinth, Cronos, the Hellboy movies, The Devil's Backbone, and the ludicrously fun Blade II, is making a movie about giant monsters fighting giant robots.  That should be all you need to know.  If, however, you're stubbornly resisting the movie's obvious appeal with questions like, "But how big are the monsters and robots," then the movie's first poster answers with an emphatic, "Huge."

If any day of the week were to be a reigning monarch, Saturday would have to be king.  It's a day off, a day on which you can sleep in, comfortable in the knowledge that there's no work until Monday.  Fittingly, Saturday at San Diego Comic-Con is perhaps the biggest day of the Con, particularly for anybody looking forward to some of the biggest tentpole movies hitting screens in the next year.  By the time Saturday ends, crowds at the world's biggest Con might be starting to succumb to fatigue, but only because the schedule for the day is so packed.

We'll be on the ground reporting on the happenings at the Convention Center on behalf of IAR, but there's simply no way that we could cover every panel and event of interest; any attempt to do would be the acme of foolishness.  So, for anyone heading to San Diego or anyone trying to figure out when to check online for news from the big panels, we've prepared schedule cheat sheets for the whole convention, including Saturday, July 14, 2012.

That tingling you've recently started feeling in your geek loins isn't related to new hair in funny places or even the impending release of The Dark Knight Rises.  No, you're starting to get excited about San Diego Comic-Con.  The annual Con to end all Cons kicks off with Preview Night on July 11th this year, meaning that downtown San Diego will shortly become nerd Mecca, as hundreds of thousands descend on the Convention Center and turn the Gaslamp District into one beautiful, ongoing celebration from genre enthusiasts of every stripe.

As of today, moviegoers can check out Ridley Scott's return to science fiction, Prometheus.  In that movie, erstwhile Stringer Bell Idris Elba portrays the squeezebox-playing captain of the titular vessel, a massive exploratory spaceship bound for an alien planet.  Next summer, though, Elba will be behind the wheel of a Godzilla-sized mecha-warrior fighting off alien invaders in Pacific Rim.  Today, an image of Elba in costume provides our first real look at the film, while director Guillermo del Toro is happy to discuss the scale and casting of his would-be blockbuster.

Guillermo Del Toro has stated emphatically that he'll never make a movie that doesn't include a monster or monsters.  We've known for some time that his new movie, next summer's Pacific Rim, will involve some bigass monsters wreaking havoc and some equally bigass anime-inspired mecha-bots going up against them in order to save humanity. 

You know what would be nice?  A seasonally-themed animated adventure that isn't predicated upon crassly commercial, winking pop-cultural references and fart jokes.  The first official trailer for Rise of the Guardians has landed online, and it seems as though the film will fit that bill. 

It's a big day for next summer's release schedule, with three big Warner Bros. movies getting dates in the dog days of summer in 2013.  First up, there's a new date for an original, then there are two release dates for continuations of existing properties.  The former is Pacific Rim, and the latter are 300: Battle of Artemesia and The Hangover Part III, which the Brothers Warner have officially announced will close out the trilogy on May 24, 2013.

It was a very animated morning at the Directors Guild of America in Hollywood on Wednesday as filmmakers, actors, executives and press gathered for DreamWorks Animation’s 2012 Film Preview. The studio was prepared to show sneak peeks of two of their most anticipated upcoming 3D computer animated films including Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted, and Rise of the Guardians. The studio is coming off of an incredible year in 2011 with both of their animated projects, Kung Fu Panda 2 and Puss in Boots, being nominated for Best Animated Film at this years Academy Awards. The studio is hoping to repeat that success in 2012 with its new slate of animated projects.

Puss in Boots is up for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film next week but this Friday, February 24th, it arrives on Blu-Ray and DVD. Puss in Boots director Chris Miller is a man of many talents. He worked his way up the ladder at DreamWorks, cutting his teeth as a story artist on Shrek (2001) while also writing additional dialogue and providing the voices for such characters as the Magic Mirror and Gepetto. For Shrek 2 (2004) Chris served as head of story production, which allowed him to work amongst different departments interfacing with the directors, writers, and the story department. He co-directed Shrek the Third before helming the franchise’s spin-off, Puss in Boots.

Puss in Boots is a prequel to the Shrek series that focuses on the character Puss in Boots (voiced by Antonio Banderas) and his adventures prior to his appearance in Shrek 2. Accompanied by his sidekicks, Humpty Dumpty (voiced by Zach Galifianakis) and Kitty Softpaws (voiced by Salma Hayek), Puss attempts to steal magic beans from the murderous outlaws Jack (voiced by Billy Bob Thorton) and Jill (voiced by Amy Sedaris).

The movie will be accompanied on the BluRay/DVD release by a 13-minute short film, entitled Puss in Boots: The Three Diablos. The short is directed by Raman Hui, Chris Miller’s co-director from Shrek the Third and will pick up where the film left off. The Three Diablos focuses on Puss’s quest to recover a Princess’s stolen ruby from the notorious French thief, The Whisperer. In order to help the Princess, he teams up with three little kittens, Adorable, Fuzzy, and Deadly, who prove they might be more of a hindrance than an asset.

I recently had a chance to speak with Chris Miller about Puss in Boots. The director discusses his new film, getting a creative boost from executive producer Guillermo del Toro, collaborating with his crew, the importance of his past jobs at DreamWorks, working with his wife, his philosophy on narrative-driven comedy, and a Puss in Boots sequel.