Well it wasn’t supposed to debut until sometime tomorrow, but apparently Disney just couldn’t wait to unveil the first trailer for Tim Burton’s 3-D take on Alice in Wonderland. The trailer has arrived online a day early, and it looks pretty sweet! It’s the kind of thing that’s probably going to be a lot more impressive when you see it on the big screen in 3-D (there’s plenty of stuff flying at the screen), but I still like the look of the characters and the overall feel of the movie.

It’s certainly a lot more CG-heavy than most of Tim Burton’s previous work, as pretty much everything looks to be green-screened save for the actors. Burton was known for mostly using practical effects in the past, but he did experiment with a lot of digital environments recently in Sweeney Todd. Although this is really just a teaser trailer, it still shows off quite a few characters. It doesn’t appear to be as dark as I originally thought it might be, but it still looks like a lot of fun. What do you think? Alice in Wonderland hits theatres on March 5th, 2010. Check out the trailer after the jump.

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Once the Comic Con in San Diego gets rolling this weekend, I’m guessing there will be at least a few big announcements to be made, but even before the Con actually starts we’ve already got a pretty huge one to report: Sam Raimi has signed on to direct a World of Warcraft movie. It will be a live-action film, co-financed by Legendary Pictures and Warner Brothers, and overseen by The Dark Knight producer Charles Roven. Game developer Blizzard is also expected to have a fair amount of creative input.

There hadn’t really been much movement on the WoW movie since its initial announcement back in 2006. At one point Spielberg was rumoured to be in talks for the film, but that turned out to be completely bogus. The interesting thing with Sam Raimi is that not only does he have a huge following thanks to the Spider-Man and Evil Dead films, but he also has a background in fantasy having produced both Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess. He was also supposedly close to directing The Hobbit at one point. Either way it should be pretty interesting to see what he can do with a decent budget behind him. No word yet on who is writing the script though. What do you think about this announcement? Could World of Warcraft actually turn out to be a decent video game movie?

0:00 – Intro / Jay’s Documentary / In-House Stuff
9:05 – Headlines: First TIFF Titles Announced, Nicolas Cage and Cameron Diaz in The Green Hornet, Machete Casting Rumours, First Photo of ScarJo as Black Widow, Natalie Portman Joins Thor, Bruno Banned in the Ukraine, Emmy Nominations, Fox Recasting Futurama?
26:30 – Review: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
40:15 – Review: The Hurt Locker
50:07 – Trailer Trash: Whip It, I Love You Phillip Morris
58:58 – Other Stuff We Watched: I Love You Beth Cooper, American Gladiators, G.I. Joe, The Good Shepherd, Captain EO, Watchmen Blu-ray
1:48:25 – Junk Mail: Disturbing Movies, Following, Dream Reviews, Star Trek Series, Movies That Make You Hungry
2:11:15 – This Week’s DVD Releases
2:12:28 – Outro

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Director Kevin Smith’s extracurricular activities continue to be just as interesting (if not more interesting) than his feature films, and in addition to his upcoming Batman and Green Hornet comics, this September he will also be releasing his third book (not counting published screenplays). While some struggling writers may scoff at the fact that Smith has managed to land a book deal and make the New York Times Bestsellers list with minimum effort, I have to admit that I found his collection of blog entries, My Boring-Ass Life, to be oddly compelling. This time around, however, he’s not cheaping out by simply regurgitating more blog entries… nope, this time he’s regurgitating episodes of his podcast instead!

Shootin’ the Shit With Kevin Smith: The Best of the SModcast will reprint in script format some of the funniest and most memorable conversations between Smith and his pal Scott Mosier as previously heard on their podcast over the past couple of years. I like the idea, mainly because I’ve only been listening to the SModcast sporadically, and with the episodes now up to #89, a “greatest hits” seems quite relevant. There might be a little bit lost in the translation to text, but what would be even cooler is if they follow in the footsteps of Chris Anderson and release a free audiobook version that simply puts all the relevant clips together into one convenient MP3. Shootin’ the Shit With Kevin Smith hits stores on September 22nd, and you can currently check out a this little preview courtesy of Titan Books.

Not a ton of exciting movie posters released over the past week or so, but the first Prince of Persia posters are definitely worth a look, as is the cool motion poster for Saw VI. I like the Prince of Persia posters from a design standpoint but somehow they don’t quite suit the material.

Also this week, a strange poster for Tyler Perry’s latest film I Can Do Bad All By Myself, which pays tribute to Sam Peckinpah’s iconic poster for Straw Dogs, a Jim Carrey-esque UK quad for The Invention of Lying, and a completely blank poster for Peter Jackson’s The Lovely Bones. Now that’s how you sell a movie!

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Whenever there’s a movie that no one wants to be involved in for one reason or another and they need an A-list actor ASAP, clearly there’s only one man for the job: Nicolas Cage. No movie is too big or too small, too goofy or too serious for this thespian, and according to Variety, he is now in talks to star in Seth Rogen’s The Green Hornet. This could either be really awesome or really terrible news, depending on what direction they decide to take the movie in.

Cage will supposedly play the “gangster villain” of the film. As far as I know, The Green Hornet doesn’t have an arch enemy per se, but I think in one of the old serials there was a syndicate mastermind named Boss Crogan… perhaps the character will be based on him? Personally I was hoping Cage might reprise his role as Dr. Fu Manchu from Rob Zombie’s Grindhouse trailer Werewolf Women of the S.S., but I suppose that would be asking a bit much. It’s still unclear whether or not the movie is being envisioned as a comedy or a serious action flick, but now that Cage is involved, I think it’s probably going to become a comedy either way. They might as well embrace it and hope for the best! What do you think, is Nicolas Cage a good match for the tone of The Green Hornet, or is this going to be the final nail in the coffin for the project?

As the box office numbers for the past weekend were tallied, most people were paying attention to the success of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and the second week drop off for Bruno, but in amongst all those ticket sales there was another record being broken. Todd Phillips’s The Hangover passed the $235 million mark domestically, making it the highest-grossing R-rated comedy ever. If you can believe it, the previous record holder was Beverly Hills Cop, which amassed $234 million back in 1984/85.

It was pretty clear even before it hit theatres that The Hangover was going to do well, but I don’t think anyone expected it to make quite this much money without any major stars in it. It just goes to show that for a good summer comedy, slow and steady wins the race; they make their money over time as word of mouth builds, as opposed to the big special effects blockbusters which destroy the box office in a weekend and then quickly disappear. I don’t think there’s any question now that a sequel to The Hangover is going to happen sooner rather than later.

Finally after weeks of lacklustre DVD releases, we’ve got a decent assortment of must-buy discs to gorge on including Zack Snyder’s Watchmen (both the theatrical version and the director’s cut) and the beautiful stop-motion animated Coraline. There are also some interesting indie releases this week including the superhero comedy Super Capers, the surreal Zach Galifianakis flick Visioneers, and Bruce McDonald’s cerebral take on the zombie genre Pontypool (unfortunately, only available in Canada at the moment). In terms of TV, we’ve got the second and final season of Pushing Daisies, the final season of Prison Break, and all three seasons of the cult British comedy The Mighty Boosh. Is that enough for you? What will you be picking up this week?

• Watchmen
• Watchmen: Director’s Cut (DVD, Blu-ray)
• Coraline (DVD, Blu-ray)
• Pontypool (Canada only)
• The Great Buck Howard (DVD, Blu-ray)
• Echelon Conspiracy (DVD, Blu-ray)
• Visioneers
• Super Capers
• The Mystical Adventures of Billy Owens
• Stargate SG-1: Children of the Gods
• Messengers 2: The Scarecrow
• Retribution Road
• Made in U.S.A.: Criterion Collection
• 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her: Criterion Collection
• Global Metal
• Robot Chicken Star Wars: Episode II
• Pushing Daisies: The Complete Second Season (DVD, Blu-ray)
• Prison Break: The Final Break (DVD, Blu-ray)
• Jon & Kate Plus Eight: Season 4, Volume 2
• Voltron: Volume 8
• Charlie’s Angels: The Complete Fourth Season
• G.I. Joe: The Complete Series Collector’s Set
• Leverage: Season 1
• The Mighty Boosh: The Complete Season 1
• The Mighty Boosh: The Complete Season 2
• The Mighty Boosh: The Complete Season 3
• This American Life: Season 2
• 300: The Complete Experience (Blu-ray)
• I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry (Blu-ray)
• Midnight Express (Blu-ray)

While the official announcement still hasn’t gone online yet, our good friends over at Row Three have given us the heads up on the Midnight Madness line-up for this year’s Toronto International Film Festival. This is the section of the fest dedicated to blood, gore and mayhem, and it looks like this year’s program will bring plenty of all three.

The gala to kick off the proceedings will be Jennifer’s Body, the highly-anticipated second film written by Diablo Cody (Juno) and starring Megan Fox of Transformers fame. Also on this year’s agenda is the Thai action sequel Ong Bak 2, the Spanish handheld horror sequel [REC] 2 and the latest zombie flick from George A. Romero, which now has a title: Survival of the Dead. Check out the full list of titles below, and see a few trailers after the jump. (By the way, the creepy pic above is from [REC] 2.)

• Jennifer’s Body (Dir. Karyn Kusama)
• Bitch Slap (Dir. Rick Jacobson)
• A Town Called Panic (Dir. Stéphane Aubier and Vincent Patar)
• Ong Bak 2: The Beginning (Dir. Tony Jaa)
• Symbol (Dir. Hitoshi Matsumoto)
• The Loved Ones (Dir. Sean Byrne)
• Solomon Kane (Dir. Michael J. Bassett)
• [REC] 2 (Dir. Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza)
• Survival of the Dead (Dir. George A. Romero)
• Daybreakers (Dir. Michael and Peter Spierig)

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I think most fantasy fans will be pleased with HBO’s choice for the lead role in their upcoming adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones. Sean Bean has signed on to play Lord Eddard “Ned” Stark, who is known as the Lord of Winterfell, Lord Paramount of the North, and Warden of the North… got all that? I have to admit, I haven’t read the books, but they sound pretty damn complicated — all the more reason why it is better for them to be adapted as an HBO series rather than a feature film.

Bean is no stranger to fantasy epics, having starred as Boromir in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Odysseus in Troy, and Zeus in the upcoming Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief. He joins a cast that now also includes Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister and Mark Addy as Robert Baratheon plus relative unknowns Kit Harington as Jon Snow, Jack Gleeson as Joffrey Baratheon, and Harry Lloyd as Viserys Targaryen. Thus far HBO has only committed to shooting a pilot episode, which will be directed by Thomas McCarthy (The Visitor). David Benioff (25th Hour, Troy) and D.B. Weiss (Lucky Wander Boy) are collaborating on the script. What do you think, is Sean Bean the right man to play… uh… Ned? For more info check out the unofficial fan blog Winter Is Coming.

It’s been a while since we’ve heard anything about the live action Voltron feature film, which was originally being set up over at New Line in the months leading up to the release of Michael Bay’s Transformers. Last summer there was speculation that Queer Eye for the Straight Guy director Max Makowski had been chosen to direct from a script by the “legendary” Justin Marks, but it was never officially confirmed as far as I know. Now this week it looks like the rights have changed hands and things are moving forward once again.

The Risky Biz Blog reports that producers Charles Roven (The Dark Knight, Get Smart), Richard Suckle (The International, Scooby Doo) and Steve Alexander have acquired the rights to Voltron from Mark Gordon Productions and may be looking to set it up at Warner Brothers. It seems inevitable that a Voltron movie will happen, it’s just a matter of whether or not they can get the budget and the talent needed to turn it into a success. I still think a lot of people are going to wait and see how G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra fares before they fully commit to more projects based on ’80s cartoons. But hey, all movies with giant robots are now guaranteed hits, right?

Putting aside the completely wacked out rumour about Johnny Depp starring in a Michael Jackson biopic, it looks like there is a good chance we will have a Michael Jackson movie in theatres by the end of this year after all. Sony Pictures is currently negotiating a deal for the rights to 80 hours of rehearsal footage that was filmed for Michael Jackson’s planned performance in London, England. High School Musical director Kenny Ortega, who shot the footage (and who also had a director credit for the Michael Jackson Memorial Service telecast), is expected to be the one who will pull all the footage together into a feature film.

So what exactly will this movie look like? Well according to Variety, the footage contains at least three music videos, including an alternate version of “Thriller”. The original intention was to release the footage in 3-D, and although they haven’t announced if they will follow through on these plans, it sounds like it could turn out to be something similar to U2 3D. It’s probably about time Michael Jackson had a modern theatrical movie in this vein, but it’s too bad that it will have to be essentially culled from leftovers and outtakes. The big question is, will all the Michael Jackson hysteria have faded away by the time this movie is released?